Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum Corp, which is ranked 167th on the Fortune 500 list and 669th on the Forbes Global 2000, told members of a virtual summit of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association that she opposes a carbon dioxide tax, an idea that has gained support from rival oil companies and some trade groups.
“A carbon tax would be bad for a lot of the industry, a carbon tax would be bad for the consumers and especially for those consumers who are more disadvantaged from an economic standpoint,” Hollub told the virtual summit.
Chevron, ExxonMobil, other major oil and gas companies, and the American Petroleum Institute, have long opposed carbon dioxide taxes. With President Joe Biden promising to fight climate change, they now embrace “carbon pricing,” another name for a carbon dioxide tax.
Rationing Energy Required
Big oil companies’ support for carbon pricing is calculated to reduce competition, says Jay Lehr, Ph.D., a Senior Policy Analyst with the International Climate Science Coalition.
“It is no surprise major oil companies support a carbon dioxide tax, because they know full well such a tax will drive their smaller competitors out of business, while leaving them barely damaged,” Lehr said. “Big corporations always support bigger government, knowing they can live with the baggage government loads upon them.
“This new administration is determined to make fraudulent climate change their biggest issue, allowing them to grow government and their power,” said Lehr. “By forcibly increasing wind and solar energy and reducing fossil fuels, total energy will be insufficient to run the economy, requiring government energy rationing. There is no better way to control the population, which is the Biden administration’s primary goal.”
Becoming ESG Compliant
Besides putting competitors out of business, there are other reasons why large oil and gas companies support a carbon dioxide tax, says Betty Grande, CEO of the Roughrider Policy Center.
“One reason the oil majors are supporting carbon pricing is it will make them Environment, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) compliant, allowing them to continue getting capital from the five major banks and insurance companies requiring it,” said Grande. “They get to stay in business, they’ll get the infrastructure dollars, and they get all this because they played the wealth transferring Ponzi scheme game called ‘carbon tax.’
“Smaller companies that can’t afford this type of expense will see their ESG scores go down, and their ability to get financing from major banks and insurance companies will decline or dry up, because banks are making loan and business decisions based on ESG rankings,” Grande said. “So what does a carbon tax do? It disproportionately and unfairly penalizes smaller and mid-size fossil fuel companies relative to the large companies, which will be thrilled to see their smaller rivals harmed.”
Kenneth Artz (kennethcharlesartz@gmx.com) writes from Dallas, Texas.
