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Exxon Still Rich and Still Double-Crossing on Global Warming

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oilmoney.jpgExxpose Exxon urges people to tell CEO Rex Tillerson how Exxon could better spend its profits!

ExxonMobil announced today that it made $39.5 billion in profits last year, breaking its own world record for 2005 of $36.1 billion – the most profits ever made by a company in a single year!

Unfortunately, CEO Rex Tillerson is poised to pump most of that money right back into polluting oil and gas projects, lobbying against solutions to global warming, and funding front groups and junk science.

Wrapping one’s mind around the number $39.5 billion is not easy.

Think of it this way, if ExxonMobil invested less than one month of its 2006 profits in renewable energy like wind, solar, or biomass, it would have more than doubled all federal spending last year on renewable energy, fuel efficiency and alternative fuels combined ($1.8 bn).

Unlike its competitors, ExxonMobil is avidly opposed to renewable energy. In Davos last week, CEO Rex Tillerson told the business crowd that “even if renewable energy production grows at double digit rates, it will remain less than 2 percent of world energy supplies.” Current calculations by the Renewable Energy Policy Network calculate that renewable energy already supplies roughly 4 percent of world power.

That ExxonMobil’s predictions on renewable energy are notoriously off-base is not surprising given that up until just recently ExxonMobil has denied that global warming is even a serious problem.

Now, after being battered for a year and a half by hundreds of thousands of Exxpose Exxon activists and coalition members, ExxonMobil has begun to shift its rhetoric – not its policies, but its rhetoric.

The good news is that Exxon finally admitted recently that somebody should do something about global warming. The bad news is they refuse to recognize that they are that somebody.

While ExxonMobil is changing nuances of its language to try to remedy its PR problem, it is still funding scores of front groups that mislead the public about global warming. It is also still opposing mandatory reductions of global warming pollution.

Meanwhile, ten corporate giants, including Duke Energy, GE, Alcoa, PG&E and oil giant BP, announced last week their broad support for mandatory reductions of global warming pollution. ExxonMobil, who typically outspends its competitors in the industry on lobbyists, reiterated its intentions to continue lobbying against such solutions.

After intense pressure from activists, scientists and policy makers and wide coverage of a 2007 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, ExxonMobil told the Wall Street Journal that it stopped funding “five or six” front groups that deny the science of global warming.

Ending funding for “five or six” out of over 40 groups is far from a policy change. Exxpose Exxon quickly sent ExxonMobil a letter asking the company to disclose the names of the groups and to clarify its actual position on funding junk science. Exxon did not respond.

The fact is, ExxonMobil is going to be hard-pressed to convince America that it is concerned about global warming when it is still funding scores of front groups and think tanks that put out disinformation on global warming science and policy.

What’s important now is that we step up the pressure on ExxonMobil.

Join Exxpose Exxon in demanding that ExxonMobil stop double-crossing America on global warming by saying it cares while continuing business as usual.

Exxon needs to stop opposing mandatory reductions of GHG emissions, stop funding front groups and junk science, invest in renewable energy, pull out of Arctic Power and leave the Arctic Refuge alone, and pay the punitive damages to the victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Join us in using your digital camera or cell phone camera to send CEO Rex Tillersona personal message telling him how Exxon could help to solve global warming!

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  1. GroovyGreen.com - Start Today :: Save Tomorrow : Blog Archive : Groovy Contributor Helps Blows Lid Off Climate Change Debunking Scheme said,

    February 2, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    [...] With so many authors in the group, it comes as no surprise from time to time to see someone making waves elsewhere on the web. Such is the case this evening of spotting Shawnee Hoover’s name while reading an amazing article on CNN. Shawnee has only been with Groovy for a few days, but most people would probably recognize her work as campaign director for the activist site, ExxposeExxon. Her recent post of Exxon’s profits and a warning not to fully trust their ‘environmental outreach’ was nearly prophetic with news that broke today of their involvement in a climate change debunking effort. From the CNN article, [...]

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