XOM Exxon Mobil Corp

By Thomas Gryta and Bradley Olson 

General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt defended efforts to reduce emissions and fight climate change, after President Donald Trump reversed rules that pushed U.S. utilities to use cleaner-burning fuels.

In a blog post to employees Wednesday, Mr. Immelt highlighted the administration's move and said climate change "should be addressed on a global basis through multinational agreements" such as the 2015 Paris Agreement. The U.S. hasn't withdrawn from that agreement, but the executive order on Tuesday fed concerns that the pact's targets will be hard to reach.

"We believe climate change is real and the science is well accepted," Mr. Immelt wrote. "We hope that the United States continues to play a constructive role in furthering solutions to these challenges."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has voiced support for President Trump's new policy, saying fewer regulations would lower domestic energy costs and spur economic growth. But many big U.S. corporations, from candy maker Mars Inc. to oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp., have pledged continued support for the Paris Agreement and efforts to reduce emissions.

"The science is clear and unambiguous: Climate change is real and human activity is a factor," closely held Mars said in a statement this week, adding it was "disappointed the administration has decided to roll back climate regulations."

On Tuesday, the world's biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, committed to get 100% of its global electricity from renewable sources by 2025. "Cutting back on fossil fuels is good for the environment and good for business," CEO Carlos Brito said.

GE's Mr. Immelt has managed to avoid conflict with President Trump, who has been known to lash out at companies, especially on Twitter. The GE leader, who visited the White House in February, supports some administration policy plans, such as revising the tax code. At the same time, he has defended globalization amid nationalistic and protectionist trends in many countries.

In the post, Mr. Immelt said companies have to "have their own 'foreign policy'" and "learn to adjust to political volatility all over the world."

GE sells turbines for coal- and gas-fired power plants as well as wind turbines. It has a business unit called Current that is focused on energy savings. He said the conglomerate has spent $20 billion on research into reducing emissions, improving energy efficiency and cutting cost since 2005.

Mr. Trump's order begins a review of former President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, which would have required utilities to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants to 32% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods has also publicly supported the Paris climate deal. Shortly after taking over from Rex Tillerson, who stepped down to become U.S. secretary of state, Mr. Woods wrote in a blog post that "climate risks warrant action and it's going to take all of us -- business, governments and consumers -- to make meaningful progress." The Paris deal is "an effective framework" for dealing with rising emissions, he said.

Days before the executive order, Exxon reiterated this position in a letter to White House energy adviser George David Banks. Exxon supports the deal in part because it includes pledges to reduce emissions from most of the world's countries, unlike the 1997 Kyoto Protocol climate deal, the letter said.

"We believe that the United States is well positioned to compete within the framework of the Paris Agreement, with abundant low-carbon resources such as natural gas," Peter Trelenberg, an Exxon manager of environmental policy and planning, said in the March 22 letter.

A number of bigger oil and gas companies have given at least tacit support to the Paris deal because they foresee natural gas benefitting from a possible carbon tax or similar steps to put a price on carbon. Smaller U.S. energy producers have praised the administration's steps to roll back limits on the emission of methane -- a greenhouse gas believed to be more potent than carbon dioxide -- during oil and gas production.

Annie Gasparro and Jennifer Maloney contributed to this article.

Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com and Bradley Olson at Bradley.Olson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.