Rex Tillerson Denies Oil & Gas Subsidies Exist, While Company Profits From Them

Rex Tillerson Denies Oil & Gas Subsidies Exist, While Company Profits From Them

"Rex Tillerson on Wednesday, under oath, denied the existence of fossil fuel subsidies. This is dangerously incorrect. In fact, the Oil & Gas Industry receives more than $17 Billion in Subsidies per year, and according to our new analysis ExxonMobil likely gets as much as $1 billion of that. Former ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and may be about to head the State Department – and it’s not looking good for the climate. Under Tillerson and his predecessors, Exxon knew that climate change was happening yet spun a massive disinformation campaign to sow doubt about climate science, and spent hundreds of millions buying influence in Washington to block progress on climate pollution. Today Tillerson was at it again, testifying that the science on climate change, and the impact it might have on the world and our country, is still fuzzy. But he also upheld another proud oil and gas industry tradition: denying that the oil and gas industry receives subsidies. There’s a pattern here. Whenever the oil industry faces a problem that truly threatens their business model, they deny it exists."