Big Oil’s green-bashing stokes backlash as campaigners hit out at ‘talking points from the 1970s’
Saudi Aramco President & CEO Amin Nasser speaks during the CERAWeek oil summit in Houston, Texas, on March 18, 2024.
Mark Felix | Afp | Getty Images
Top oil executives have been sharply criticized for pushing back against the viability of the clean energy transition at a U.S. conference, with campaigners denouncing an industry claim that the shift away from fossil fuels is “visibly failing on most fronts.”
Speaking during a panel interview on Monday at the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas, Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said that a transition strategy reset was “urgently needed.”
The CEO of the world’s largest energy company proposed that policymakers abandon the “fantasy” of phasing out oil and gas and instead “adequately” invest in fossil fuels to reflect growing demand. Aramco and Saudi ministry officials have previously advocated for ongoing investment in hydrocarbons to avoid energy shortages until renewables can fully meet global energy demands.
Nasser’s comments drew applause from the audience at CERAWeek — an annual energy conference by S&P Global that’s known as the “industry’s Super Bowl.”
Other oil and gas executives at the event echoed Nasser’s views, but spoke less directly about the state of the energy transition.
Shell CEO Wael Sawan said government bureaucracy in Europe was slowing the necessary development of clean energy, according to Reuters. Separately, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods on Monday said that demand for petroleum products is “still very, very healthy.”
“So, I think one of the things the policy to date and a lot of the narrative has been very focused on is the supply side of the equation and hasn’t addressed the demand side of the equation. And the impact that price has on demand,” Woods told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
“At the same time, the cost of converting and moving to a lower-carbon society, if that cost is too high for consumers to bear, they won’t pay. And we’ve seen that play itself out in Europe, with some of the farm protests and the yellow vest protests a year or so ago,” he added.
Campaigners have hit out at the oil industry’s claims this week.
“The fossil fuel industry continues to make distorted claims about our energy future,” Jeff Ordower, North America director at 350.org — a U.S.-based group focused on the global energy transition — said in a statement on Tuesday.
“They work night and day to torpedo a transition to renewable energy and then have the audacity to critique the slowness of the transition itself,” Ordower said. “CERAWeek should highlight a global vision toward a clean and equitable future, and instead, we get talking points from the 1970s.”
Aramco, Exxon Mobil and Shell were not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday.
IEA vs. OPEC
The International Energy Agency has previously said it expects global oil, gas and coal demand to peak by 2030 — a forecast that Aramco’s Nasser rejected at CERAWeek. The energy watchdog said in October last year that the transition to clean energy is not only happening, but is “unstoppable.”
“It’s not a question of ‘if’, it’s just a matter of ‘how soon’ – and the sooner the better for all of us,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.
The oil-producing Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which disagrees with the IEA on its outlook for oil demand growth, said earlier this month that it still expects relatively strong growth in global oil demand for both 2024 and 2025.
Participants are seen at the Innovation Agora of the CERAWeek in Houston, Texas, the United States, on March 18, 2024. CERAWeek, known as a superbowl forum in the global energy industry, kicked off Monday in Houston of the U.S. state of Texas, with topics covering the entire energy spectrum but themed on multidimensional energy transition in four fields: markets, climate, technology and geopolitics.
Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
Policymakers have also renewed their focus on energy supply security in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.
It is in this context that oil and gas executives have repeatedly sought to fend off climate criticism, claiming that Big Oil is not to blame for the climate crisis and warning that it won’t be possible to keep everyone happy in the shift away from fossil fuels.
The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is the chief driver of the climate crisis.
“It’s no surprise to see misleading claims like this coming at CERAWeek, because fossil fuel companies are the biggest cause of the climate crisis, and their continued political influence is the biggest obstacle to solving it,” David Tong, global industry campaign manager at advocacy group Oil Change International, told CNBC via email.
“Oil and gas companies are deliberately slowing and blocking a rapid fossil fuel phase-out with the types of dangerous distractions they are peddling this week in Houston,” Tong said.
‘There’s really no debate’
Some energy companies have scaled back their greenhouse gas reduction targets in recent months.
