{"id":223865,"date":"2021-07-01T13:54:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T13:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=63c20094dce969237624907ba980b238"},"modified":"2021-07-01T13:54:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T13:54:46","slug":"activists-decry-bidens-tepid-market-based-climate-memo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/07\/01\/activists-decry-bidens-tepid-market-based-climate-memo\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists Decry Biden\u2019s Tepid, Market-Based Climate Memo"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Unearthed,<\/a>

While ExxonMobil’s decades of sowing public doubt about climate science and the impact of fossil fuels have provoked<\/a> various lawsuits, secretly recorded videos released Wednesday expose how the company continues to fight against U.S. efforts to tackle climate emergency.<\/p>\n

Published by Unearthed<\/em><\/a>, Greenpeace U.K.’s investigative journalism arm, and the British Channel 4 News<\/em><\/a>, the footage of ExxonMobil lobbyists sparked new calls for congressional action to hold the oil and gas giant accountable.<\/p>\n

The videos<\/a>, obtained by Unearthed<\/em> reporters posing as recruitment consultants, feature Keith McCoy, a senior director in ExxonMobil’s Washington, D.C. government affairs team, and Dan Easley, who was a senior director for federal relations until leaving the company for a clean technologies firm earlier this year.<\/p>\n

“In the midst of a deadly heatwave, the Exxon Tapes show how Exxon’s climate lies have spanned from outright denial to puppeteering our government and economy,” said<\/a> Lindsay Meiman, 350.org’s U.S. communications manager. “Exxon knew and lied about the climate crisis for decades, and our communities are bearing the costs.”<\/p>\n

“As the window for action quickly closes, this footage proves what we’ve known all along \u2014 Exxon continues to deliberately block necessary climate action to skirt accountability,” Meiman added. “We demand Congress immediately investigate Exxon and fossil fuel companies’ climate crimes, and make polluters pay for their destruction.”<\/p>\n

McCoy said on the Zoom call, secretly recorded in May, that ExxonMobil cast doubt on the scientific consensus about the climate crisis and targeted centrist lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)\u2014”I talk to his office every week,” the lobbyist claimed \u2014 to scale back President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package.<\/p>\n

“Did we aggressively fight against some of the science? Yes. Did we hide our science? Absolutely not,” he said. “Did we join some of these ‘shadow groups’ to work against some of the early efforts? Yes, that’s true. But there’s nothing illegal about that. You know, we were looking out for our investments; we were looking out for our shareholders.”<\/p>\n