Exxon to staff: vote for oil
Dirty war on global warming

Mon 11 October 2004
UNITED STATES/Dallas, Texas

There's nothing nastier than a wounded tiger. ExxonMobil(Esso) is licking its wounds as Russia moves closer to ratifying the Kyoto protocol. But the world's number one environmental criminal is still fighting tooth and nail to deny the truth about climate change. The US government is increasingly isolated and Exxon is out to ensure its workers keep it that way by voting for US politicians who oppose action against global warming.

To compliment corporate front groups, lawsuits against critics, and tireless lobbying against any global warming regulation, Exxon is stepping up its efforts to get employees to vote "pro-business".

According to a story reported by the Dow Jones Newswire, Exxon is mailing its 34,000 employees with election materials and helpful voter guides which -- surprise! --give the Republican Party gold star ratings for spurning global warming regulation, supporting drilling for oil in the Arctic wildlife refuge, and letting oil refineries release more pollution by weakening the Clean Air Act.

Exxon is informing not only its employees but also retirees and contractors how they should vote in upcoming presidential and congressional races across the US.

"We obviously are promoting candidates who are pro-business and candidates who recognize the importance of a viable policy on energy," Ken Cohen, the vice president for public affairs and the chairman of ExxonMobil's PAC, said. "Republicans more often tend to line up on those issues than Democrats."

In 2000 Exxon gave 91 percent (US$1.37 million) of it political donations to the Republican Party. Exxon was more than amply repaid when President GW Bush promptly withdrew the US from the only global treaty to control global warming, the Kyoto Protocol.

In a message at ExxonMobils' Citizen Action Team website, company CEO Lee Raymond states "it is essential that we as a company, and more importantly as individuals, are part of the political process." The website's front page quotes Thomas Jefferson: "We in America do not have a government by the majority. We have a government by the majority who participate."