Greenpeace

Today, Guardian writer Ed Pilkington took a fresh swat at Governor Sarah Palin's use and defense of Exxon-funded junk science on polar bears in the State of Alaska's attempts to to kill the listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

We have covered the evolution of this story on ExxonSecrets for over a year here and here with links to articles and documents of interest.

Much has been made of Palin's denial of global warming since she was nominated as the GOP Veep candidate, but no one has questioned her credibility for using 'research' that was funded by ExxonMobil, American Petroleum Institute and Charles Koch Foundation.

We are wondering if Gwen Ifill of PBS will ask Ms. Palin a pointed question tomorrow? or if Senator Biden has read the Guardian story?

Tom Kizza at the Anchorage Daily News has followed this story the best, filing two good articles earlier in the year here and here.

This classic ExxonSecrets map of the junk science authors from the Dyck, Soon, et al article shows once again the tentacles of the Denial Machine (see page 9 for acknowledgement of funding from Exxon and friends).  Palin's goon squad cited the Dyck, Soon paper 6 times and even attached a copy of the article (pre-publication) to their 49 page submission to the Department of Interior.

All the background documents can be found on Greenpeace Investigations:

• Exxon funded junk science
• rebuttal by real polar bear scientists
• Alaska's submissions to Department of Interior

No reporters have questioned Exxon or API about funding this research and no one has gotten the scientists themselves on the record as to how much money they got from Exxon and friends and the marching orders attached to that funding.

Today we are launching a local campaign Strike Out Exxon to flush the red beast out of the brand new Washington Nationals baseball park.  The park is touted as a certified "green" faciltiy by the US Green Building Council. 

Exxon has bought the advertising rights to the 7th inning stretch...so now its no longer the...mom and apple pie, GodBlessAmerica, Take Me out to the Ballgame, Root Root Root for the home team, my first Phillies game with dad at Connie Mack at age 6, peanuts and crackerjack 7th inning stretch...

no no no... it's now branded "THE EXXONMOBIL 7th INNING STRETCH" 100 feet tall on the center field scoreboard with bright red ExxonMobil logo on every LED ad screen ringing the park. 

Instead of singing our song, having a stretch and going to get some crackerjack and a beverage of choice from the concession stands, eager Washington fans are reminded of the $95 fill-up the just plowed into their Chevy Tahoe that GM wont even take back on trade-in!

I called the advertising guys at the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and a few other teams to get a sense if it was unusual to have an monster oil company as a sponsor of the "stretch" advertising parcel.  I learned the BoSox have Coca Cola as a sponsor, which makes some sense, thirsty after 7 innings?  The Yankees have Cracker Jack, which makes even more sense, its their song after all.  The Yankees guy said he had never heard of an oil company buying that space before and seemed a little perplexed that a promotions person would take such an offer.

By the way, the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game is 100 years old this year, I read the other day in a great children's book by Jim Burke on the song's origins in NYC at the turn of the century when baseball came of age and became a integral part of the nation's fabric.

I updated the lyrics with apologies to Jack Norworth:

TAKE EXXON OUT OF THE BALL GAME
GET THEM OUT OF THE CROWD
TIRED OF FOUR DOLLAR GAS-O-LINE
AND GLOBAL WAR-MING IS MA-KING ME SCREAM

LETS ROOT, ROOT, ROOT FOR THE NAAATIONALS
AND STRIKE EXXON OUT OF THE GAME
FOR ITS 3…2…1 POLAR BEARS AND WE KNOW WHO TO BLAME.

The Strike Out Exxon campaign was spurred this spring by Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a great regional global warming advocates here in DC, and our friends at Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth and the Hip Hop Caucus.  We welcome additional member organizations but hope this campaign is swift.  There were even rumours that Exxon might vie for the naming rights to the park to be auctioned later this summer.  Hopefully the Nationals owners think that through.

Because the only thing Exxon is stretching is the truth about global warming and its monster bank accounts. Stay tuned for updates and contact CCAN for free tickets.

Today, HuffingtonPost's RFK Jr. and Brendan Demelle detail a revealing interview with Steve "Junk-for-Brains" Milloy in the Pittsburg Tribune-Review this week.

In the interview, Milloy talks about his current anti-corporate responsibility campaign against corporations who are better than the laggards at Exxon on global warming policy- which would be most of them at this point...Milloy is targetting General Electric, Alcoa, Fe-Ex and other movers to the left of Exxon on the climate consciousness continuum.

