Say that you are the best msnbc host ever created by god. God created you, chris, to be here. Thank you, michael. Ec baldwin should be looking over his shoulder. No way. I was not lying, actually. That was me being nice. That is all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Good evening, rachel. I dont take it personal at all. It was an impression. It was the voice of a certain hyperbolic character. I dont mind, doesnt bother me at all, which im sure you can tell. Thanks, my friend. Thanks, michael. And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Heres the story. In march of this past year there was an explosion in pasadena, texas. Pasadena, texas, is about 11 miles outside of houston. There was a big explosion followed by a fire. Smoke and flames could be seen for miles around. Look at that. The whole neighborhood around this fire and explosion had to
be evacuated. Even the houston ship channel, the Freeway Onramp for all american oil, it had to be shut down, the whole ship channel. It was not exactly National News when this happened in pasadena, texas in march. It was a big deal. Locally it was a really big deal. A plume of smoke and fire at the prsi refinery, serious enough to shut down the Washburn Tunnel and ship traffic on the channel for a time. Serious enough to recommend a neighborhood nearby evacuate. From sky eyes perspective, the area of the refinery where the explosion and then fire happened, an operator in the area was injured. That was coverage from the local abc station in houston at the time of this refinery explosion in march. Thankfully it was only one person who was hurt in this blast but it was big enough, scary enough, you can see it fr this local coverage. Wascary enough that it put a spotlight on that plant and
not in a good way. Part of what turned up in the local coverage of the aftermath of that explosion and fire was the bad record at that plant. They had a bad safety record. In 2015, 17 plants in and around pasadena, texas, reported on their Workplace Injuries for the year, almost a third of all the Workplace Injuries for that year came from that one plant. Out of 17 plants who were reporting. After that explosion and that fire in march, the Houston Chronicle further dug in. They found that on the day that explosion happened, that plant was not legally operating. It was its permit to operate under the Clean Air Act expired. They were running the plant anyway on the day the plant blew up. All of that bad press, all of that, im sure, very unwelcome scrutiny came amidst an even larger overarching scandal, actually an International Scandal involving that plant and the company that owns it. You heard that local news clip described as the prsi refinery. Its actually run, its parent company, is a Company Called petrobras, petrobras bought that refinery from another oil company back in 2006. The interesting thing about them buying it, the scandal about them buying it, is that when they bought it they really, really overpaid. They obviously overpaid, they paid 1. 2 billion for that refinery when nobody thought it was worth 1. 2 billion. Why would a company radically overpay for anything . Why would an oil company radically overpay for this Refinery Plant in pasadena, texas. Well take one guess. The company in question here, petrobras, its a staterun company, the government of brazil owns petrobras. That has practical implications. Are government owned country. Saudia ramco, petrobras, pemex. That comes in very handy for those companies. Its particularly handy for corruption i mean efficiency. I mean, think about it, you need Policy Decision made to clear the way for you to, i dont know, buy an asset somewhere or make some sort of deal . You dont have to bother lobbying for it. If you are the oil company and you are also the government, what are you going to do, lobby yourself . Dont bother, you are one in the same, just do it. They all pull in the same direction. Having a governmentrun oil company is also a great way for particular politicians and particular governments to stay in power. That governmentrun oil company in mexico, again, secondlargest company of any kind on that
continent, theyve been accused of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars back to the ruling party, the Governing Party back in mexico. And why not . Governing party is controlling the oil company, why wouldnt they arrange for the oil company to fund them . Its a nice system if you can get in on it. Oil companies, particularly big Oil Companies, they mint money. If youre in charge of a government that has one of those, i mean, thats a great way to enrich yourself. Thats a great way to pay off and reward people for doing what you want. Sometimes you can even do it legally with your governmentowned oil company. I mean, if you have something as big and rich and rosneft at your disposal where you get to control whos in charge of it and who gets what pieces of it and what that company does, frankly, you could make everybody you know as rich as you want to make them. Rosneft becoming a massive cash machine at Vladimir Putins dispos disposal, that explains as much as anything how he has held on
