The Climate Leadership Council suspended ExxonMobil’s membership in the group it helped found, Bloomberg and others reported Friday. CLC’s decision to suspend Exxon’s membership follows leaked audio of an Exxon lobbyist boasting that the oil major publicly supported a carbon tax — the main policy goal of the CLC — because it believed such a tax would never be enacted and its support is “a great talking point.”

Exxon was already under mounting pressure to prove its climate proclamations were more than greenwashing — especially given the defeat of three management-backed candidates in May by nominees put forward by an activist hedge fund — and is reportedly considering a plan to reach net-zero carbon pollution by 2050. (CLC suspension: Bloomberg $, E&E $, Axios, Politico Pro $, The Hill; 2050: Wall Street Journal $, E&E $, Earther)