Climate Whitewash At The White House - Times Of London

[hatrack]

EDIT

"ExxonMobile (sic), the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, has been linked to The Global Climate Coalition (GCC), a lobbying group for major industrial interests, that held several meetings with senior Washington figures.

One briefing states: "ExxonMobil is among the companies most actively and prominently opposed to binding approaches to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Through previous efforts with the GCC and its own ongoing public outreach, ExxonMobile stresses scientific uncertainty regarding human impact on climate change."

The official documents were prepared for Paula Dobriansky, the Under Secretary, Global Affairs at the US State Department, ahead of a meeting with GCC. In one, it states that the lobby organisation was successful in influencing White House policy. "POTUS rejected Kyoto. In part, based on input from you," a US official encouraged Ms Dobriansky to say to GCC at the meeting. The State Department briefings added that GCC "has been one of the most ardent opponents of the protocol, and on behalf of its coal and other members, has actively worked against most US government efforts to address climate change".

The papers contradict evidence given by Exxon to the British Government. In evidence to the 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."

EDIT

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13129-1645867,00.html

[rodeodance]

1. industry in bed with the state dept and WH --I so tire of this.

[Colorado Blue]

2. AAAARRRGGHHHHHHHHH.

This administration IS the oil industry. They are working directly for them.

[phantom power]

3. Literally, as well as figuratively.

Our president and VP are both oil-industry millionaires. And isn't Condi ex-oil too?

[longship]

4. Yes!

Chevron had a SuperTanker named after her!

[Colorado Blue]

8. Hah. I wonder if we could get them to name one

"Democratic Underground"? It could carry FOOD, and doctors, and artists, and teachers, and books, and seeds for planting, and start-up herds, and looms and easels and computers.

Nah.

[funflower]

10. But none of that stuff is about FAMILY VALUES, right?

:sarcasm:

[Colorado Blue]

18. Ooops. Sorry, I'll work on it:) Let's see. Big piles of guns,

bullets, books about Creationism - what do you think?

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHH.

But, they wouldn't fit in our ship:)

[longship]

5. Rice tanker pic

Here's a newspaper pic of the tanker:

[Colorado Blue]

6. Oh man. I'd heard that but seeing the picture really makes

things CRYSTAL clear.

The whole planet is on board with global warming except - guess who - the folks that CAUSE IT.

I wonder how many alternative fuel sources they've nixed, or stopped from coming onto the market? And other transportation ideas, like trains, just falling apart. It's hard to live without a car and they're advertised constantly, as though they're a birthright.

It isn't JUST oil, it's all the petrochemical industries, plastics, nylon and other synthetics, automobiles, planes, trucking, fertilizer, paints, dyes, medicines - they're just too powerful.

They quite literally run the planet - this administration is just more naked than most.

Any ideas?

[NEOBuckeye]

15. Imagine a World of Bikes, Walkable Neighborhoods and Trains

A much more pleasant, peaceful, sociable world that the powers that be have long surpressed. The odd part is, we were already pretty far along our way there at one point. Even more interesting is the fact that we must eventually return to that world if we are going to survive and sustain our world.

[Colorado Blue]

19. Amen! You know what the Chinese are doing? They are

back to breeding HORSES.

Good for them.

[Colorado Blue]

7. Also, the really big campaign contributors - many are

oil industry or the whole constellation of support industries, including of course defense. I shudder to think how many senators and representatives are "on the payroll", so to speak.

We ALL are, in a sense - we're consumers whether we want to be or not. All consumers and all contributors, willy nilly.

[ms liberty]

16. So is Rummy - he was at Unocal, I think... eom

[funflower]

9. What's up with Rupert Murdoch's Times of London?

Have they grown a conscience? Figured out that there's money to be made in telling the truth?


AND may I say how much I really, really hate this administration.
:grr:

[Roland99]

11. Is there any more doubt who is running this country's policies?

It ain't the bodies in the WH nor the Capitol.


It's the oil industry lobby, drug industry lobby, insurance lobby, gun lobby, and the fucking PNAC bastards.

[ClintonTyree]

12. To borrow a phrase from the 60's.....

it's the capitalist pigs, man. Capitalism is a plague upon mankind. A system that creates a definitive system of haves and have nots cannot be allowed to exist unbridled. There must be strict government intervention and oversight of these large, multi-national and national corporations. These people cannot be trusted to define what is right and what is wrong. They are evil, greedy bastards that have more than outlived their purpose and lifespan.
Until the corporate pigs are highly regulated and properly taxed, mankind will continue to suffer the consequences of their evil actions.
Man, that felt good! :hippie:

[ms liberty]

17. Right on, brother! n/t

[starroute]

13. There's a lot more to this than is being said

For starters, have a look at ExxonSecrets, a database of organizations funded by Exxon. Then try clicking on the links. http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/listorganizations.php
With only a handful of anomalous entries, this is as precise a list as you could wish for of anti-environmental and astroturf groups -- along with most of the usual extreme right-wing organizations.

Then take a look at Paula Dobriansky herself:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/dobriansky/dobriansky.php
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Paula_Dobriansky

This lady is a core PNAC-er. According to SourceWatch, "Her sister, Larisa Dobriansky, has also been on/off in the U.S. government dealing with environmental issues, e.g., active against the Kyoto Agreements." Paula is also associated with the Independent Women’s Forum, which according to Talking Points Memo is a front for Koch Industries: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_06_05.php#005793 (And her father was a major right-winger back a generation ago.)

Given all this, it's ridiculous to even use as detached a word as "influence." Almost the entire right is permeated with anti-environmentalism, and the Bush administration itself is joined at the hip with the extractive industries. For that matter, the BFEE/Exxon connection goes back to the 1930's, when Prescott was pals with William S. Farish of Standard Oil. There is no separation here -- it's all just different parts of a single monster.

[TwentyFive]

14. Sick. They fund The Earthwatch Institute! Sounds Progressive - but is NOT

ExxonMobil is an evil company run by rightwing, fundamentalist christians. When Exxon bought Mobil...one of their first acts was to RECIND Mobil's non-discrimination policy on Sexual Orientation.

NEVER buy EXXON/MOBIL anything.

[Colorado Blue]

20. The Seven Sisters! Another book, which seems to be

written from the German POV, "A Century of War - Anglo-American Oil Politics", by William Engdalh, goes way back to the end of the 19th century. It sure made me rethink some stuff, like WWI and its aftermath.

[wallwriter]

21. Then there's Cheney's Energy Task Force.

Do we really need to wonder who was on it or what their interests were?

[NNadir]

22. What is surprising is that anyone is surprised by this.

This is a revelation?

We knew this when Al Gore was elected President.