My Date With The Giant: ExxonMobil Responds to Global Warming Report and Allegations
ExxonMobil was recently scorched in the spotlight when an article in the UK newspaper the Guardian tied the planet’s largest corporation to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a vehemently free-market, right-leaning organization that tried to pay scientists and economists to author articles casting doubt on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) global warming report. This didn’t surprise many people, as Exxon has never had a reputation of being green or progressive on global warming solutions.
But can Exxon defend itself? Has it joined the rest of the world in recognizing global warming is happening? If so, what are its plans to slow it?
I had the privilege of participating in two telephone news conferences with ExxonMobil’s Vice President of Public Affairs, Ken Cohen, to answer some of these questions. Other bloggers on the call were Jesse Jenkins from Watthead, Tom Yulsman from Prometheus, Susan Smith from the Environmental Law Prof Blog, and Stuart Staniford from The Oil Drum. One call took place on January 26, a week before the IPCC report was released. The next happened on February 2, the day the IPCC report and the Guardian article came out. This post is the first of a 2-part series on Exxon’s response to the allegations in the Guardian, its position on global warming, and what it thinks should be done about it.
I went in with an open mind: To be sure, Exxon was making a concerted effort to reach out to the blogosphere and discuss its position on global warming – that in itself was big news. But I also expected some real answers that would give me at least a glimmer of hope that this behemoth was taking decisive action.
“The IPCC report is the best compilation of the thinking on the subject,” Cohen told us, insisting that Exxon takes global warming very seriously and has in fact recognized the problem for twenty years. He spelled it out further:
Is the climate warming? Yes. Are CO2 emissions up? Yes, they’ve never been as high as they’ve been [now]. Man’s use of fossil fuels and land use changes and other human activity contribute to that CO2 rise.
So did ExxonMobil fund AEI to muddle the dialogue on global warming?
“We had no knowledge that this was going on,” insisted Cohen. He explained that Exxon funds a lot of different groups, and “when we fund them, we want good analysis." Exxon does not condone what AEI did, but Cohen confirmed that it does continues to fund AEI, although other groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute are not funded by them anymore.
Cohen assured us that Exxon is “trying to be a constructive player in the policy discussion and not associate [themselves] with those that are marginalized and are not welcome in that discussion.” The IPCC report “is what it is,” and Exxon does not believe in engaging in scientific research that preordains an answer. Cohen:
…that's the issue with AEI: Are they preordaining an answer?…I can understand taking a market approach or a government interventionist approach, but this is not a question of trying to find who’s right or who’s wrong. Let’s let the process work.
But, I asked, how can you grant AEI nearly two million dollars and not know what they’re doing with the money? Turns out that Exxon conveniently funds the “general operations” of AEI, not specific programs that would allow them to track how the money is being used. Perhaps Exxon needs to think hard next time before it funds an organization so clearly disinterested in constructive solutions.
Cohen was consistently explicit in Exxon's position that global warming is happening and mainly caused by human activities. If that is true, then how will Exxon fight the huge misperception that it’s still the planet's largest naysayer? Cohen conceded that the company needed to do a better job of communicating its position on global warming, rather than allowing a fact sheet or news release on their website to do the work.
Jesse Jenkins asked whether it would consider joining the new U.S. Climate Energy Action Partnership, a coalition of major corporations and environmental organizations calling for federal carbon dioxide regulation. When Cohen answered this question in our first conference call, he seemed cool to the idea, pointing out that Exxon is already part of many global warming discussion groups and that some of their scientists participate in the IPCC. However, Cohen brought the idea up himself on our second call, this time saying that the Partnership is a group “…that we might join and participate in the discussions – if they’ll have us.”
Coming up Thursday: What is Exxon doing to mitigate its contributions to global warming? Which policies and market-based solutions does it think would be the most effective? How is Exxon staying market-competitive in a shifting energy system?
