September 20, 2006 5:52 p.m. EDT
|
|
|
|
|
September 20, 2006 5:52 p.m. EDT |
|||
|
|
|||||
|
DOW JONES REPRINTS
  This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit:www.djreprints.com. • See a sample reprint in PDF format. • Order a reprint of this article now.
Exxon Reviews Funding By JEFFREY BALL
September 20, 2006 5:52 p.m. Exxon Mobil Corp., which has sparked intense political criticism for its funding of groups that challenge the scientific validity of concerns about global warming, is reviewing whether it will continue to fund some of those groups. Exxon spokesman Mark Boudreaux said Wednesday that the company's decision about which outside groups to fund for the rest of 2006 and for 2007 "are under review." The Competitive Enterprise Institute, one past recipient of Exxon funding that has been particularly vocal in questioning climate science, hasn't received any money from the company thus far in 2006, Mr. Boudreaux said. Also Wednesday, California filed a lawsuit against six major auto makers alleging their vehicles have contributed to global warming, hurt the state's environment, and cost the state millions of dollars to address the effects. Exxon's statement about global-warming funding came in response to a letter released by The Royal Society, Britain's national independent scientific society. The letter said that in a July meeting in London between Royal Society and Exxon officials, society officials criticized Exxon's funding of "organizations that have been misinforming the public about the science of climate change," and Exxon officials responded that the company "would not be providing any further funding to these organizations." The letter was reported in the Guardian newspaper. One group mentioned in during the meeting was the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said The Royal Society's main spokesman, Bob Ward, who participated in the meeting. In May, the Competitive Enterprise Institute ran television ads that argued that carbon dioxide, widely seen as the main global-warming gas, is helpful. The tagline: "Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life." In 2005, Exxon and Exxon's philanthropic foundation gave the Competitive Enterprise Institute a total of $270,000, according to Exxon. That was out of a total of $6.8 million that Exxon says it and its foundation together gave in 2005 to tax-exempt non-profit groups engaged in "public information and public policy research." Myron Ebell, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's director of energy and global-warming policy, declined Wednesay to discuss whether Exxon had decided to stop funding the group. "We have a policy of not discussing our funders," he said. Exxon's Mr. Boudreaux said the company hasn't made any final decisions on its funding of such groups for the rest of this year or for next year. Exxon long has been one of the tallest lightening rods in the global-warming debate. Other major oil companies, notably European-based giants BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell Group, have made prominent statements about their concern that fossil-fuel emissions are warming the planet, and they have expressed support for the Kyoto Protocol, the global-warming treaty. Exxon has opposed Kyoto and has stressed remaining uncertainties in climate science. In a report it issued in February, Exxon said that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased, that the Earth is getting warmer, and that fossil-fuel emissions are a factor in the increased greenhouse-gas concentrations. But how significantly fossil fuels are contributing to global warming remains uncertain, the report said. California filed its global-warming lawsuit in U.S. District Court in California against General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and the U.S. arms of DaimlerChrysler AG, Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Corp. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a statement that he filed the suit after "the federal government and automakers have refused to act" to address automotive global-warming emissions. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry trade group, said it hadn't had time to review the lawsuit, but added: "Using nuisance suits to address global warming would involve the courts in deciding political questions beyond their jurisdiction. This opens the door to lawsuits targeting any activity that uses fossil fuel for energy." Write to Jeffrey Ball at jeffrey.ball@wsj.com3
|
||||||