to power for these past 17 years. You can see why governments, particularly corrupt or kleptocrat i cklept kleptocratic governments, you can see why they might find it handy to have a staterun oil company. You can also see why staterun Oil Companies are such a source of corrupt power and since staterun Oil Companies tend to get something approaching Monopoly Control over oil in these big countries, its easy to see how all the biggest Oil Companies on the face of the earth end up being this kind of oil company. End up being these companies that are attached to a government. Oil company that is state run. All of the biggest Oil Companies are earth are staterun companies. All of them. Except for one. The biggest nongovernment owned oil company in the world, the Biggest Oil Company on earth thats not part of one countrys government well, today their ceo took a giant step toward becoming the Secretary Of State of our government in the united
states. Maybe. Probably. But maybe. And heres one thing i think its worth appreciating about why this is happening. Exxonmobil is based in texas but obviously and famously they drill for oil all around the world. Wall st journal did a ve useful profile on exxon a couple days ago that laid this out really nicely. It laid out exxons global reach, where they are already invested, where they have spent exxon money in the hopes those investments will pay off because theyll be able to get oil out of the ground in those countries. And exxons interests span the globe. So, for example, papua, new guinea, which is like as far away from here as you can get, righ right . Papua new guinea, a very remote country, very inaccessible in terms of its infrastructure. Exxon has the rights to drill about 1. 1 million acres of land in papua, new guinea. Exxon has rights to drill
another 1. 1 million acres in nigeria. They also have a bunch of rights now in places you might not expect. You wouldnt think of as oilproducing companies, but in the Netherlands Exxon has the rights to drill about 1. 5 million acres. Another million and a half acres in australia. In germany, of all places, they have the rights to drill on just under five million acres in germany. In canada theyve got a bunch. Canada just under Seven Million acres. Theyve got rights to drill tons of acreage here in the United States. Look at this. This is according to the wall street journal this week. Exxon has rights to drill on roughly 14 million acres in the United States. Thats a lot. Thats, like, two marylands, almost two marylands. Its more than two vermonts, though, i did the math. Thats a lot of Acreage Exxon has a right to drill in the United States and look at how much it outpaces all of exxons other Worldwide Holdings right now. Interesting, right . Huge, right . Until you see this. Yeah. Kind of an ahha moment, right . That line at the top there . Thats exxons holdings in russia compared to their other holdings all over the world. Thats the number of acres they have right to drill in russia. And heres the really, really important part. Do you want to know where exxon is not able to drill . They are not able to drill, despite those holdings, they are not able to drill in russia. This is also from the wall street journal. This is the number of wells exxon was actually able to drill in 2015 in all the places where theyve got these international rights. Mostly, as you can see, the big dot there, they were able to drill in the United States, they were able to drill lots of wells in canada as well. Thats the nextbiggest dot there. But look at russia. Can you not see it . Put on your glasses. Its red and to the left of the United States. Look at the number of wells they were actually able to drill in
russia in 2015 compared to their Drilling Rights in that country. You want to know why they cant drill in russia despite the rights they have purchased to drill in russia . The reason they cant freaking drill them, the reason they cant get their money out of their Huge Investment theyve made in that country is because in our country the government is not the same thing as the Biggest Oil Company in our country. In the United States we do not have an integrated oil company and federal government the way they do in brazil and mexico and saudi arabia and kuwait and the way we got all the other biggest Oil Companies in the world. And exxon cant get its return on its investment. They cant get their money out of russia. Right . They cant cash in on what theyve invested in russia because the u. S. Government made a determination that it was in the national interest, the National Security interest of our country to put sanctions on
russia that preclude doing that kind of business. When our government made the decision to sanction russia, that really, really cramp it had style of exxon. That really threw a huge wrench in their works because look at their investment in russia compared to other countries around the world in terms of where they have rights to drill. This is how they set themselves up under Ceo Rex Tillerson. Under Ceo Rex Tillerson they made a half trillion dollar deal in russia to drill the arctic. It was going to be a partnership with the russian stateowned kremlincontrolled oil company rosneft. Half trillion dollar deal. That was going to make exxon and russia and Vladimir Putin specifically hundreds of millions of dollars. Perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars. They signed that deal in 2011. They actually struck oil in the arctic in 2014. Just in time for the u. S. Government to say nope, youre out. Were kiboshing the deal, were putting a halt to all of it because were putting these sanctions on russia for their behavior. Russia loves exxon. Exxon partnering with russias staterun