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Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., speaks during the 2022 CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas, on Monday, March 7, 2022.

F. Carter Smith | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump should keep the U.S. involved in global efforts to address climate change, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said Tuesday.

Trump should try to bring a “common sense” approach to the annual U.N. Climate Change Conference and “continue to have the U.S. influence policy around the world,” Woods told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday. Woods spoke from the climate conference, which kicked off this week in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement in 2017 and is expected to do so again in his second term. President Joe Biden signed an order to rejoin the agreement on his first day in office in 2021, a decision that Exxon supported.

Trump slammed the Paris agreement as “horribly unfair to the U.S.” and vowed to rescind all unspent funds under the Inflation Reduction Act in an address to the Economic Club of New York in September. He made energy policy a central part of his campaign platform, calling for unconstrained fossil fuel production.

Exxon has plans to invest $20 billion through 2027 in carbon capture and storage technology, hydrogen fuel, and lithium mining in the U.S. for electric vehicle batteries.

Woods told CNBC on Tuesday that Exxon’s investments in technologies to lower emissions depend on federal tax credits that were established or expanded under the IRA. He warned that the company’s investments in these technologies would change if the incentives are weakened or repealed.

“There needs to be an incentive to reward those investments and generate a return,” Woods said. “If we find that those incentives dissipate or go away entirely, then that would definitely change our investment plans.”

Wood previously said Exxon’s oil and gas production levels will not change, at least in the short term, in response to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

“I’m not sure how ‘drill, baby, drill’ translates into policy,” Woods told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Nov. 1, referencing one of Trump’s campaign slogans.

The CEO said Exxon has not faced constraints on its shale production under the Biden administration. Exxon’s production levels are based on how much money the company can return to shareholders, not which political party is on office, he said.

Exxon shares have risen more than 20% since the start of the year,

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Environment

State of the solar industry as GOP eliminates homeowner’s tax credits

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8 hours ago

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May 19, 2025

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State of the solar industry as GOP eliminates homeowner's tax credits

On today’s sunny side up episode of Quick Charge, we take a look at the latest from the world of solar power, and discuss Congressional Republicans’ plans to limit your energy independence by eliminating a critical tax credit for homeowners nearly ten years early. (!)

We’ve also got a quick review of a massive solar farm powering 200,000 homes in Indiana and the biggest solar project East of the Mississippi – both part of a record 98% of all new power generation and grid capacity introduced in 2025 coming from wind and solar. Those are jobs, those are lower utility rates, those are energy independence … so why are Congressional Republicans working to make that more expensive?

If you want to read that EnergySage report on the state of the home solar industry, including news about battery energy storage system and V2H/V2G prices and financing trends, you can check it out for yourself, below, then let us know what you think in the comments.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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Environment

Alphabet’s Waymo wins approval to expand driverless ride-hailing service to San Jose

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8 hours ago

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May 19, 2025

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Alphabet's Waymo wins approval to expand driverless ride-hailing service to San Jose

A Waymo autonomous vehicle drives along Masonic Avenue on April 11, 2022 in San Francisco, California. 

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Alphabet’s Waymo unit has received approval to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Jose.

In March, the company submitted a request to the California Public Utilities Commission to gain approval for its latest passenger safety plan, a key step in gaining permission to operate driverless vehicles across a broader area. On Monday, the proposed expansion was approved, allowing for Waymo’s driverless coverage to extend from San Francisco down through the Peninsula.

“We’re very excited to share that the CPUC has approved our application to operate our fully autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in the South Bay and nearly all of San Jose!” the company wrote in a post on X on Monday. “While this won’t change our operations in the near-term, we’re looking forward to bringing the benefits of Waymo One to more of the Bay Area in the future.”

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

Waymo is a bright spot in the Google story, says Truist's Youssef Squali

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Environment

Trump reversal revives Empire Wind, NY’s offshore energy giant

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8 hours ago

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May 19, 2025

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Trump reversal revives Empire Wind, NY’s offshore energy giant

Trump Empire Wind
Image: Empire Wind

The $5 billion Empire Wind is back in business. The Trump administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has lifted its stop-work order for Empire Wind, a major offshore wind project off the coast of New York led by Empire Offshore Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Equinor. Construction is now allowed to resume.

Equinor CEO Anders Opedal welcomed the news, saying the restart reinforces Equinor’s commitment to delivering clean energy while supporting local economies and saving thousands of jobs. He also credited a wide coalition of officials for helping get the project back on track, including Trump, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and congressional leaders like Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Dan Goldman. Opedal also thanked the Norwegian prime minister and the minister of finance for raising the issue with the US administration.

Governor Hochul said in a statement that “countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials” had taken place.

Neither the BOEM nor the Department of the Interior has issued a comment.

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The Trump administration halted construction of the 54-turbine Empire Wind on April 16, but discussions between Equinor, regulators, and leaders at the federal, state, and city levels led to a reversal. That means Empire Wind can now push ahead with its goal of powering 500,000 New York homes with offshore wind energy.

“This project delivers on the energy ambitions shared by the US and New York by providing a vital new source of power to the region,” said Molly Morris, president of Equinor Wind US. She added that Empire Wind is boosting supply chain investments across the country, with activity in New York, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, and South Carolina.

Equinor plans to reassess the project’s financials in the second quarter. The goal is still to install turbines offshore in 2025 and hit full commercial operation by 2027. The company says it will work with suppliers and regulators to minimize any delays from the month-long pause.

Empire Wind was first awarded its offshore lease in 2017 after a competitive federal process. It received its final construction green light in early 2024 following an extensive environmental review. Construction kicked off shortly after, and the project is now over 30% complete.

The US is a major market for Equinor. The Norwegian energy giant says it has invested around $60 billion in US energy projects since the early 2000s, more recently in low-carbon solutions, critical minerals, and renewables. Empire Wind is one of its flagship projects in the US.

Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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