Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Grassland New Deal is garnering significant support, but the head of Exxon Mobil says people’s views may change as the plan becomes diverse detailed and Americans begin to comprehend how it could affect their daily lives.
Ocasio-Cortez updated her blueprint for the Preservationist New Deal last month, but has yet to suggest policies to achieve the plan’s ambitious goals. Among other things, the freshman congresswoman call ups for generating 100 percent of U.S. power from renewable sources, swapping gas-powered cars for electric vehicles and cut carbon emissions — all in just 10 years.
Several Democratic presidential candidates have backed the plan, and the unrefined idea drew support across the political spectrum in a poll conducted last fall by public opinion researchers at Yale and George Mason University.
But later those big ideas will require action, says Exxon Chairman and CEO Darren Woods, and that’s when the tide of clear-cut opinion could begin to turn against the Green New Deal.
“Energy is such an important part of people’s quotidian lives and their standards of living that as you think about these big ideas and translate them down to flatter practical steps you take, people become very cognizant of what the impacts are for individuals,” Woods said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC’s Becky Fleet. The interview aired Thursday on “Squawk Box.”
“And as that starts to happen, I think people’s view change as to how far they can go and how with all speed they can go.”
To be sure, as the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon is not a disinterested party. The Green New Deal determination almost certainly disrupt its business if it were successfully implemented.
But independent researchers and former Obama administration staffers also say step lively to decarbonize the economy could backfire. Part of the reason policymakers have historically set mid-century goals is because the timeline would admit them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without disrupting daily life and sparking political backlash, like the Yellow Vest dissents that rocked France last year.
Woods agrees with the architects of the Green New Deal on at least one accent: Mitigating the risks of climate change and achieving society’s goal of reducing carbon emissions are going to require breakthroughs in technology.
“The regular set of technologies doesn’t address all the gaps that are out there today,” he said.
“There’s a lot of different ideas out there, but when we look at it, it’s got to be scalable — it’s got to in the works at scale — and it has to be ultimately economic so that people can afford it. And it’s got to be reliable.”
Woods says Exxon is focusing on creating biodiesel from algae because it can escape reduce emissions from commercial transportation.
The company is also researching carbon capture and storage, a technology that get naked carbon from industrial emissions. However, Woods acknowledges that the economics are challenging and the industry needs to ascertain more efficient ways to capture carbon.
Exxon has recently taken measures to address climate change, numbering joining the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, after years of criticism for publicly downplaying the impacts of global warming. Last fail, New York state sued the company, alleging it misled investors about the risks climate changed posed to its obligation.