White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance

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Wed, 08 Jun 2005 05:39:55 -0700

[Zepps_News] White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance

 

 

 

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1501646,00.html>

Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush

 

White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance

 

John Vidal, environment editor

Wednesday June 8, 2005

The Guardian

 

President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to

the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from

ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries,

according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

 

The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the White House for

discussions on climate change before next month's G8 meeting, reinforce

widely-held suspicions of how close the company is to the administration

and its role in helping to formulate US policy.

 

Article continues

In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of

state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is

found thanking Exxon executives for the company's " active involvement "

in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its

advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable.

 

Other papers suggest that Ms Dobriansky should sound out Exxon

executives and other anti-Kyoto business groups on potential

alternatives to Kyoto.

 

Until now Exxon has publicly maintained that it had no involvement in

the US government's rejection of Kyoto. But the documents, obtained by

Greenpeace under US freedom of information legislation, suggest this is

not the case.

 

" Potus [president of the United States] rejected Kyoto in part based on

input from you [the Global Climate Coalition], " says one briefing note

before Ms Dobriansky's meeting with the GCC, the main anti-Kyoto US

industry group, which was dominated by Exxon.

 

The papers further state that the White House considered Exxon " among

the companies most actively and prominently opposed to binding

approaches [like Kyoto] to cut greenhouse gas emissions " .

 

But in evidence to the UK House of Lords science and technology

committee in 2003, Exxon's head of public affairs, Nick Thomas, said: " I

think we can say categorically we have not campaigned with the United

States government or any other government to take any sort of position

over Kyoto. "

 

Exxon, officially the US's most valuable company valued at $379bn

(£206bn) earlier this year, is seen in the papers to share the White

House's unwavering scepticism of international efforts to address

climate change.

 

The documents, which reflect unanimity between the company and the US

administration on the need for more global warming science and the

unacceptable costs of Kyoto, state that Exxon believes that joining

Kyoto " would be unjustifiably drastic and premature " .

 

This line has been taken consistently by President Bush, and was

expected to be continued in yesterday's talks with Tony Blair who has

said that climate change is " the most pressing issue facing mankind " .

 

" President Bush tells Mr Blair he's concerned about climate change, but

these documents reveal the alarming truth, that policy in this White

House is being written by the world's most powerful oil company. This

administration's climate policy is a menace to humanity, " said Stephen

Tindale, Greenpeace's executive director in London last night.

 

" The prime minister needs to tell Mr Bush he's calling in some favours.

Only by securing mandatory cuts in US emissions can Blair live up to his

rhetoric, " said Mr Tindale.

 

In other meetings documented in the papers, Ms Dobriansky meets Don

Pearlman, an international anti-Kyoto lobbyist who has been a paid

adviser to the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments, both of which have

followed the US line against Kyoto.

 

The purpose of the meeting with Mr Pearlman, who also represents the

secretive anti-Kyoto Climate Council, which the administration says

" works against most US government efforts to address climate change " , is

said to be to " solicit [his] views as part of our dialogue with friends

and allies " .

 

ExxonMobil, which was yesterday contacted by the Guardian in the US but

did not return calls, is spending millions of pounds on an advertising

campaign aimed at influencing politicians, opinion formers and business

leaders in the UK and other pro-Kyoto countries in the weeks before the

G8 meeting at Gleneagles.

 

 

--

" As democracy is perfected, the office of president

represents, more and more closely, the inner soul

of the people. On some great and glorious day the

plain folks of the land will reach their heart's

desire at last and the White House will be adorned

by a downright moron. " --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

 

 

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Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

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