We at ExxonSecrets, remember that Exxon seeded Milloy's Free Enterprise Action Fund in 2003 with a $50,000 grant for "Research" to the Free Enterprise Action Institute, an organization that exists nowhere in the world except in Milloy's mind and on Exxon's World Giving Report documents.  Exxon followed this with a $70,000 grant in 2005 to the Free Enterprise Education Institute for "Corporate Social Responsibility and Climate Change" though this annotation did not appear in the public Exxon World Giving Report, only in Exxon's tax forms to the IRS...hmmm  but remember that Exxon dropped Milloy in 2006...so sad

Also of interest is the leading stock holding of Free Enterprise Action Fund is none other than Exxon at over 4% of stock held.

We also note that Milloy was scoffed at during a recent Wall St Journal green forum for trashing corporate leaders on climate policy.  Hopefully corporations will brush Milloy aside at their annual meetings this year, as you would an annoying gnat...

In a new Greenpeace investigation of more than 500 congressional lobbying records of the chemical industry and allied businesses researchers identified 238 lobbyists who registered to lobby against strong chemical security legislation in 2007. With at total lobbying budget of $130 million dollars, Greenpeace estimates that the industry averaged about $1 million a month to forestall strong chemical security legislation.

The Greenpeace report, as well as supporting documents, can be found here

The report documents multiple layers of a quiet but extensive lobbying campaign to prevent strong regulations and to keep chemical users from switching to safer, more secure chemicals and processes. The report includes 20 trade associations such as the chemical manufacturer's American Chemistry Council (ACC) as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 30 companies including Dow Chemical Company, and ExxonMobil and high priced lobby firms such as Hogan & Hartson.


Since 9/11, the chemical industry lobby has succeeded in delaying the enactment of permanent, comprehensive chemical security legislation. In 2006 a 740 word temporary law was enacted with the expectation that Congress would revisit the issue in 2007.

Jack Gerard, CEO of the ACC summed up the chemical lobby's agenda, “We believe the Department of Homeland Security should have the ability to put these regs in place. Let's let the dust settle, and then a few years down the road let's take a look at it."

In contrast the Association of American Railroads recently issued a strong statement on ultra-hazardous chemicals: "It is time for the nation’s big chemical companies to stop making the dangerous chemicals that can be replaced by safer substitutes or new technologies currently in the marketplace…And if they won’t do it, Congress should do it for them in the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2008."

On March 6th, the House Homeland Security Committee adopted a comprehensive bill (H.R. 5577). The House Energy and Commerce Committee which is expected to take up this legislation soon and has scheduled a hearing for May 15th. To avoid a renewal of the hopelessly weak temporary statute, Congress must pass a permanent law this year.

Over at DeSmogBlog today they picked up on the news of Exxon's quarterly earnings report...something we all look forward to...

The profiteers fiddle while the economy crumbles

DeSmog's details and fine calculator work:

ExxonMobil, everyone's favorite oil company, is set to announce 4th quarter
earnings of $10.37 billion - a paltry $111 million a day.

Expected annual earnings for ExxonMobil in 2007 are a whopping $39 billion -

or about $106 million a day,

$4.4 million an hour and

$73,000 a second.

And now Bush and the Congress want to put a "Economic Stimulus Package" in your pocket - $600 per person - so you can go put it right in Exxon's pocket the next time you fill up... hmm Exxon's economy seems to be stimulated quite nicely already

As the Fish and Wildlife Service misses its deadline this week to finish its decision on listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act... we wonder if the Exxon-funded study published last summer and referenced by the State of Alaska in its opposition to FWA action might have slowed them up...shame if indeed that is the case.

Speaking of which, the Governor of Alaska published a Op-Ed in the NY Times over the weekend vigorously opposing listing the polar bear with an inaccurate assessment of things.  A nice editorial last week by the Times must have triggered the Governor's response...

We did an expanded treatment of the Exxon Polar Bear mess here, including Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina's request for information from Exxon on its funding of skeptic science. Don't miss the suggested unanswered questions at the end...

One additional nugget was the quote by an Exxon spokes recently.  In response to Gore pointing out Exxon funding of the network that supports climate denial scientists, the Washington Times reported:

"Exxon Mobil spokesman Gantt H. Walton dismissed the accusation, saying the company is concerned about climate-change issues and does not pay scientists to bash global-warming theories. " Walton stated, "Recycling of that kind of discredited conspiracy theory is nothing more than a distraction from the real challenge facing society and the energy industry..."

Distractions indeed...some people create distractions for a living...and maybe Mr. Walton should check with the Exxon Secret Payroll department before making such declarative statements next time.

See Inhofe post below this one for more on that episode....