Sierra Club / Union of Concerned Scientists – 2005-07-13 23:19:05
http://www.sierraclub.org/exxposeexxon
(July 12, 2005) — The Sierra Club applauds the launch of Ford’s new hybrid, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid SUV, and encourages Ford to put this gas-saving technology to work in all of their vehicles. “If we can work with Ford to make their Mercury Hybrid a hit, Ford will be convinced that you can make money and make a vehicle that’s clean.”
— Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club’s Global Warming program.
http://www.sierraclub.org/exxposeexxon
Exxpose Exxon
Global warming pollution is on the rise, gasoline prices are skyrocketing, and our elected officials are eying pristine wilderness areas for oil drilling. These are all symptoms of a failed energy strategy, one that has profound consequences for America’s national security, consumers, and the environment. ExxonMobil is a chief architect and supporter of this failed energy policy.
For years, one company has led the charge to deny the existence of global warming and fund $15 million in junk science to cloud the policy debate. One company has refused to invest serious funds in clean energy technologies, despite raking in record profits at the expense of the American consumer. One company has persisted in pushing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, when all other companies have pulled out of the pro-drilling coalition.
ExxonMobil is making record-breaking profits because of high-gasoline prices but refuses to invest that windfall in renewable energy to ease America’s oil dependence.
Despite its record profits, ExxonMobil refuses to pay $4 billion in punitive damages to fisherman, natives, and others harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.
ExxonMobil is the only oil company remaining in Arctic Power, the single issue lobbying group dedicated to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
ExxonMobil actively opposes efforts to cut global warming pollution and funds junk science to cloud the facts about this urgent problem.
Today, we are joining our colleagues in the environmental and public health communities in an unprecedented campaign to Exxpose Exxon. We invite you to join this effort by sending a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond–it’s time to reject the reckless energy policies of the past and start moving America toward a cleaner energy future!
Send a letter to:
Mr. Lee Raymond, CEO ExxonMobil
Subject: Cleaner Energy for America!
Dear Mr. Raymond,
Our country is overly dependent on oil. This has serious consequences ranging from rising gasoline prices that burden every American to global warming that threatens current and future generations. This addiction to oil represents a failed energy strategy, one that your company not only supports but has helped to develop. I am most disturbed by:
• ExxonMobil’s active support of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge;
• ExxonMobil’s efforts to block meaningful action to cut global warming pollution and its funding of junk science to hide the real facts about global warming;
• ExxonMobil’s decision to forgo investment in clean energy solutions–despite your record profits at a time of rising gasoline prices;
• ExxonMobil’s failure to pay all of the punitive damages awarded to fishermen and others injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
ExxonMobil represents yesterday’s energy policy. I would rather spend my money and time moving forward, not backward. Therefore, I will not purchase ExxonMobil’s gas or products, invest in ExxonMobil stock, or work for the company.
Instructions:
on this issue or choose the “Reply to Sender” option on your email program.
What’s At Stake:
Exposing and changing ExxonMobil’s irresponsible and deceptive behavior is the mission of “Exxpose Exxon,” a new campaign sponsored by a coalition of America’s largest public interest and environmental groups. The campaign launched today with over 50 events outside ExxonMobil service stations around the country as well as online at www.ExxposeExxon.com.
ExxposeExxon.com sheds light on the environmental track record of the world’s largest and most profitable oil company, ExxonMobil. The list of misdeeds includes actively lobbying Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, opposing efforts to cut global warming pollution, and shirking full payment on the damages due to fishermen and natives harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
“For years, ExxonMobil has intentionally put its own profits above a clean environment and the health of America’s families. As a result, we are asking all Americans not to buy ExxonMobil’s gas or products, invest in the company, or work for ExxonMobil,” stated the ExxposeExxon.com campaign coalition in a letter sent today to Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil’s CEO.
Exxon Mobil Becomes Focus of a Boycott
Felicity Barringer / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 11 – A coalition of environmental and liberal lobbying groups is planning a boycott of Exxon Mobil products to protest the company’s challenges to warnings about global warming and its support for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The boycott is part of a public relations campaign to brand Exxon Mobil, the nation’s biggest oil company, as an “outlaw,” the groups say.
A spokesman for Exxon Mobil said in an e-mail message that the company did recognize the risk of climate change. The spokesman, Russ Roberts, said Exxon Mobil had committed to “investments and strategic planning that address emissions today, as well as industry-leading research on technologies with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future.”
But the company has also supported groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, whose work has challenged some generally accepted scientific models that predict the speed of climate change and the severity of its consequences.
On the question of Arctic drilling, Mr. Roberts wrote, “We believe that with more than 30 years of industry experience on Alaska’s North Slope and with recent technological advancements, ANWR can be developed with little threat to the ecology of the coastal plain.”
Energy enterprises have long provoked environmentalists’ opposition over specific projects. But it has been a long time since one has been the target of a nationwide boycott.
Lee R. Raymond, Exxon Mobil’s chief executive, has been an outspoken skeptic about the widely held view among climate scientists that human activity is responsible for the current warming trends.
Among the groups involved in the campaign, scheduled to begin on Tuesday with nationwide press conferences and a new Web site, www.exxposeexxon.com, are the US Public Interest Group, Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Move-On.org Political Action.
Carl Pope, the Sierra Club’s executive director, said the goal was either to get Exxon Mobil to change or “to encourage other oil companies” to improve their environmental stewardship. The company was chosen, organizers said, because its record is worse than its competitors’.
“The other oil companies have aspirations” for environmental performance, Mr. Pope said.
