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Earther
Exxon Thinks You’re Stupid
In March, Exxon CEO Darren Woods whined that other oil companies drafting climate plans were simply engaging in a “beauty match.” Now, Exxon has a climate plan of its own. But it’s the ugliest and most craven of the bunch because it actually says nothing about reducing emissions. Now, to be fair to Woods, it’s … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Earther
Exxon Continues Unprecedented Tumble
When the fossil fuel industry finally winds down in the coming decades, 2020 will stand as a pivotal year. Major corporations have been knocked off their pedestals, and there’s no bigger fall than Exxon’s. Late on Monday, the company announced it was writing down the value of oil and gas fields it had previously planned … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Earther
Secret Exxon Documents Show the Firm May Never Recover
The economic fallout of the covid-19 pandemic has hit the oil industry hard, and Exxon in particular is feeling it. Internal documents show the company’s not expecting to make a grand recovery any time soon despite putting on a good face for shareholders. Exxon is expecting oil prices to fall over most of the next … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Earther
Exxon Pays Off Shareholders, Lays Off Workers
The tragedy of Exxon continues. On Thursday, the company said it expects to lay off roughly 14,000 workers over the next year. The huge reduction comes even as it pays out shareholders, albeit at a flat level for the first time in nearly four decades. The tumult hitting what was once the biggest, baddest oil … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Earther
Exxon Just Got Dethroned as the Top U.S. Energy Company
On Wednesday, Chevron became the biggest oil company in America. It’s the first time Exxon and its predecessor, Standard Oil, haven’t occupied the throne since the late 1800s. RIP to a real(ly bad) one. The covid-19 pandemic has not been kind to Exxon. It’s lost over $1 billion since the crisis began, with its analysts … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Earther
Exxon’s Leaked Five-Year Plan Is a Climate Disaster
Earlier this year, Exxon promised to slash its methane emissions and reduce its gas burning, but it seems it had some other plans in the works, too. New internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg show that the energy giant’s business plans would increase its carbon pollution by 17% by 2025. In total, the additions would be equivalent … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Earther
What I Learned From a Week of Responding to My Haters
When you write about the climate crisis, getting hate mail comes with the territory. It shouldn’t, of course, but I’ve gotten used to it over the years. Mostly, I just brush it off, though I’ll admit the occasional threats of bodily harm do get to me. But last week, I decided to not brush off … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherClimate Change
Exxon Is Reportedly Eyeing Layoffs
A month ago, Exxon denied a report that it was considering layoffs as a way to ensure shareholders got their dividends. But it seems that the company may have not been entirely truthful. Business Insider received a leaked email to employees saying that “we continue to see prolonged negative market impacts that require us to … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Earther
Exxon Ends 92-Year Run on Dow Jones
Spending 92 years doing anything is an accomplishment, so let’s cheers to Exxon Mobil Corp., which spent more than nine decades as a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, pillaging the planet, lying about climate change, and making rich people even richer. Now, those days have come to an end. One of the biggest … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherEnvironmental Justice
Chevron Is Trying to Crush a Prominent Climate Lawyer—and Maybe the World
Amid falling citywide rates of covid-19 infection, many New Yorkers are beginning to emerge from months of lockdown. That’s not the case for human rights attorney Steven Donziger, who has barely left his two-bedroom Upper West Side apartment for the past twelve months. “My liberty is deprived,” he said on Zoom from his kitchen. “They’re … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Earther
The Pandemic Could Wipe 20% of Exxon’s Oil and Gas Reserves Off the Books
The oil industry isn’t looking too great, folks. That’s especially true for Exxon, which has lost upward of $1 billion due to the economic crisis last quarter alone. Its downward spiral isn’t over, though. In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, the oil giant laid out how much the coronavirus has … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
Big Oil Has Never Lost This Much Money
It’s never been a worse time to be an oil company. Even the biggest of Big Oil firms are falling apart like shoddily built McMansions on a patch of quicksand. The latest to start to sink is Exxon and Chevron, which each reported their largest quarterly loss in history on Friday. This comes a day … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Earther
Exxon Is Showing Us Exactly Who It Cares About
Exxon is a known corporate miscreant, and nothing it does to preserve profits should come as a surprise anymore. And yet. In the face of a crippling pandemic and job crisis, the company has decided to do what it does best: maximize shareholder value. A Reuters exclusive report on Thursday said the company is hellbent … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Earther
Apparently It’s Sue Big Oil Week
It’s lawsuit week for Big Oil. A day after Minnesota filed a groundbreaking suit, Washington, DC District Attorney General Karl Racine sued ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and Shell, alleging that the companies “systematically and intentionally misled consumers … about the central role their products play in causing climate change.” Racine’s consumer protection lawsuit accuses the three … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Tech News
‘Alexa, Pay for Gas’ Is Amazon’s Latest IoT Honey Trap
At first blush, Amazon’s new “Alexa, pay for gas” feature looks like a little teaser for the truckload of new IoT devices likely coming this week. You can already tell Alexa to order things online, and Alexa’s new power to help you auto-pay at the gas pump seems like a narrower version of ordering from … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
Study: Massive Blowout at Gas Well in 2018 Spewed 5 Times as Much Methane as ExxonMobil Estimated
Research published this week shows that the blowout of an ExxonMobile-owned natural gas well in Belmont County, Ohio in February 2018 released a hell of a lot more methane than previously thought. Per CNN, Dutch and American scientists published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday that used satellite … Continued
By Tom McKay -
EartherEnvironmental Justice
An Exxon-Owned Houston Chemical Plant Is on Fire
A mere four months after a Houston chemical plant fire made headlines, another Houston area plant has exploded into flames. The ExxonMobil Baytown Complex caught on fire Wednesday morning despite being one of the “most technologically advanced refining and petrochemical complexes in the world,” as Exxon describes it. That’s why the city of Baytown—located about … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
In Rare Move, Oil Giants Ask Trump to Regulate a Greenhouse Gas
Fossil fuel giants Shell and Exxon are far from perfect, but they are taking a stand against the Trump administration’s attempt to kill regulations on a potent greenhouse gas. This week, both companies criticized President Donald Trump’s deregulatory actions against methane, a potent greenhouse gas that can leak during oil and gas operations. Shell told … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
New York State Is Suing Exxon for Lying to Shareholders About Climate Change
On Wednesday, the New York attorney general opened up a new front in the climate law war against Big Oil. Barbara Underwood, the state’s chief lawyer, filed a suit alleging that Exxon has defrauded its shareholders for years about the impact climate regulations could have on its business, and broken New York state law in … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherClimate Change
Exxon Acknowledged Climate Change Internally But Still Spread Denialist Propaganda
A Harvard study released Tuesday analyzed 40 years worth of documents from Exxon Mobil, concluding that the fossil fuel titan has, since 1979, internally acknowledged that carbon emissions are responsible for climate change, even as it has spent thousands over the years publicly denying the global consensus. As internal findings from peer-reviewed research grew more … Continued