SECRETARY SEARCH TURNS TO TILLERSON
ExxonMobil CEO’s views on climate change, ties to Russia’s Putin are thrust into spotlight
The possible appointment of ExxonMobil’s CEO as U. S. secretary of State would place a lifelong oil executive in charge of U. S. diplomacy in an age when energy and climate change are fueling considerable geopolitical tension.
The plan by President- elect Donald Trump to interview
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson on Tuesday trains the political spotlight on an Eagle Scout, Texan and unabashed oil proponent who has sparred with climatechange activists and conducted business with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Tillerson’s exit from ExxonMobil would come after a tumultuous period for his company, punctuated by the loss of its AAA credit rating after the crushing global slide in oil prices. The company has made more than $ 200 billion in profit in the decade since Tillerson took over but posted a $ 1.7 billion loss in the second quarter, reflecting the depth of the oil industry’s challenges. But Exxon, viewed for years as among the world’s most resilient corporations, has since snapped back to profitability.
Any examination of Tillerson as a potential Trump Cabinet member is likely to focus on his Republican politics rather than his company’s finances. Putin awarded Tillerson the country’s Order of Friendship in 2013 after years of collaboration. Trump has pledged to improve U. S. ties to Putin.
Although he has no experience in diplomacy, Tillerson has ties throughout the globe, based purely on ExxonMobil’s footprint, especially in sensitive regions such as the Middle East and Russia.
Critics say Tillerson’s position on climate change and deep entanglement in the global energy world make him a poor fit for the nation’s top diplomatic post.
“It really would blur the lines between the diplomatic priorities of the nation and the economic priorities of a corporation,” said Tyson Slocum, energy program director for Public Citizen.
ExxonMobil declined to comment for this story and declined to make Tillerson available for comment.
With U. S. allies fretting the Trump administration will abandon the country’s commitment to a global emissionscutting agreement forged in Paris in 2015, Tillerson’s appointment would place one of the oil industry’s leading advocates in a position to undermine a deal viewed by the international community as critical to counteracting the devastating effects of a warming world. To be sure, ExxonMobil’s official position is climate change is a significant threat that must be addressed, placing Tillerson at odds with some of Trump’s past statements.
On human rights, Tillerson’s views on gay rights could be the subject of attention. ExxonMobil did not prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation until 2015, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
But Tillerson, an advocate of the Boy Scouts of America, also helped persuade the group to admit gay youths while its president from 2010 to 2012, the Dallas
Morning News reported in 2014. Tillerson is one of the nation’s betterpaid CEOs of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies, with total compensation of $ 27.3 million last year, $ 33.1 million in 2014 and $ 28.1 million in 2013, according to company filings.