Engaging with governments

Overview 

As sound government policies are required and can act as an accelerator for lower-emission alternatives, ExxonMobil actively participates in climate-related policy discussions around the world.

The company focuses on practical policy solutions that recognize the increasing global demand for affordable and reliable energy while enabling scalable development and deployment of lower- and zero- greenhouse gas emission technologies.

Durable and predictable market-driven policies can further encourage these developments and increase investments in lower-emission technologies to help achieve the Paris Agreement goals at the lowest cost to society.

ExxonMobil’s positions on climate, including its  Scopes 1 and 2 net-zero 2050 ambition from operated assets, and other key issues are available at our website and in our Advancing Climate Solutions 2023 Progress Report, along with our annual proxy statement, press releases and the Exxchange, ExxonMobil’s online advocacy hub. Our lobbying and political contributions are aligned with these positions. 

U.S. lobbying expenses

ExxonMobil undertakes lobbying to advocate positions on issues that affect the company, the energy industry, and competitive free markets. ExxonMobil has a rigorous process to determine which public policy issues are of most importance to the corporation. This process, along with the oversight of our lobbying and political engagement, can be found on our website.

ExxonMobil also produces a Report on Lobbying, which lists all U.S. organizations of which ExxonMobil or its affiliates are members, membership fees and portions used for lobbying, along with amounts. The report also includes an accounting of the company’s direct lobbying and grassroots lobbying. ExxonMobil fully complies with federal and state regulations by reporting its federal lobbying to the U.S. Congress and state-level lobbying to appropriate entities, as required.  ExxonMobil publicly reports, on a quarterly basis, its federal lobbying expenses and the specific issues lobbied. The total figure reported in ExxonMobil’s public Lobbying Disclosure Act filings includes expenses associated with the costs of employee federal lobbying, as well as those portions of payments to trade associations, coalitions and think tanks spent on federal lobbying.

Political contributions

The Board of Directors has authorized ExxonMobil to make political contributions to candidate committees and other political organizations as permitted by applicable laws. The Board annually reviews ExxonMobil’s political contributions, as well as contributions from the company-sponsored Political Action Committee (PAC). Internal audits of the corporation’s public and government affairs activities routinely verify contribution amounts.

As required of U.S. federal contractors by law, ExxonMobil has not used corporate treasury funds to support any federal candidates, national political parties or other political committees, including Super Political Action Committees. ExxonMobil has chosen not to use treasury funds or PAC funds for direct independent political expenditures at the federal level, including electioneeringⁱ communications.

Eligible employees and shareholders may participate in the U.S. political process by contributing to a voluntary, company-sponsored, federal PAC. ExxonMobil reports PAC contributions to the U.S. Federal Election Commission every month.

Performance and initiatives

In 2021, ExxonMobil contributed $300,000 in support of five national political organizations of state officials. In addition, the company contributed $222,000 in election support to 197 state-level candidates and six committees in six U.S. states. Contributions are reported to applicable governing agencies and on our website.

Transparency in payments to governments

We believe that disclosing relevant payments to governments is an important tool to reduce corruption, improve government accountability and promote greater economic stability worldwide. We consider the most successful transparency initiatives to be those that:

• Apply to all foreign, domestic and state-owned companies.
• Protect proprietary information to promote commercial competitiveness.
• Comply with international trade conventions and treaties.
• Do not violate host government laws or contractual obligations.

FOOTNOTE