Occidental Petroleum Claims Green Push ‘Does More Than Tesla’

Occidental Petroleum Corp., a longstanding titan of the U.S. oil sector, says it is doing more than Tesla to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as it seeks to build up its carbon management business in response to investor demands over climate change.

Vicki Hollub, Occidental’s CEO, said the amount of CO₂ the company pumped back underground in the oil extraction process exceeded the electric-car maker’s contribution towards decarbonizing the atmosphere through switching people away from combustion engines.

“What we’re sequestering today takes essentially about 4 million cars off the road on an annual basis,” Hollub told the Financial Times. “It does more than what Tesla’s doing right now—although we need Tesla to continue what they’re doing. It’s going to take everything.”