It’s become so commonplace for me to write up the bad actions of oil and gas CEOs who—without fail—continue to build on their pristine track records of doing the exact wrong thing, that I had multiple photos of Exxon CEO Darren Woods to choose from for this piece. Woods joins Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in helming a fossil fuel giant seeing eye-popping profits for yet another quarter, with both companies poised to set records for their annual profits. As with Shell, Exxon has no interest in following President Biden’s advice of alleviating consumer burden.
What makes Exxon unique is the logic Woods employed to explain why he’d rather continue share buybacks than lower prices for consumers. “There has been discussion in the U.S. about our industry returning some of our profits directly to the American people. In fact, that’s exactly what we’re doing in the form of our quarterly dividend,” Woods said in a series of prepared remarks prior to the company’s Friday earnings call. It’s fair to say that’s exactly the opposite of what Biden wants.