oil company, thats what brought their staterun oil company into the 21st century. Thats what made russias staterun oil company technologically capable. Exxon is who taught them how to drill oil in hardtoreach places because russias oil is in hardtoreach places. Exxon partnering with russias staterun oil company made that staterun oil company very effective and very rich. So russia loves exxon. Exxon loves russia back because common bet on russia in a huge way under Rex Tillerson in terms of where they are planning on drilling their oil for the foreseeable decades. What they did under tillerson a few year ago was the Biggest Oil Deal in the history of the world. And it got stopped by a Policy Decision made by the United States government. Exxon needs the United States government to change that Policy Decision. Exxon needs the United States government to change americas position overall about russia. Simply so exxon can freaking drill over there. So they can recoup their Giant Investment in that country which outweighs what they are doing anywhere else in the world. They made a huge bet and theyre going to lose it unless they get this change from the u. S. Government. This is trilliondollar math that all depends on the u. S. Government getting in line with what exxon needs to do. And so exxon is now on the verge of installing its ceo as the head of Foreign Policy in the United States. So, i think you can probably understand, mr. Tillerson, why some of us are very concerned about the President Elects statements praising Vladimir Putins leadership, his intelligence, including after
being reminded of his ruthless persecution of political enemies and after receiving compelling information that russia has interfered with our elections. So do you think now is the right time to lift sanctions against russia . I think its important that we keep the status quo until we are able to develop what our approach is going to be. That it will be all part of the approach. What do you think the approach is going to be . Exxon Ceo Rex TillersonFacing Questioning today from New Hampshire democratic senator jean jean shaheen. The Big Political News out of this hearing today was not necessarily the tough questioning that Rex Tillerson got from democrats. The Big Political News out of the hearing was the contentious backandforth that happened between exxon Ceo Rex Tillerson and a republican senator by the name of marco rubio. The democrats gave tillerson
tons of hard questions today but the reason its so important that he also fought today with republican senator marco rubio is that if a republican decides to vote against tillerson, that conceivably would be enough to stop his nomination. Thats the math on the committee, as long as all the other democrats, as long as all the democrats voted no as well, one republican no vote could stop him. Reporter have you decided how youre going to vote . Did he answer your questions adequately about russia in particular . Many of his answers were concerning to me. But theres a chance now to submit some questions in writing which well do as well. Ill consider everything and read through it and ill make a decision here very soon. Reporter are you leaning one way or another . I wouldnt characterize it that way quite yet. Its clear im concerned about some of his answers and i recognize the split on the committee and what it would mean so i have to make sure that im 100 behind whatever decision i make, because once i make it reporter because if you make
the decision and vote against him you could stall this nomination. Are you prepared to be the one republican to vote no . Im prepared to do whats right. If marco rubio does vote no on putting the ceo of exxon in charge of the state department, and if all the democrats on that committee voted no as well, Rex Tillersons nomination presumably would be over. And that would be a very dramatic development. It would not be quite as dramatic as the u. S. Government merging in a large way with our nations largest oil company, but it would be pretty dramatic on its own terms. So weve got eyes on that tonight. Imagine the lobbying that marco rubio is being subjected to right now as we speak. There were incredibly dramatic developments in that story today. There were dramatic developments today on ethics as well, including the office of Government Ethics coming out on his own terms and making a pronouncement about the President Elect that nobody saw
coming. We also got a health scare in the capitol tonight. One member of congress reportedly collapsing and being taken out of the capitol on a stretcher and being hospitalized. Weve got the latest details on that. Theres a lot to come tonight. This is not a time to stop paying attention. Stay with us. Americans 83 try to eat healthy. Yet up 90 fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. Lets do more. Add one a day mens complete with key nutrients we may need. Plus hearthealth support with b vitamins. One a day mens in gummies and tablets. Its not just a car. Its your daily retreat. Go ahead, spoil yourself. The es and es hybrid. This is the pursuit of perfection. Tadirectv now. Stream all your entertainment anywhere anytime can we lose the all. Theres no cbs and we dont have a ton of sports. Anywhere, any. Lets lose the anywhere, anytime too. You cant download onthego, theres no dvr, yada yada yada. Stream some stuff somewhere sometimes you totally nailed that buddy. Simple. Dont let directv