Rex Tillerson is Donald Trump‘s nominee for Secretary of State. He is also the CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil Corporation. Tillerson has had a complicated relationship with the issue of climate change and global warming. On one hand, Tillerson supported a carbon-tax-backing, but has also suggested that environmentalists are overreacting and that risks of burning fossil fuels are manageable.
Who Is Rex Tillerson?
Rex Wayne Tillerson, born March 23, 1952, is a well-known American engineer and a businessman. Tillerson is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Exxon Mobil Corporation, the world's 6th largest company in 2016. Tillerson was the National president of the Boy Scouts of America from 2010 to 2012. On December 13, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced that Tillerson would be his nominee for Secretary of State.
One of the many political views of Tillerson is his opposition to sanctions. Tillerson has stated that "We do not support sanctions, generally, because we don't find them to be effective unless they are very well implemented comprehensively and that's a very hard thing to do." Another political view of Tillerson is regarding climate change and carbon taxing. In 2010, Tillerson said that "The world is going to have to continue using fossil fuels, whether they like it or not."
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Is A Carbon-Tax-Backing Climate Change Believer
According to Heavy News, Rex Tillerson is the CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil Corporation which is under investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for allegedly lying to investors and the public about the impact of climate change. The allegation is that Exxon knew about the dangers of climate change even as it backed dubious research about climate change.
As reported by The Guardian, environmentalists have sounded the alarm over Tillerson’s position on climate change. Addressing an event hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations in 2012, Tillerson downplayed the threat posed by global warming. “It’s an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions,” Tillerson said. “The fear factor that people want to throw out there to say we just have to stop this, I do not accept.”
Tillerson’s backing of a carbon tax in 2009 has been cited by Exxon Mobil Corporation as evidence of its efforts to join the fight against climate change. The company also signalled its support for the Paris climate accord signed by the Obama administration, which Trump has vowed to repeal as president. But attorney generals in several states are investigating whether Exxon withheld research from its shareholders and the public while denying the risks associated with climate change.