Activist investors have put pressure on fossil fuel companies to further align their emission reduction targets with the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, while some have urged firms to scale back on green pledges and instead lean into their core oil and gas businesses.
“What we are seeing now is a desperate attempt from the oil and gas industry to stay relevant and to double down on their old business model despite knowing the products they’ve sold us for decades are responsible for the climate crisis,” Josh Eisenfeld, corporate accountability campaign manager at Earthworks, an environmental non-profit based in Washington D.C., told CNBC via email.
“They’ve failed to evolve their business into one that is compatible with what science tells us must be done to avoid a climate catastrophe. There’s really no debate — science has made it abundantly clear what needs to be done and paramount to that is a transition away from fossil fuels,” Eisenfeld said. “To think otherwise is delusional,” he added.
Elon Musk implies that he’ll quit his part-time job as CEO of Tesla (TSLA) if he doesn’t get his $1 trillion pay package. On today’s episode of Quick Charge, I suggest GM’s Mary Barra should replace him, and explore some of the compelling EV deals out there looking to take a bite out of Elon’s market share.
In addition to my take on what the TSLA board should or shouldn’t decide, we’ve got a pile of EV lease deals, some hot, upcoming new electric Jeep models, and a look at some of the ways the end of the Federal EV tax credit isn’t the end at all.
Quick Charge is brought to you by Climate XChange, a nonpartisan nonprofit working to help states pass effective, equitable climate policies. The nonprofit just kicked off its 10th annual EV raffle, where participants have multiple opportunities to win their dream model. Visit CarbonRaffle.org/Electrek to learn more.
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The US added more than 4,000 new DC fast-charging ports in Q3 2025, pushing the total past 64,000. The country’s EV infrastructure keeps maturing, despite new station openings slowing slightly this summer.
US DC fast-charging ports expand past 64,000
According to EV charging data platform Paren’s latest “State of the US Fast EV Charging Industry Report,” the number of public DC fast-charging ports climbed to 64,486 across 12,375 charging stations nationwide in Q3 2025. That’s despite a modest slowdown in new openings: Operators added 699 new stations, down 12% from Q2, and 4,061 new ports, down 7.7%.
Paren says the dip mirrors seasonal trends seen in 2024 and expects growth to rebound in Q4, with early October data already coming in strong. The company still projects the US to add around 16,700 new ports by the end of 2025. Notably, larger charging stations are becoming the norm: 27% of all stations now have eight or more stalls, up from 23% last quarter.
Tesla dominates new ports, and the market widens
Tesla led Q3 deployments with 1,820 new ports – nearly 45% of all added nationwide. ChargePoint (300), Red E (215), Electrify America (164), and EV Connect (146) rounded out the top five. But Paren notes that smaller and regional operators collectively accounted for 21% of new ports, demonstrating how the market is diversifying.
Every state added at least one new fast-charging station this quarter. California again led the pack with 108 new sites, followed by Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois. Upstart network Ionna, formed earlier this year by seven automakers, opened 12 new stations with 132 ports. At the same time, Michigan-based Red E jumped to third place after expanding across 18 states, including new sites at Aldi supermarkets.
Summer travel lifted fast charging demand
The summer travel season drove EV charging activity higher across almost the entire US. Fast charger use increased in 45 states, stayed flat in one, and dipped in five. Maine saw the biggest bump (+1.9 in utilization growth), followed by Montana (+1.8), New York (+1.8), and Oregon (+1.8), all reflecting busier tourism routes and expanding highway and corridor buildouts.
Paren also found signs that Tesla’s opening its Supercharger network to non-Tesla EV drivers is shifting behavior. Some non-Tesla charging stations saw slight utilization declines, suggesting a growing number of drivers are switching to Tesla’s network for convenience.
It’s all about reliability and upkeep
Paren’s “reliability index” measures charger reliability, taking into account recent successful charge sessions with and without retries, failed charge attempts, and station downtime over a specific time period.
