ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson has pressed for greater use of fossil fuels. He's called climate change an "engineering problem" and dismissed doomsday scenarios about global warming. And his company faces allegations it suppressed decades-old internal research about the threat of climate change.

He has also backed a carbon tax, applauded world nations for approving a global agreement to tackle global warming and pushed to rethink the oil lobby's approach to climate policy.


Tillerson's four-decade-long record at ExxonMobil defies easy categorization. But his nomination as secretary of state is emerging as something of a Rorschach test, with many in Washington projecting their own interpretations onto his lengthy career at the oil giant.

His confirmation hearing is shaping up to be a showcase of those competing caricatures — Tillerson as a ruthless oil baron, as a stooge of the Russian government and as a moderate who harbors secret designs to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Perhaps the only fact beyond dispute is this: Since assuming the top job at the world's largest publicly traded oil company, he has been a tough and calculating pragmatist, negotiating directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin to gain access to oil in the Arctic and assuming sometimes contradictory positions on global warming to advance the interests of a company that has endured intense scrutiny from industry analysts and environmental groups since the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

People who have closely followed Tillerson's career say nearly everything he did as Exxon CEO stemmed from a relentless desire to boost his company.

"You have to remember, whether it’s Tillerson, or the guy before him, or the guy that’s going to replace him in a couple months, they are graduates of the same academy," said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at the investment firm Oppenheimer & Co. who has tracked Exxon for decades. "They do things the Exxon way."

"Their No. 1 objective is to reward their shareholders, to do whatever they can do within the law to create value for the shareholders," he said.

Tillerson raised eyebrows in 2009 when, during a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, he came out in favor of a tax on carbon emissions, arguing it was a better alternative than the cap-and-trade system that was gaining traction in Congress at the time. A carbon tax would levy a fee on greenhouse gas emissions across the U.S. economy. It's been praised by many economists as a simpler approach to reducing emissions.

"As a businessman, it is hard to speak favorably about any new tax," he said at the time. "But a carbon tax strikes me as a more direct, a more transparent and a more effective approach."

Exxon has pushed back strongly on allegations that it suppressed internal research about climate change. | AP Photo

Exxon has pointed to its support for a carbon tax to counter the allegations — bolstered by recent investigative stories and fraud investigations by two state attorneys general — that it misled the public and its investors about the threat of climate change.

But Tillerson's critics are deeply skeptical of his motivations, noting that the oil company has expended little energy lobbying for carbon tax legislation in Congress despite its support for the policy — and they reject the notion that Tillerson could be a moderate voice on environmental issues in an otherwise far-right Cabinet.

"Mostly, that’s a load of crap. He’s worked for ExxonMobil for 40 years," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. "It’s just such a low bar to say he’s a moderate because he’s not an outright climate denier. It’s 2016; we’ve just come off some of the most extreme weather because of climate change ever. It’s not some far-off notion.”

Exxon, meanwhile, has pushed back strongly on allegations that it suppressed internal research about climate change, and it has launched an aggressive defense in court against fraud investigations by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

Pressed about climate change at the company's annual meeting earlier this year, Tillerson said, "We are not ignoring the risk that is out there."

But he also dismissed activists who have called for keeping fossil fuels in the ground, arguing that approach is unrealistic. The "world is going to have to continue using fossil fuels, whether they like it or not," he said.

Tillerson also has deep ties to Putin, having negotiated several billion-dollar deals in that country. The oil executive's relationship with Putin and other world leaders who have tense relationships with the United States are a necessary part of the job, Tillerson's allies say. Without them, he wouldn't be able to expand Exxon's presence in key oil-rich countries.

But several Senate Republicans have already raised concerns about Tillerson's connections to Putin against the backdrop of accusations that the Russians attempted to manipulate the U.S. election.

Trump's surprise decision to meet with former Vice President Al Gore, a prominent climate advocate, at Trump Tower and his recent comments to The New York Times that he has an "open mind" about the Paris global warming deal initially gave greens some mild hope the president-elect might be more malleable on this issue.

But Trump's decision to tap Tillerson, along with Scott Pruitt, who has railed against climate regulations, for Environmental Protection Agency administrator and Rick Perry, who once advocated for eliminating the Energy Department, for energy secretary quickly dashed those hopes.

"Rex Tillerson is a pioneer of the post-election Donald Trump climate-change head fake, which is to say one thing and to do the complete opposite," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in an interview. He argued that the notion that Trump could become more moderate on climate change is a "charade, and people shouldn’t buy it. We’re living at a time of deception and misinformation, and it’s important not to believe people’s tweets or press statements, but to watch what they do.”

Democrats in Congress and their allies in environmental groups are moving quickly to do everything they can to undercut Tillerson's nomination.

"We are having many, many conversations with as many people as we can get an audience with," Natural Resources Defense Council President Rhea Suh told POLITICO.

While they have no plans to upend Tillerson's nomination over his past statements in support of a carbon tax and the Paris climate deal, conservatives aren't happy about them either.

"I think it’s definitely cause for concern," said Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment, a free-market group. "I’d like to see him address it and recant his previous views and bring himself in line with the views of the president-elect and conservatives' views.”

"There absolutely is a concern there," added another official from a prominent Washington, D.C., conservative group, who asked for anonymity to speak freely about the nomination. "Conservatives are going to be concerned about anybody who has made statements about action on climate.”

Advocates of a carbon tax say they're holding out hope that the policy could win more support under a Trump presidency.

Jerry Taylor, president of the libertarian think tank the Niskanen Center and a vocal carbon tax backer, said Republicans might feel compelled to consider a carbon tax as part of a deal to kill EPA regulations, adding that revenue from the tax could help pay for Trump's other policy priorities, like an infrastructure package. Without legislation like a carbon tax, a future Democratic president could likely reinstate much of President Barack Obama's climate agenda.

"I’m not predicting that that’s inevitable, but it’s a conversation that I’m hearing from Republicans on the Hill," he said.

Tillerson himself has at times shown flashes of frustration amid the constant attacks from environmentalists, even suggesting Exxon's critics are ignorant of the complexities of the oil industry.

"Ours is an industry that is built on technology, it's built on science, it's built on engineering. And because we have a society that, by and large, is illiterate in these areas — science, math and engineering — what we do is a mystery to them, and they find it scary," he said during a 2012 speech. "And because of that, it creates easy opportunities for opponents of development, activist organizations, to manufacture fear.”

Under his leadership, though, Exxon also pledged to stop funding groups that deny climate change. In the years since, activists have alleged that Exxon has continued to fund such groups. The Guardian, for example, last year underscored Exxon's contributions to Republican lawmakers who are skeptical of the scientific consensus on climate change, as well as the American Legislative Exchange Council, which has promoted model legislation that is critical of climate regulations.