Trust But Verify: ExxonMobil methane promise needs public oversight

Washington, D.C. — “ExxonMobil’s promise to cut its methane pollution 15% by 2020 is a step in the right direction. However, it is not enough.

Thanks to decades of oil and gas industry lobbying against public oversight, we have no way to know if ExxonMobil will keep its promise. We’d have to take them at their word.

Unfortunately ExxonMobil’s word is not good. As evidenced by InsideClimate’s reporting, ExxonMobil’s own scientists were among the first to sound the alarm about fossil fuels’ connection to climate change, but since then the company has spent decades fueling climate denial.

In February ExxonMobil’s wholly-owned XTO subsidiary publicly declared its support for regulations to cut oil and gas methane pollution. Yet XTO’s operations are still polluting, and ExxonMobil’s silence today regarding much-needed methane pollution standards calls into question just how serious the company truly is about reducing methane pollution.

There is a simple way for ExxonMobil to assure the public they mean what they say. The Trump Administration is trying to eliminate federal safeguards that protect nearby communities from oil and gas air pollution. ExxonMobil could speak out against Trump’s rollbacks and endorse common sense methane safeguards like those in place in Colorado and California.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, when it comes to ExxonMobil’s climate promises we must ‘trust but verify’. And we can only do that with meaningful public oversight of oil and gas methane pollution.”

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For More Information

• ExxonMobil 5/23 promise to cut methane pollution and reduce flaring
• ExxonMobil wholly owned subsidiary XTO’s 2/2018 declaration in support of methane regulation
• 3/2018 infrared video showing volatile organic compound pollution at XTO Energy’s Robertson Clearfork Unit in Andrews County, Texas