The oil giant ExxonMobil has acknowledged that funding organizations that deny the existence of climate change has made it harder for the public to accept their attempt at a “greener” image. Now, a report by the environmental group Greenpeace charges that we have every right to be skeptical: the company is continuing to pump millions of dollars into these same organizations that attempt to throw doubt on climate science.
When I and other bloggers interviewed Exxon’s Vice President of External Affairs, Ken Cohen, in January, the question of funding these sorts of groups naturally came up. Cohen explained that Exxon does not fund specific programs within these organizations, but rather gives money for their general operations. Therefore, there is no particular issue on which Exxon’s money must be used and the company has no control over it. “We had no knowledge that this was going on,” he insisted.
Exxon has stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which was a particularly vocal denier of global warming science. However, Cohen confirmed that they do continue to fund the American Enterprise Institute. The Greenpeace report says that, along with AEI, Exxon also funds the Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, and others attempting to discredit climate science.
In January, Cohen made it explicit that Exxon believes global warming is real, is caused by humans, and that something needs to be done. Greenpeace believes that Exxon’s funding of these skeptic groups is an attempt to control the debate on any emerging federal legislation on the issue. Actually, I would expect most companies would try to do that, and many of them aren’t hiding the fact. Utilities like PG&E believe that carbon dioxide regulation is coming down the pipeline and that they need to get involved in the early stages of discussion, ensuring that future policies benefit any steps their company has already taken.
In any case, Exxon must be part of the solution. We need every company, every community, and every government tackling climate change. Greenpeace’s Davies agrees, “…unless they start pulling with the rest of the world, we're going to have a hard time solving global warming."