ExxonMobil Under Pressure From Senators and Scientists
By Shawnee Hoover, Exxpose Exxon
November 2, 2006 - In the midst of mid-term elections, Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) took time out last week to urge ExxonMobil to “come clean” about its funding of front groups that deceive the public about global warming and be a more responsible corporate actor. The letter came at the prompting of data shared with the Senators by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a core member of the Exxpose Exxon coalition.
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson has now received two critical letters from U.S. Senators and one from Britain’s world renowned science academy, the Royal Society, in less than six months. Not coincidentally, all three letters support the demands of the Exxpose Exxon campaign – either that ExxonMobil end its rogue policies on global warming or that it pay the punitive damages it owes to the victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The letter by Sens. Snowe and Rockefeller reflect Exxpose Exxon’s demand that ExxonMobil stop funding junk science as well as the Senators’ concerns that ExxonMobil’s tactics on global warming have jeopardized the international credibility and stature of the U.S. The U.S. and Australia are the only industrialized countries still refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Internal memos obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that ExxonMobil has been a close advisor of the Bush Administration on global warming.
Coverage by ABC News noted that the Congressional letter was issued just as dozens of major U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart, Citigroup and GE, were set to gather in New York to discuss their efforts to address global warming – a conference not likely attended by ExxonMobil.
