Exxon Lobbyist Exposed: Climate Denial on Tape

[00:00:00][Music] today we're going to talk about an exxon mobil lobbyist caught revealing some horrific secrets on a recorded zoom call and the effects of climate change ravaging the us and canada we also speak about pelosi's decision to move forward with the house select committee to investigate the events of january 6th and i have my first republican guest congressman adam kinzinger and we discuss that very commission and the future of his party i'm brian tyler cohen and you're listening to no lie so i want to start off with climate change because in just the last week or so we've seen temperatures soaring across the country and the world last sunday canada hit its highest ever recorded temperature at 113 degrees that record was broken a day later at 116 degrees and that record was broken a day after that at 121 degrees like records aren't easily or often broken and never never by 8 degrees an all-time record was reached in oregon at 118 degrees spokane washington hit a record of 109 degrees portland reached 116 a record seattle hit 108 also a record and seattle's sustained temperatures of over 100 degrees lasted three days which is unprecedented like i could literally list out dozens and dozens and dozens of cities in the pacific northwest that hit record highs those temperatures are leading to fires breaking out the town of litton in british columbia canada was destroyed not unlike paradise in california just a few years earlier just this weekend hundreds of people were left dead amid the heat nearly 500 in british columbia 63 in oregon and 20 in washington records being set every single day all of it caused or exacerbated by climate change which makes the news about exxon mobil especially vile especially depraved so we have keith mccoy a lobbyist for exxon mobil thought he was talking to a job recruiter who wasn't so much a job recruiter as he was a member of greenpeace uk and what was said was horrifying and explosive and the most cynical part of me would say not in the least bit surprising for example in response to the fact that exxon publicly supports a carbon tax here was mccoy's justification nobody is going to propose a tax on all americans and the cynical side of me says yeah we kind of know that but it gives us a talking point that we can say well what is exxon mobil for well we're for a carbon tax what you said was just really interesting so what so it's basically never going to happen right is the calculation yeah no it's not it's not good carbon tax isn't going to happen so this helps me understand a little bit why suddenly a lot of cut a lot of u.s oil majors are talking about carbon tax because it sounds pretty uh well i i i i i in the cynical side of me they've got nothing else it's an easy talking point to say um look i'm for carb attacks so that's the talking point that that is a in my mind an effective advocacy tool in other words it's just a talking point that they deployed to give them cover while continuing to aggressively oppose other climate regulations they know it'll never happen and so that's why exxon supports a carbon tax because it's empty rhetoric and so they can get good press all while knowing that they won't have to actually surrender anything he revealed how exxon's fought against climate science did we aggressively fight against um some of the science yes did we hide our science absolutely not uh did we uh did we join some of these shadow groups uh to work against uh some of the early efforts yes that's true uh but there's nothing there's nothing illegal about that we were looking out for our investments we were looking out for our shareholders and you're not going to be able to just switch to battery-operated vehicles or land for your electricity and just having that conversation around why that's not possible in the next 10 years is critically important to the work that we do so um and that's at every phase that's that's that's in the senate that's in the house that's with the administration uh something like climate change there's some forest fires there's an increase of you know.000 you know celsius that doesn't affect that people's everyday lives right it doesn't affect people's everyday lives 500 dead in british columbia 63 dead in oregon 20 dead in washington towns and cities wiped off the map droughts hurricanes wildfires this is what these companies are perpetuating this is what they're causing by virtue of entrenching our reliance on fossil fuels and refusing to accept the science behind climate change all in service of money not my words his words exxonmobil's words from the horse's mouth and further putting this all into practice here's what mccoy said about the latest infrastructure bill which most democrats were pushing to include major provisions on climate change we're playing defense because then president biden's talking about this big infrastructure package and he's going to pay for it by increasing corporate taxes you stick to highways and bridges then a lot of the the negative stuff starts to come out because for you guys because there's it's there's a germaness right there's this it that doesn't make any sense for a highway bill why would you put in why would you put in a uh something on uh emissions reductions on climate change uh to oil refineries in a highway bill why would you put something on emissions reductions on climate change to oil refineries in a highway bill that's what mccoy just said now listen to this statement by republican senator marsha blackburn on fox news what they are wanting in their bill is money for the green new deal money for unions money for electric car subsidies they want money for bike paths and hiking trails and what the american people want and certainly what tennesseans want is to see money for roads and for bridges and