Going down with the ship 2

Lee Raymond, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, has decided that global warming is bunk and that his company is not going to waste time or money funding renewable energy.

Openly and unapologetically, the world's No. 1 oil company disputes the notion that fossil fuels are the main cause of global warming. Along with the Bush administration, Exxon opposes the Kyoto accord and the very idea of capping global-warming emissions. Congress is debating an energy bill that may be amended to include a cap, but the administration and Exxon say the costs would be huge and the benefits uncertain. Exxon also contributes money to think tanks and other groups that agree with its stance.

You kinda have to admire the guy:

"We're not playing the issue. I'm not sure I can say that about others," Lee Raymond, Exxon's chairman and chief executive, said in a recent interview at Exxon headquarters in Irving, Texas. "I get this question a lot of times: 'Why don't you just go spend $50 million on solar cells? Charge it off to the public-affairs budget and just say it's like another dry hole?' The answer is: That's not the way we do things."

At least he's not fudging.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. CowsEatGrass's avatar

    CowsEatGrass Posted 9:46 am
    14 Jun 2005

    Sure...The captain's always willing to go down with the ship when he's standing on the shore.
    I'm sure profits won't budge as prices and demand goes up--but as soon as someone figures out something to ween the global economy off oil, Exxon will be sucking toes to get a piece of it.  This will happen whether he simply changes his position, or the board fires him and someone else does it.
    Silly tough-guy jibberish.
  2. wallrock's avatar

    wallrock Posted 10:12 am
    14 Jun 2005

    Exxon must have seenthat they were never going to catch up to BPAmoco in terms of being a "green" petroleum company.  Hedging your bets on the Flat Earthers might give Exxon a short-term bump in stock price (I'm sure the bravado will too) but in time the market will see it with CowsEatGrass there.

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