Trump to meet with ExxonMobil chief executive: Update
Adds information about meeting with former vice president Gore
President-elect Donald Trump is taking meetings with ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson and former Democratic vice president Al Gore as he prepares to transition into the White House.
Trump today held a meeting with Gore, who transition team said came to New York City to discuss "climate issues" with Trump's 35-year-old daughter and business executive Ivanka Trump. Gore, who was vice president between 1993 and 2001, has been a leading advocate behind taking action to cut the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.
Gore said he spent the "bulk of the time" today with the president-elect, who has previously said he was skeptical of climate change science and has vowed to pull the US out of the global climate agreement countries reached last year in Paris. Gore said he found it to be an "extremely interesting conversation" but did not say what they had discussed.
The meeting with Tillerson is scheduled for tomorrow. Transition team officials have not said if the president-elect was considering offering the ExxonMobil executive a role in his administration. But the meeting comes as Trump has been meeting with candidates for US secretary of state and other cabinet-level positions. Trump has vowed to fill his cabinet with business executives and those outside of Washington, DC.
ExxonMobil declined to comment on the meeting.
Tillerson became chief executive of ExxonMobil in 2006 and previously managed the company's holdings in Russia and the Caspian sea. ExxonMobil had to abandon its Arctic joint venture with state-owned Rosneft when the US imposed sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Tillerson earlier this year said Exxon would resume its partnership with Rosneft once the sanctions came to an end.
Trump's transition team is planning other high-profile meetings this week.
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Industry decarbonization talks mark progress: EDF
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Fed rate cuts 'no bearing' for CCUS: NET Power
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Small private Libyan firm exports oil through blockade
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