[greenyes] Climate Disruption- Exxon's Role in Bush Decisions Documented

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

THE GUARDIAN -6/8/05

Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush

White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance

John Vidal, environment editor

President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the 
Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, 
the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US 
State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the White House for 
discussions on climate change before next month's G8 meeting, reinforce 
widely-held suspicions of how close the company is to the administration and 
its role in helping to formulate US policy.

In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of state, 
Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is found 
thanking Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping 
to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what 
climate change policies the company might find acceptable.

Other papers suggest that Ms Dobriansky should sound out Exxon executives 
and other anti-Kyoto business groups on potential alternatives to Kyoto.
Until now Exxon has publicly maintained that it had no involvement in the US 
government's rejection of Kyoto. But the documents, obtained by Greenpeace
under US freedom of information legislation, suggest this is not the case.

"Potus [president of the United States] rejected Kyoto in part based on 
input from you [the Global Climate Coalition]," says one briefing note 
before Ms Dobriansky's meeting with the GCC, the main anti-Kyoto US industry 
group, which was dominated by Exxon.

The papers further state that the White House considered Exxon "among the 
companies most actively and prominently opposed to binding approaches [like 
Kyoto] to cut greenhouse gas emissions".

But in evidence to the UK 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."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1501632,00.html
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