Archive for Exxon Mobil
The Climate Killers Part Five – John McCain and the Koch Brothers
Posted by: | CommentsIn the fifth and final entry of an eco-friendly look into the controversial Rolling Stone story by their political columnist Tim Dickinson aptly titled “The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming”. This is the final installment in a series of blogs we hoped would ask a few questions at would weigh public perception vs. the findings of the list.
First is an eco-friendly look at the flip-flopping of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The one time Maverick of the Republican Party was all for climate change in 2003, but this does not seem to be the case anymore. According to Dickinson “McCain frames his newfound stance as opposition to what he portrays as a $630 billion tax on corporate America, the measure as revised by the House actually provides the energy industry with more than $690 billion in pollution subsidies. McCain’s about-face may have more to do with his precarious electoral future: The senator is currently locked in a dead heat with likely primary challenger J.D. Hayworth, a knuckle-dragging former congressman”. No matter the reason, it is sad to see an eco-friendly person change their stance.
Finally a joint entry, Charles and David Koch, these brothers are the CEO and Executive Vice President of Koch Industries. Dickinson’s negative portrait counts the brothers as two entries but technically they are only one. Dickinson says “the multibillionaire brothers not only run the nation’s largest private energy company, they rival Exxon in funding the front groups that spread disinformation about the dangers of climate change”.
Let’s recap the list of 17 from Dickinson starting with the Climate Killer nickname he assigned to each of them:
- The Profiteer – Warren Buffett – CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
- The Disinformer – Rupert Murdoch – CEO, News Corporation
- The Fake Protestor – Jack Gerard – President, American Petroleum
- Burning Man – Rex Tillerson – CEO, ExxonMobil
- Read More→
The Climate Killers Part Three – Senator and CEO Villains
Posted by: | Comments
Welcome back for part three of an eco-friendly look into the controversial Rolling Stone story by political columnist Tim Dickinson aptly titled “The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming”. In this series we hoped to try and ask a few question and weigh public perception vs. the findings of the list, however in some cases the facts speak for themselves. Those named in this article are just as significant as any who were mentioned in my previous posts on the topic.
First up Jack Gerard, President of American Petroleum Institute (API). For this person a mere quote from Dickinson’s article says it all, “Gerard serves as the front man for the nation’s oil and gas industry, including energy giants like Exxon, Shell, BP and Halliburton. Although API now claims to back the move to a “carbon-constrained economy,” Gerard has been working behind the scenes to scuttle climate legislation. According to an internal memo leaked in August, Gerard directed API’s nearly 400 member companies to mobilize their employees to attend “Energy Citizen” rallies in 20 states to protest a cap on carbon pollution. To ensure the success of the fake grassroots protests, Gerard bragged that he had also enlisted a bevy of polluting allies — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. “Please treat this information as sensitive,” Gerard cautioned in the memo. “We don’t want critics to know our game plan.” It’s impossible to find an eco-friendly redeeming quality when you’re encouraging protests to prevent a cap on carbon pollution. Jack Gerard, grab a mirror and you’ll find shame looking back at you.
Moving on to Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, this is someone who you might think ‘well, sure they would make the list’. In fact he seems to be an eco-friendly saboteur. Though he has conceded that greenhouse gases affect climate change, something some may call a miracle coming from the CEO of a gas company. We’ll close this entry with a fact from the article “in 2007, spending $100 million on ads, Exxon boasted about its investments in renewable energy — even though such deals totaled only $10 million that year.”
Tags: American Petroleum Institute, API, BP, carbon dioxide, carbon emissions, carbon neutral, carbon pollution, carbon-constrained economy, Climate Change, climate legislation, corporate social responsibility, David Ratcliffe, Eco Friendly, Energy Citizen, environmental movement, Exxon, Exxon Mobil, Fossil Fuels, gas company, Global Warming, greenhouse gases, Haliburton, Jack Gerard, James Inhofe, Marc Morano, Mary Landrieu, National Association of Manufacturers, planet forward, pollution, preserve fossil fuels, renewable energy, Rolling Stone magazine, Shell, Southern Company, The Climate Killers, Tim Dickinson, U.S. Chamber of CommerceThe Climate Killers – Part One
Posted by: | CommentsRolling Stone magazine has never been one to mince words whether it is about the latest CD or taking a political stand, so it should be no surprise when their political columnist Tim Dickinson penned the list entitled “The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming”. Let us take an ecofriendly multi part look at the list and weigh public perception vs. his finding.
The very first offender marked by the list is noted philanthropist Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett is known for two things of late one being this extreme generosity, he decided to give away a reported 85% of his stock in Berkshire to a number of charities the most well known being the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The second is being a top advisor to United States President Barack Obama during the latest finical crisis. Dickinson claims that Buffett is standing in the way of an ecofriendly future for a host of reasons, the first being his critique of Obama’s climate bill, the article states that “Buffett says, the [climate bill] would mean “very poor people are going to pay a lot more money for their electricity.” Never mind that the bill, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, would actually save Americans with the lowest incomes about $40 a year.”
Read More→
