Yale sustainability expert Todd Cort says the oil company’s failure to adapt to changing growth models has landed it between a rock and a hard place
A few days before the New York Times reported that a federal auction in the Gulf of Mexico in August drew the lowest interest since 1986 – “the clearest sign yet that the fortunes of oil companies are skidding” – I found myself reading the 2014 ExxonMobil Citizenship Report.
The report cites an energy future that’s heavily dependent on oil and gas during the difficult transition to more sustainable energy sources. ExxonMobil then drafts a socially imperative role for itself:
We believe all economic energy sources will be necessary to meet growing demand, and the transition of the energy system to lower carbon sources will take many decades due to its enormous scale, capital intensity and complexity. As such, we believe that none of our proven hydrocarbon reserves are, or will become, stranded.
Related: Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years