Reliability based on Paren’s definition inched up again, from 92.1% to 92.3%. Thirty-two states improved their reliability scores this quarter, while 15 declined and four held steady. Oklahoma showed the biggest improvement (+4.4), though it still ranks last overall at 73.3%. Mississippi (91.1, +2.6) and Idaho (92.1, +2) also made solid gains, while Rhode Island (88.2, -2.7) and Alaska (96.3, -1.9) saw declines.
Paren says reliability now depends less on geography and more on operator performance, site age, and proactive maintenance. With more federally and state-funded chargers coming online, the focus is shifting from buildout to upkeep. Operators investing in preventive maintenance, faster outage response, and top-quality software integration will be best positioned to keep drivers happy.
Average fast-charging prices rose by a penny
Nationwide average pricing rose by a penny in Q3 to $0.49 per kilowatt-hour, with most states falling between $0.48 and $0.54. Hawaii remains the priciest at $0.85/kWh, while Nebraska is the cheapest at $0.42/kWh. Several charge point operators offered summer discounts and promotional rates, but Paren found no clear link between lower prices and higher use.
A few states saw notable price swings: Alaska jumped $0.04, while Arkansas dropped $0.05 and Hawaii fell $0.07. The jury’s still out on whether rates continue rising post-summer; that will depend on wholesale electricity costs, demand trends, and competition among networks.
Electrek’s Take
Paren’s Q3 snapshot shows a maturing charging market: slightly slower but steady growth, improving reliability, and broader competition. Tesla’s Superchargers are still leading the pack when it comes to the volume of new ports being rolled out. Still, the fast charging landscape is expanding with more regional players and multi-port hubs with both NACS and CCS capability across the map. A big priority now is to keep those chargers working and affordable as more people switch to EVs.
Read more: The US added 4,200 new DC fast charging ports, and that’s just Q2
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Is it electric? A hybrid? A new Toyota crossover SUV was spotted testing out in public rocking a unique look.
New Toyota EV crossover and SUVs are coming soon
Toyota is gearing up to launch a series of new battery electric (BEV), hybrid, and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles over the next few years in nearly every market.
In the US, Toyota currently offers just one fully electric vehicle (excluding the Lexus RZ), the bZ (formerly the bZ4X), but that will soon change.
Toyota plans to offer seven fully electric vehicles by mid-2027, including under its luxury Lexus brand. Joining the updated bZ and Lexus RZ next year will be the smaller C-HR crossover and more rugged bZ Woodland SUVs.
Shortly after, it will introduce two electric SUVs that Toyota will build at its plant in Kentucky. Although Toyota has yet to announce it publicly, the new electric SUVs are expected to be based on the RAV4 and Land Cruisers. They will replace the Lexus ES in Kentucky, while the next-gen EV version will be exported to the US from Japan.
In Europe, Toyota will launch the updated bZ4X, CH-R+, and Urban Cruisers by the end of the year. Three additional crossovers and SUVs are set to follow in 2026.
While we already know what most of those will looks like, the new crossover SUV doesn’t appear to be any of them. The spy photos from SH Proshots (via Autoevolution) show what looks to be the next-gen Toyota Venza, or the Harrier for those outside of the US.
You can tell it’s a bit taller and less aerodynamic than the electric crossover SUVs that Toyota showcased earlier this year.
The Venza was a bit of a step up from your average Toyota SUV with a more premium feel, but it was discontinued after the 2024 model year to make way for the Crown Signia.
Although Toyota has yet to reveal anything about the next-gen Venza, rumors suggest it will be built on the TNGA-K platform, which underpins the new RAV4. The platform is designed to open up interior space with a lower center of gravity.
Inside, you can expect to see Toyota’s latest Audio Multimedia system, which also debuted in the new RAV4. The setup includes a standard 10.5″ smartphone-like touchscreen infotainment or you can upgrade to the larger 12.9″ screen.
Given Toyota has yet to publicly announced the next-gen Venza, powertrain options is still up in the air. The report speculates it will arrive as a self-charging hybrid or plug-in hybrid (PHEV), or both.
Since it’s still in its early stages, the new model isn’t expected to launch until 2027. It could arrive as a 2028 model year in the US.
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