interstates and railways and airports they want to see money for broadband but all of these other things all of this that is human infrastructure that does not belong in a surface transportation or an infrastructure bill sound familiar now so that we're clear it's the american jobs plan and while infrastructure is the theme jobs is the goal but republicans made up the idea that this is strictly a hard infrastructure package and then argued based on that false premise using talking points sent down directly from corporate lobbyists whose sole objective is to enrich shareholders and their own bottom line and by the way while it's republicans who overwhelmingly tow this line let's not pretend for a second that it's only republicans who's the crucial guys for you well senator capito who's the ranking member of violated public works joe manchin i talk to his office every week and he is the king maker on this because he's a democrat from west virginia which is very conservative state and he's not shy about sort of staking his claim early and completely changing the debate so on the democrat side we look for the moderates on these issues so it's the mansions it's the cinemas it's the testers other ones that aren't talked about the senator coons who's from delaware who has a very close relationship with senator biden so we've been working with his office matter of fact our ceo is talking to index tuesday mansion cinema tester coons just a shameless display of corruption where they're making the conscious decision to trade in the future of the planet their own children's and grandchildren's futures offer a check even while they're admittedly denying the science even while they're admittedly funding shadow groups to muddy the waters about the effects and impacts of climate change and of course exxon ceo darren woods condemned mccoy's comments and called them quote entirely inconsistent with our commitment to the environment transparency and what our employees and management team have worked towards since i became ceo four years ago but look coupled with the knowledge that their outward positions are predicated on supporting only what they know won't be possible we know that what we just heard from woods is complete the fact is that these temperatures are going to continue to spike the storms are going to worsen the death tolls will rise and one day probably in the not too distant future people are going to look back to today when something could still be done about the worst existential crisis to ever face humanity and wonder what the we were thinking if climate is not at the core of everything and anything we do then we are making the conscious decision to allow these catastrophic events to continue if climate is not at the core of every candidate we elect of every position they stand for of every policy they propose then they're missing the plot like in a way i'm glad that we heard this recording even with its almost comic book level villainy because now we'll know just how little the posturing means and we'll know who exactly to put the pressure on because all the campaign donations by exxon mobil in the world won't mean anything if the people voting know that you're full of now i want to switch gears to a different topic nancy pelosi has decided on moving forward with the house select committee to investigate the events of january 6th the house voted 222 to 190 to create this panel with only two republicans voting to support it liz cheney and adam kinzinger who again i'll speak with in this week's interview those two republicans are a pretty far cry from the 35 who'd originally supported the bipartisan commission and yet somehow for those 35 people they've decided now that no committee is better than a house select committee even though they'd acknowledge that a committee was necessary and of course it's because the republican leaderships had time to ramp up the pressure and beat them back but the forward-facing excuse is that it'll be too partisan in other words because their own party blocked a bipartisan commission the obvious answer is to let trump off the hook by having no commission at all that's the logic here democrats offered a fully bipartisan solution republicans block it and then even those members of the gop who acknowledged that an investigation was warranted decided to reward the obstructionist by voting for zero accountability now kevin mccarthy house minority leader said quote it seems pretty political to me which again is a hell of a thing to claim after his party voted against the bipartisan commission and especially ironic in the wake of reporting that mccarthy has threatened to strip republican members of committee assignments if they accept an offer from pelosi to serve on the commission why because mccarthy needs it to look as partisan as possible so that he and trump and the rest of his party can undermine it as what else but a partisan witch-hunt but sure what the democrats are doing seems pretty political got it and of course we'll see if mccarthy's threat actually comes to pass considering pelosi has appointed republican liz cheney to the commission she joins seven other members chosen by pelosi all of whom are democrats who include adam schiff benny thompson zoe lofgren pete aguilar stephanie murphy elaine lauria and jamie raskin who's been on this show twice now there are still five slots that mccarthy can fill in consultation with pelosi meaning that she could veto his selections which probably bodes well if you don't want to be subjected to jim jordan ranting about how we shouldn't be wasting time investigating an insurrection when critical race theory is the real enemy here but with that said i discussed this very issue and more with republican congressman adam kenzinger so to check that out go to the interviews playlist on my youtube channel