Darren W. Woods | |
|---|---|
 Woods in 2024 | |
| Born | December 16, 1965 |
| Education | Texas A&M University (BS 1987) Northwestern University (MBA 1992) |
| 18th President of ExxonMobil | |
| Assumed office January 1, 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Rex W. Tillerson |
| 16th Chairman of ExxonMobil | |
| Assumed office January 1,2017 | |
| Preceded by | Rex W. Tillerson |
Darren Wayne Woods (born December 16,1965) [1] is an American businessman who is the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of ExxonMobil since January 1,2017. [2]
Woods was born in Wichita,Kansas. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University,followed by an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. [3] [4]
Woods joined Exxon in 1992. He had worked for Exxon for 24 years prior to being promoted to CEO following Rex Tillerson's nomination by President Donald Trump to be the next United States Secretary of State. [2] [5] While his predecessor was involved in deal making and exploration,Woods is a veteran of the refining side of the oil business. [6] Prior to becoming CEO,Woods ran the refining and chemical divisions of the company,which delivered the majority of ExxonMobil's $7.8 billion net income in 2016. [7]
At an investor meeting in New York in 2017,Woods outlined his growth plan including drilling in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico and the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota. He also spoke briefly about the company's operations in Russia,expressing an optimistic outlook regarding Exxon's Sakhalin project on Russia's eastern coast. [6]
Woods has said that the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has "shattered the Peak Oil myth". [7] Woods has publicly endorsed the Paris climate accord. The accord commits nations to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. [8] In May 2017,Woods wrote a personal letter to President Trump to urge that the U.S. remain a party to the agreement. He says that by remaining a party to the accords the U.S. will have a seat at the table to "ensure a level playing field" and support "the most cost-effective greenhouse gas reduction options". [9]
On October 5,2020,Bloomberg News reported that Exxon was set to increase its annual carbon emissions by about 17%,or about as much as the annual output of Greece. The emissions expansion would be built off an investment plan reportedly signed off by Woods. Exxon said its internal projections are "a preliminary,internal assessment of estimated cumulative emission growth through 2025 and did not include the [additional] mitigation and abatement measures that would have been evaluated in the planning process. Furthermore,the projections identified in the leaked documents have significantly changed,a fact that was not fully explained or prominently featured in the article." [10]
In 2022,Woods was named one of the US' top "climate villains" by The Guardian after "Exxon lobbyists were captured on video revealing the company's efforts to obstruct climate legislation in Congress." [11]
Woods discussed in an interview with CNBC journalist David Faber in June 2022 that part of ExxonMobil's long-term strategy to remain a profitable company while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and plastic pollution was to invest in carbon capture and storage technology with a network hub in Houston and to remain a plastics producer while making changes to waste management. [12] [13] Woods also called for a higher carbon price. [14] In April 2024,Woods stated on the company quarterly earnings call that while the company was continuing to develop direct air capture (DAC) technology,DAC was currently unaffordable at $600 to $1,000 per ton of carbon dioxide removal and needed to be brought down to $100 per ton to be globally scalable. [15]
On December 8,2023,Woods attended the Chemical Marketing &Economics gala in New York City,to be honored with a "STEM leadership award" for "harnessing the transformative power of chemistry to advance humanity". [16] Because of his role in increasing oil and gas consumption,a group of climate activists disrupted and brought an end to the gala. They carried a banner that notably read "Eat shit Darren". [17]
In 2021 The Guardian reported that Woods' salary exceeded $20,000,000 per year. [18]
In 2021,Woods denied that Exxon had covered up its own research about Big Oil's contribution to the climate crisis. The chair of the Congressional committee taking Woods' testimony likened Woods' denial to the decades' long lies by the American tobacco industry denying that nicotine is addictive. [19] Woods also declined to make a pledge to stop lobbying against climate initiatives. [19]
The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) (1989–2001) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and engaged in climate change denial,publicly challenging the science behind global warming. The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations. The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol,and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States. The coalition knew it could not deny the scientific consensus,but sought to sow doubt over the scientific consensus on climate change and create manufactured controversy.
The Stop Esso campaign was a campaign by Greenpeace,Friends of the Earth and People and Planet aimed at boycotting the oil company ExxonMobil,on the grounds that it is damaging the environment.
Lee Roy Raymond is an American businessman and was the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of ExxonMobil from 1999 to 2005. He had previously been the CEO of Exxon since 1993. He joined the company in 1963 and served as president from 1987 and a director beginning in 1984.
Business action on climate change is a topic which since 2000 includes a range of activities relating to climate change,and to influencing political decisions on climate change-related regulation,such as the Kyoto Protocol. Major multinationals have played and to some extent continue to play a significant role in the politics of climate change,especially in the United States,through lobbying of government and funding of climate change deniers. Business also plays a key role in the mitigation of climate change,through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures.
Rex Wayne Tillerson is an American energy executive who served as the 69th United States secretary of state from 2017 to 2018 in the administration of Donald Trump. From 2006 to 2016,he was chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil.