CBS News.com
News Release: ExxonMobil's response to publication of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report of Climate Science
News Release: Addressing the Risks of Climate Change: ExxonMobil's Views and Actions
The Guardian: Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study
February 6th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Maria,
I want to follow-up on your comments relating to AEI.
As you note, over the past few days we have been responding to grossly inaccurate media stories that suggested a link between the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and ExxonMobil regarding scientific reviews of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. The initial story by The Guardian implied a direct association between the serious allegations made against AEI and our company. It singled out ExxonMobil alone among the thousands of individuals and companies that contribute to the AEI and, therefore, led readers to believe that ExxonMobil contributions somehow were linked to AEI’s alleged actions. Subsequent media outlets then picked up on this inaccurate story - and some actually embellished on the initial inaccurate story. None of these outlets, including The Guardian, ever bothered to contact us to fact check their story. These stories are untrue. ExxonMobil has never sought to influence scientists’ views on the IPCC report, nor has it ever encouraged the AEI do so. ExxonMobil's annual contributions to AEI amount to less than .05% of AEI's annual budget.
We are contacting all media outlets that ran the inaccurate story. We are taking issue with the fact that no one from any these media outlets contacted anyone from ExxonMobil to ask about these allegations despite the mention of our company in their erroneous reports.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
Ken Cohen
February 7th, 2007 at 7:58 am
while Mr. Cohen is making the effort to clarify the scale of Exxon-Mobile's financial relationship with AEI, it would be nice to find out whether the .05% number he cites is a typo, or whether the $2 million number cited in the article is overstated.
As I calculate it, if $2 million equals .05%, then AEI's annual budget is $4 billion, an improbable number. So one figure or the other is in need of fact checking.
If what Mr. Cohen meant to say is 5% (implying a more comprehensible annual budget for AEI of $40 million), that amount probably puts Exxon-Mobile at or near the top of AEI's donor list ande may therefore arguably be enough to influence how AEI thinks about issues of interest to Exxon-Mobile, whether those concerns are made explicit to them or not.
In that case, I'm not sure that Mr. Cohen will have successded in his attempt to make a 'common sense' case for the public concluding that nothing intellectually dishonest has been going on.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Our annual contributions to AEI amount to less than one-half of one percent of AEI's annual budget. We are long time supporters of AEI, and we publish our contributions each year on on our internet site.
ExxonMobil's position on climate change continues to be misunderstood by some individuals and groups.
I will once again state our position:There is increasing evidence that the earth's climate has warmed on average about 0.7 C in the last century. Many global ecosystems, especially the polar areas, are showing signs of warming. CO2 emissions have increased during this same time period - and emissions from fossil fuels and land use changes are one source of these emissions. Climate remains today an extraordinarily complex area of scientific study. But the risks to society and ecosystems could prove to be significant - so despite the areas of uncertainty that do exist, it is prudent to develop and implement strategies that address the risks, keeping in mind the central importance of energy to the economies of the world. This includes putting policies in place that start us on a path to reduce emissions, while understanding the context of managing carbon emissions among other important world priorities, such as economic development, poverty eradication and public health.
February 7th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Hi Ken, it is lovely to hear that Exxon wants to put policies in place to reduce emissions. Given that this obviously means reducing the fossil oil side of your business (which, lets be honest, is your business) as it is the source of these emissions, when are you going to start the incredibly expensive job of doing this?
I mean, it's lovely to say that you don't want to damage the environment, but these words are worthless unless you start spending more money on alternative fuel research than you do on seeking new oilfields. That is the bottom line. All else is greenwash.
On the subject of the AEI story you seem to imply that Exxon's financial relationship with this organisation is the sum total of it's influence over it and that Exxon really has very little clue about what the AEI may or may not be up to. Given that Lee R. Raymond (Exxon CEO 1993-2005, Chairman 1999-2005, president since 1987 and a director since 1984) is the Vice-Chairman of the AEI's board of trustees, I find this to be a highly unlikely state of affairs and suspect you of being more than a little economic with the truth.
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