ExxonMobil CEO mocks renewable energy in shareholder speech

The CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies downplayed the effects of climate change at his company’s annual meeting Wednesday, telling shareholders his firm hadn’t invested in renewable energy because “We choose not to lose money on purpose.”

“Mankind has this enormous capacity to deal with adversity,” ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told the meeting, pointing to technologies that can combat inclement weather “that may or may not be induced by climate change.”


The comments, which met with applause, were first reported by The Associated Press.

At the meeting, shareholders sided with the company’s board and voted against a measure proposed by Father Michael Crosby and Sister Pat Daly, representatives of a Milwaukee-based Roman Catholic organization, to add a climate change expert to the company’s board.

In a letter to shareholders, Tillerson and his colleagues wrote that “to set aside one seat for an environmental specialist or for any single attribute or area of expertise would, in our view, not be in the best interests of the company or its shareholders because it would dilute the breadth needed by all directors to make informed decisions for the company.”

Crosby contended that the “company has to be making plans for the future,” according to the AP. “Let’s get an expert on the board to deal with a critical question.”

The measure received only 21 percent of shareholders’ votes.

Another measure that would have mandated a report on the side-effects of Exxon’s hydraulic-fracturing business received less than 25 percent of the vote as well. According to The Guardian, Daly is separately pushing for the company to reduce its carbon emissions over time, both by controlling the effect of its products and its energy inputs. Tillerson and the board oppose this measure as well.

The fracas between Exxon and the Milwaukee-based Catholic organization is just the latest example of simmering tension between the church and the global oil giant.

The company recently sent a representative to lobby the Vatican over an encyclical Pope Francis plans to deliver this summer on the impact of climate change. Exxon reportedly fears that such an encyclical could damage its business.

Due to tumbling oil prices, the company’s earnings have dropped significantly in the past two years. Its current stock price is down 16 percent over the past year.