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In July 1977, Exxon held a meeting in its headquarters and a climate scientist told
the truth: without strong action to curb fossil fuel emissions within the next 5 to 10 years,
the world would face a warming trend that could spell disaster for countries around
the globe. These were harsh facts, especially for the executives of one of the largest oil
and gas companies in the world. But Exxon leaders didn’t face these daunting climate
change facts with opposition, instead, they embraced the scientist’s conclusions and
poured money into funding state-of-the-art climate models and research vessels to gain
a better understanding of the climate change their industry was causing. As InsideClimate
New’s senior correspondent Neela Banerjee asserts, “Exxon was on the cutting edge
of science, they wanted to be on the cutting edge of science on climate change.” But
then everything changed: “And they ended up instead leading the denial and clouding
the public perception of science. I mean the change is amazing.” Exxon knew about climate
change since 1977 and has since worked hard to make sure no one does anything about it.
This company is one of the largest in the world, worth almost $400 billion, and since
its inception in 1911 with the breakup of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly, has
been involved in countless nefarious operations harming the environmental and social ecosystems
of not only communities but whole countries. So today, we’re going to dive deep into
the environmental and social consequences of this fossil fuel giant. Today, we take
on ExxonMobil.
First and foremost, ExxonMobil is a fossil fuel behemoth. It ranks fifth on the top 100
companies responsible for 71% of cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.
Its operations span the globe with refineries dominating the Niger Delta and offshore exploration
reaching into Egyptian deepwater wells. It’s not too far of a stretch to say that ExxonMobil
is one of the leading causes of climate change. The list of environmental wrongs created by
ExxonMobil’s business is extensive. You can point to the 4167 spills ExxonMobil’s
operations have caused since 2005. Or the over $20 billion spent on exploring and expanding
their fossil fuel infrastructure in 2018, locking in deepwater drilling operations in
Guyana and Mozambique for years to come. You can even look towards the 20-day methane leak
from an ExxonMobil natural gas subsidiary in 2018, that, according to the New York Times,
“released more methane than the reported emissions of the oil and gas industries of
countries like Norway and France.” The list of environmental grievances is long, but let’s
zoom in on one of the more ecological racked regions globally to understand ExxonMobil’s
relationship with the environment: the Niger Delta. According to one 2018 study on Nigerian
ecosystems, Europe as a whole experienced 10 incidences of oil spills in 40 years, while
Nigeria experienced 9,343 incidences in just 10 years. The same study goes on to claim
that the Nigerian environment has experienced the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez oil spill
every year for the last 50 years. This vast amount of pollution has led to a loss of 5-10%
of the delta’s mangrove population and a decline in fish stock decimating the livelihoods
of local fishers. And the largest oil company operating in the Delta is none other than
ExxonMobil, which, with its private army of over 2,500 security guards protects its polluting
interests with supreme aggression. Essentially, the world, and particularly marginalized and
indigenous communities, has become ExxonMobil’s dumping ground. Environmental destruction,
climate change, and waterway pollution are just seen as unfortunate side effects of the
company’s growth.
The full extent of ExxonMobil’s impact can’t be understood, however, until we address the
connection between their fossil fuel activities and the communities they operate within. So,
let’s travel back to the United States for a minute. To the Charlton-Pollard section
of Beaumont, Texas where a majority black community lives with consequences of ExxonMobil
every day. A 2017 investigative report from The Intercept followed residents like Joseph
Gaines, as they struggled with the constant flaring of chemicals from the ExxonMobil refinery
down the block. The Intercept report revealed that the plant releases at least 135 toxic
chemicals, many of which are carcinogens, and the plant is regularly in noncompliance
with the Clean Air Act. People in Charlton-Pollard live with the constant smell of sulfur wafting
through the air, and residents have been diagnosed with cancer and heart problems. The air pollution
there is over 54 times higher than the national average. The population of Charlton-Pollard
has sought answers in form of a complaint to the EPA, but only after 17 years was it
answered, and it took the investigative reporting of The Intercept to push the EPA into action.
The EPA eventually fined ExxonMobil $2.5 million for polluting the communities around eight
of its Gulf Coast refineries, with the added requirement of spending $300 million to fit
their refineries with pollution control systems. While this is a victory, it’s too little,
too late. This slow action is a symptom of ExxonMobil’s and other fossil fuel interests’
defanging of Texas enforcement agencies. In 2016, for example, the state punished fewer
than 1 percent of illegal pollution releases.
But ExxonMobil’s strategy of casting its negative externalities onto low-income communities
and communities of color is not just limited to the local scale, it happens globally as
well. If we go back to the Niger Delta, the consequences of big oil companies like ExxonMobil
have manifested in nearly double the infant mortality rate near oil spills as well as
a complex web of illegal refineries and armed conflicts surrounding pipeline and fossil
fuel operations. One community leader interviewed by The Guardian laments, "Oil companies do
not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we have experienced
10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable."
