Andrew Swiger

Climate Change Denial Business Andrew Swiger

Andrew Swiger has held various positions at ExxonMobil and was appointed as the Senior Vice President in 2009 and Principal Financial Officer in 2013.

Climate Change:

In 2019, Andrew Swiger “used two sets of numbers to calculate climate risk and filed misleading paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).” Swiger faced a class action lawsuit over his financial reports because they downplayed the risks of climate change, did not account for carbon taxes, and inflated stock prices.

Swiger claims there are many uncertainties in climate science and there is “no room for complacency.” He states that ExxonMobil is conducting their own research and participating in climate forums because climate science is unsettled. His language is misleading and casts doubt on the scientific consensus that climate change is a threat.

ExxonMobil started research on climate change around 1977, 11 years before it became known to the public. Scientist James Black warned, “doubling CO2 gases in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by two or three degrees,” which ExxonMobil deliberately ignored. In 1989, Exxonmobil helped create a Global Climate Coalition to discourage the US, China, and India from joining the Kyoto Protocol, which would have set limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

In the 2000s, ExxonMobil published an ad “Unsettled Science,” which misused data to argue that “fossil fuels may not be causing global warming.”

ExxonMobil is notorious for using language that “downplays its role in the climate crisis… and undermines climate litigation, regulation, and activism.” This language includes calling on consumers to heat their homes efficiently, be smart about energy use, and improve their gas mileage. This rhetoric deflects responsibility to consumers and blames fossil fuel use on demand, rather than the supplier.

Alaska:

ExxonMobil is the largest holder of gas in Alaska. In 2008, a Native Alaskan village filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil and other gas companies claiming “the defendants’ contribution to global warming through their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses substantially and unreasonably interferes with the plaintiffs’ rights to use and enjoy public and private property in Kivalina.” ExxonMobil successfully got the lawsuit dismissed on claims that the lawsuit was a political, not legal matter.

In 2011, ExxonMobil bought two ships to transport oil from Alaska to the west coast. Andrew Swiger commented the investment “is a reminder of what America’s energy industry can do and is doing – investing in our country.” He fails to address how this project will contribute to climate change and affect marine wildlife.