July, 02 2021, 12:07pm EDT
Exxon Caught Cowering Behind API on Climate
Damning new footage released this week in a report by the UK's Channel 4 News shows a senior lobbyist for Exxon saying the quiet part out loud: the oil giant has allegedly been using the
WASHINGTON
Damning new footage released this week in a report by the UK's Channel 4 News shows a senior lobbyist for Exxon saying the quiet part out loud: the oil giant has allegedly been using the American Petroleum Institute (API) as "whipping boys" to take the blows for Exxon's worst anti-climate behaviors -- all while the company tries to greenwash its actions and publicly paint itself as an environmental advocate.
API, the oil and gas industry's largest and most influential trade association, has made attempts to present its member companies as supporters of climate action. However, its members engage in rampant pollution and resource exploitation each day that paints a very different picture. While they're standing behind API and empty rhetoric, these companies' harmful actions are degrading communities in and outside the U.S.
"Exxon's lobbyist said the quiet part out loud, but the oil company's rampant hypocrisy on climate action has long been obvious," said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US. "Oil and gas companies like Exxon publicly claim they want to work with the Biden administration to take real steps on climate action. In reality, they're hiding behind the American Petroleum Institute and its unreliable climate commitments -- polluting and advocating against the very same policy changes they want their shareholders and customers to believe they support. These companies have a choice: fess up to their hypocrisy or cut off their connections--and revenue streams--to API."
Just days ago, API released new guidelines for oil and gas companies to report greenhouse gas emissions. Rather than the kinds of stringent reporting regulations needed to be environmentally impactful, API's template for their member companies is weak, entirely voluntary, and allow companies to cite scientifically unproven carbon capture as a climate mitigation strategy.
Accountable.US is a nonpartisan watchdog that exposes corruption in public life and holds government officials and corporate special interests accountable by bringing their influence and misconduct to light. In doing so, we make way for policies that advance the interests of all Americans, not just the rich and powerful.
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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