5 Key Takeaways From Rex Tillerson's Confirmation Hearing

4. Tillerson declined to endorse the Paris climate agreement.

Under Tillerson's leadership, Exxon issued several statements in support of the Paris climate agreement, which committed countries around the world to cutting emissions, with the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees or 2 degrees Celsius. However, Tillerson declined to explicitly endorse the Paris agreement during his confirmation hearing.

When initially asked about the agreement by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tillerson did not address the agreement specifically, but he did say that it's "important that the U.S. maintain a seat at the table on the conversations around how to address the threats of climate change, which do require a global response." But when asked about the agreement by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) later in the hearing, Tillerson left open the possibility of renegotiating—or even withdrawing from—the agreement, as InsideClimate News noted:

In case you missed it, Tillerson answered questions about whether the United States would remain in the Paris climate accord in a such a non-committal way that he left open the possibility for the Trump administration to ditch the agreement or pull out of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as some of the President's team have recommended.

Tillerson suggested that the "America First" motto that Trump ran on would be the main criterion in assessing participation in the global climate accord.

Responding to a question from Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey about staying in the accord, Tillerson said that Trump would conduct a thorough review of global and bilateral accords on climate and that he would make his views known to the new president, who has vowed to 'cancel' the agreement and who has most recently called climate change a 'hoax' invented by the Chinese to hobble American business. Tillerson did not say what his views or recommendations would be.

Tillerson then continued: "I also know that the president as part of his priority in campaigning was to put America first. So there's important considerations as we commit to such accords and as those accords are executed over time, are there any elements of that put America at a disadvantage?"

[...]

Markey then asked if it should be a priority of the U.S. to work with other countries to find solutions to that problem.

Tillerson answered: "It's important for America to remain engaged in those discussions so we are at the table expressing a view and understanding what the impacts may be on the American people and American competitiveness."

Trump has said that he would "renegotiate" or "cancel" the Paris agreement. He's also claimed since the election that he has an "open mind" about the agreement, but internal documents from Trump's transition team "show the new administration plans to stop defending the Clean Power Plan," which is the linchpin of the U.S.' emissions reduction commitments under the Paris agreement.

Some reporters are interpreting Tillerson's reference to a "seat at the table" as support for the Paris agreement, but his broad phrasing could also apply to seeking to rewrite the terms of the deal—or withdrawing from it altogether. Later in the hearing, Tillerson added that he believes it's important to have a "seat at the table" in order to "judge the level of commitment of the other 189 or so countries around the table and again adjust our own course accordingly."

5. Tillerson did not address climate change, oil or even Exxon itself in his opening remarks.

In their initial coverage of the Tillerson nomination, several major media outlets uncritically portrayed Tillerson as an advocate for action to combat climate change, despite his—and Exxon's—troubling track record on the issue. But when Tillerson was given the opportunity to outline his vision and priorities for the State Department during his opening statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he did not once mention climate change, lending credence to the contention of Tillerson's critics that his and Exxon's professed support for climate action "was all PR."

Tillerson's opening statement also neglected to mention oil or even Exxon itself, where Tillerson has worked for the last 41 years. That glaring omission hints at a lack of concern for crucial questions about whether Tillerson's oil industry experience prepares him to serve as America's top diplomat or whether, as The New Yorker's Steve Coll put it, he will be willing and able to "embrace a vision of America's place in the world that promotes ideals for their own sake, emphatically privileging national interests over private ones."

Watch the confirmation below:

Reposted with permission from our media associate Media Matters for America.