Gary S. Gensler is an American government official and former Goldman Sachs investment banker serving as the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gensler previously led the Biden–Harris transition's Federal Reserve,Banking,and Securities Regulators agency review team. Prior to his appointment,he was professor of Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
The fossil fuels lobby includes paid representatives of corporations involved in the fossil fuel industry,as well as related industries like chemicals,plastics,aviation and other transportation. Because of their wealth and the importance of energy,transport and chemical industries to local,national and international economies,these lobbies have the capacity and money to attempt to have outsized influence on governmental policy. In particular,the lobbies have been known to obstruct policy related to environmental protection,environmental health and climate action.
Climate change denial is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting,refusing to acknowledge,disputing,or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none. Climate change denial includes unreasonable doubts about the extent to which climate change is caused by humans,its effects on nature and human society,and the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. To a lesser extent,climate change denial can also be implicit when people accept the science but fail to reconcile it with their belief or action. Several studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism,pseudoscience,or propaganda.
Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp.,No. 4:08-cv-01138,is a lawsuit filed on February 26,2008,in a United States district court. The suit,based on the common law theory of nuisance,claims monetary damages from the energy industry for the destruction of Kivalina,Alaska by flooding caused by climate change. The damage estimates made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Government Accountability Office are placed between $95 million and $400 million. This lawsuit is an example of greenhouse gas emission liability.
ExxonMobil Corporation is an American multinational oil and gas corporation and the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The company,which took its present name in 1999 per the merger of Exxon and Mobil,is vertically integrated across the entire oil and gas industry,and within it is also a chemicals division which produces plastic,synthetic rubber,and other chemical products. ExxonMobil is headquartered near the Houston suburb of Spring,Texas,though officially incorporated in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the largest United States-based oil and gas producing company. ExxonMobil is also the eighth largest company in the world by revenue and the third largest in the US.
The climate change policy of the United States has major impacts on global climate change and global climate change mitigation. This is because the United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world after China,and is among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person in the world. Cumulatively,the United States has emitted over a trillion metric tons of greenhouse gases,more than any country in the world.
Exxon Neftegas Limited is a defunct subsidiary of the American oil company ExxonMobil which operated mostly in Russia,notably Sakhalin and other parts of the Far East. ENL was the primary American operator of Sakhalin-I Consortium,which oversaw exploration and production of oil and gas on both Sakhalin island and in the Chayvo,Odoptu and Arkutun-Dagi fields in the Sea of Okhotsk. The subsidiary is incorporated in the Bahamas and has an office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Exxon Neftgas was led by future ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson from 1998 to at least May 2001.
As the world's largest majority investor-owned oil and gas corporation,ExxonMobil has received significant amounts of controversy and criticism,mostly due to its activities which increase the speed of climate change and its denial of global warming.
From the 1980s to mid 2000s,ExxonMobil was a leader in climate change denial,opposing regulations to curtail global warming. For example,ExxonMobil was a significant influence in preventing ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States. ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Of the major oil corporations,ExxonMobil has been the most active in the debate surrounding climate change. According to a 2007 analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists,the company used many of the same strategies,tactics,organizations,and personnel the tobacco industry used in its denials of the link between lung cancer and smoking.
Carbon pricing in Canada is implemented either as a regulatory fee or tax levied on the carbon content of fuels at the Canadian provincial,territorial or federal level. Provinces and territories of Canada are allowed to create their own system of carbon pricing as long as they comply with the minimum requirements set by the federal government;individual provinces and territories thus may have a higher tax than the federally mandated one but not a lower one. Currently,all provinces and territories are subject to a carbon pricing mechanism,either by an in-province program or by one of two federal programs. As of April 2023 the federal minimum tax is set at CA$65 per tonne of CO2 equivalent,set to increase to CA$170 in 2030.
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI),is an international industry-led organization which includes 12 member companies from the oil and gas industry:BP,Chevron,CNPC,Eni,Equinor,ExxonMobil,Occidental,Petrobras,Repsol,Saudi Aramco,Shell and TotalEnergies represent over "30% of global operated oil and gas production." It was established in 2014 and has a mandate to work together to "accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions" in full support of the Paris Agreement and its aims."
Michael K. Wirth is an American businessman who has been the chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation since 2018. Previously,he was the vice chairman of the company.
The environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration includes a series of laws,regulations,and programs introduced by United States President Joe Biden since he took office in January 2021. Many of the actions taken by the Biden administration reversed the policies of his predecessor,Donald Trump. Biden's climate change policy focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions,similar to the efforts taken by the Obama administration. Biden promised to end and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030. The main climate target of the Biden administration is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the United States to net zero by 2050. A climate team was created to lead the effort.
ExxonMobil,an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas,has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil,the company traces its roots as far back as 1866 to the founding of the Vacuum Oil Company,which would become part of ExxonMobil through its own merger with Mobil during the 1930s. The present name of the company comes from a 1999 merger of Standard Oil's New Jersey and New York successors,which adopted the names Exxon and Mobil respectively throughout the middle of the 20th century. Because of Standard Oil of New Jersey's ownership over all Standard Oil assets at the time of the 1911 breakup,ExxonMobil is seen by some as the definitive continuation of Standard Oil today.