January

socialfunds.com
January 30, 2004
ExxonMobil Contributed Five Percent of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Last 120 Years
By William Baue

Friends of the Earth releases two studies that attribute one twentieth of global climate change to ExxonMobil. The company questions these findings, as it questions climate change.

SocialFunds.com -- Yesterday, ExxonMobil (ticker: XOM) announced 2003 profits of $21.51 billion, almost doubling 2002 profits of $11.46 billion. The day before, it announced a court decision increasing punitive damages over the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Alaska's Prince William Sound to $4.5 billion plus interest, which independent sources report will add another $2.25 billion.

Is there a link between profits and environmental liabilities? Two related reports released yesterday by Friends of the Earth (FoE), an international environmentalist group, suggest so. The reports provide scientific calculations that ExxonMobil contributed five percent of the world's manmade carbon dioxide emissions over its 120-year history. Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas (GHG) primarily responsible for climate change.

"ExxonMobil is sticking its head in the sand just like tobacco companies that knew the harmful impacts of their product and ultimately paid the price," said Jon Sohn, FoE's senior policy analyst. "We believe that ExxonMobil is at risk of litigation."

Mr. Sohn refers to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, which requires tobacco companies to pay 46 states $206 billion, and the related settlement that requires tobacco companies to pay the remaining four states $40 billion.

"ExxonMobil's greenhouse gas contribution is staggering and shareholders can vote for resolutions that force the corporation to take action now," said Mr. Sohn.

The News & Observer
January 25, 2004
Energy bill's impact questioned
Lawrence M. O,',Rourke

WASHINGTON -- The national energy policy that President Bush and most congressional Republicans want to enact would bring about major changes in the way the nation uses and protects its coastal areas, air and water, and public lands. 

Sara Zdeb, legislative director of Friends of the Earth environmental group, said the legislation would "force communities to breathe dirty air for a longer time by delaying important smog-control rules." 

She said the smog-control provision would worsen air quality in the most polluted cities, including Dallas , Atlanta and Washington . Those cities would be allowed to avoid provisions in effect in Los Angeles , New York , Chicago , Philadelphia and Baltimore . 

Associated Press Online
January 9, 2004 Friday
Reviews Clear Former Top Interior Lawyer
By: Robert Gehrke  

The former top attorney at the Interior Department violated no government ethics rules by meeting with groups interested in grazing and mining issues, investigators determined.

Environmental groups had asked for an investigation into a series of meetings involving Myers and his former lobbying clients and representative of the mining and grazing industry. They were not convinced that his judgment was untainted.

"There's no smoking gun, but these issues are broad, and it's open to interpretation," said Kristen Sykes of Friends of the Earth.

Sykes said she hopes the issues will be explored more thoroughly if Myers, who has been nominated to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Interior Department's inspector general report, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, did not draw clear conclusions about Myers' conduct but documented 37 meetings between the solicitor and industry representatives and former lobbying partners with business before the department.

BushGreenwatch.org
January 07, 2004
Industry to Dine, Golf, Set 'Top 10 To Do List' with Bush Officials, GOP Lawmakers

Today through Friday, dozens of industry leaders willing to pay for the privilege are meeting with Bush Administration officials and members of Congress at a Phoenix golf resort to help Congress write a "Top Ten To Do List" and discuss the rewriting of environmental legislation and federal energy policy.

The keynote speaker at lunch tomorrow is J. Steven Griles, deputy secretary of the Interior and a former coal industry lobbyist. Griles is currently under investigation for possible ethics violations by the Interior Department's inspector general for participating in meetings with former clients after signing a government agreement not to.

"This event shows once again that Griles continues to represent his corporate interests and not the public interest," Kristen Sykes of Friends of the Earth told BushGreenwatch. "It's disturbing that so many other senior government officials are also willing to fly across the country just to schmooze with industry."

A press release for the Roundtable of the West bills the event as an opportunity for "more than 100 business leaders, state and federal elected officials, Bush Administration officials and other policy makers ... to achieve a broad-based consensus on the top 10 priorities for the Congress in 2004."