Nearby, ExxonMobil, with the help of the World Bank, tore a sharp line through the land of
Cameroon’s Bakola indigenous peoples in order to construct the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline.
They did this despite the knowledge of an impact report detailing the damage the pipeline
would cause to the Bakola people. According to a World Bank environmental specialist,
“ The pipeline didn't need to go through their area. It could have followed the road
on the outside… But, ExxonMobil didn't relocate the pipeline. They put it directly through
Bakola lands, doing much environmental damage in the process.”
Farther down the coast, one 2013 study connects the prevalence of malaria in Equatorial Guinea
with its rapid transition into a petro-state spearheaded by ExxonMobil. When the study
was published most of the population had yet to see the substantial royalties from ExxonMobil’s
oil operations. 60% of the 650,000 citizens at the time lived on less than $1 per day.
And despite the wealth pouring out of Exxon’s oil fields, the government was slow to act
on malaria aid as well. There were an estimated 193,000 cases of malaria in 2006. The study
points towards ExxonMobil’s illicit backing of the country’s dictator and other leaders
as a part of the reason why malaria continued to be a major problem within the country.
The author asserts that the “rapid influx of wealth in one sector can lead to... depression
of other economic sectors, general inflation, potential for conflict, and the encouragement
of weak or corrupt management.” Essentially, the paper argues that ExxonMobil was propping
up a failing government with little desire to address the malaria epidemic all in order
to maintain control of its lucrative oil assets. This exploitation of the resources of oil-rich
countries at the hands of corporations like Exxon has become such a pervasive global issue
it’s been deemed the “resource curse” in academic circles, as in, to have more resources,
which should create economic power for a poor country, actually leads to worse economic
outcomes for that country. According to one study, between 1970-1993, “resource-poor
countries without petroleum, grew four times more rapidly than resource-rich countries
with petroleum, despite the fact that they had half the savings.” The study goes on
to say that “The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have both confirmed that
the greater a country's dependence on oil and mineral resources, the worse its growth
performance.” Essentially, as ExxonMobil extracts fossil fuels from countries around
the world, it is also exploiting and destabilizing their economies. A leading World Bank official
stated that “Exxon people are the least responsible organization I ever dealt with.
They couldn't give a damn about the environment, such as prudent routing of pipeline[s], vulnerable
ethnic minorities and their life-support systems, double-hulling, spill response plans, and
greenhouse gas emissions. Getting them to consider such prudentiary measures is like
getting blood from a stone.”
ExxonMobil then tries to cover up the myriad of environmental and social costs of their
fossil fuel dealings with a deluge of PR and marketing ploys, all in an attempt to avoid
the punishments and regulations surrounding the global costs of fossil fuels. In the three
years following the Paris Agreement ExxonMobil, alongside four of the other largest publicly
traded oil and gas companies, spent $1 billion of shareholder funds on misleading climate-related
branding and lobbying. They initially sewed doubt in the climate science community to
slow down regulation and public action, but as the mounting evidence proved that tactic
ineffective, ExxonMobil has since taken other avenues. According to InfluenceMap, ExxonMobil
and other fossil fuel companies are using a combination of positive messaging combined
with a system of negative lobbying to make sure no legislation passes. This looks like
$2 million spent on social media ads before the 2018 midterm election branding the oil
and gas industry as a jobs generator building a brighter future. It also means that ExxonMobil
spent over $9 million in direct lobbying money in 2019 and has contributed over $900,000
to campaigns in the U.S. during the 2020 election cycle. The idea is, as one New Yorker piece
reports, to identify and back key votes in Congress that will block all progress made
on fossil fuel regulation. Essentially, ExxonMobil has a vested interest in clouding the science
and policy surrounding climate change and preventing any meaningful environmental bill
from passing through Congress, because at the end of the day, regulation means a dip
in their profits. But unlike many other smaller companies, ExxonMobil has the power and money
to protect their interests. As the New Yorker article puts it, “[ExxonMobil] functions
as a corporate state within the American state—constructing its own foreign, economic, and human-rights
policies.”
ExxonMobil is the epitome of concentrated power in the private sphere. Together with
other large multinational oil companies, it is responsible for the firmly entrenched fossil
fuel infrastructure that seems ingrained in every facet of our lives. So when we are told
that climate change is the individual’s fault and that we must all stop driving cars
and flying, we have to think critically. ExxonMobil is a perfect example of why this isn’t true.
It holds sway over a vast amount of oil and gas production, and in 1977 they knew that
climate change was coming and it was going to be drastic. ExxonMobil had the opportunity
to make great changes, to transition the world towards a path of renewable energy. They had
the chance to make a massive impact on the environment for the good not just on a local
scale but on a global one. But they didn’t. Instead, they covered it up and continued
pushing the world down the path of no return.
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