Total, a French oil and gas giant, is leaving the American Petroleum Institute over frustration with the U.S. oil lobby group’s lack of support for policies to combat climate change.
Total on Friday criticized the American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. oil and gas trade group, over its support for the Trump administration’s withdrawal of direct regulation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It also flagged API’s lack of support for carbon pricing, and its opposition to subsidies for electric vehicles.
“We are committed to ensuring, in a transparent manner, that the industry associations of which we are a member adopt positions and messages that are aligned with those of the Group in the fight against climate change,” said Patrick Pouyanne, the chairman and CEO of Total. “This transparency responds to our stakeholders’ expectations, as well as being an essential guarantee of the credibility of our strategy.”
Total’s decision comes at a moment of transition for API. Just this week, the group committed to consider supporting federal regulation of methane, a priority of President-elect Joe Biden, as part of a rollout of its 2021 priorities. The group subtly tweaked its rhetoric about carbon pricing in a report describing its policy priorities. While API is still not ready to endorse carbon pricing outright, it states that market-based policies such as carbon pricing are preferable to mandates, which has become the preferred carbon reduction policy of Democrats.
But that shift was not sufficient for Total, which is among the European oil majors that have committed to aggressive targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 across its operations. As part of that, Total and other European companies with similar targets, such as BP and Shell, have promised to review their membership in trade associations to see if their goals align. Total is the first to break from API, but it could put pressure on BP and Shell to follow suit.
An API spokesperson told Washington Examiner that the group learned about Total’s decision to quit earlier this week.
“We believe that the world’s energy and environmental challenges are large enough that many different approaches are necessary to solve them, and we benefit from a diversity of views. Our industry’s focus continues to be on taking meaningful action and shaping policy at all levels of government to reduce U.S. emissions and ensure access to affordable and reliable energy,” the spokesperson said.
