ENVIRONMENT -- EXXONMOBIL CONTINUES TO FUND GLOBAL WARMING DENIERS

From 1998 to 2005, ExxonMobil directed almost $16 million to a network of 43 lobbying groups in an effort to confuse Americans about global warming. After being criticized by the Royal Society in 2006, the oil giant promised to stop funding groups that denied the science behind climate change. In May 2008, ExxonMobil again pledged to cut funding to groups that "divert attention" from the need to develop and invest in clean energy. Yet, in 2008, while cutting contributions to the most extreme groups, the company still funded other groups. Indeed, London's Daily Telegraph reported last week that "[c]ompany records for 2008 show that ExxonMobil gave $75,000 to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) in Dallas, Texas and $50,000 to the Heritage Foundation in Washington. It also gave $245,000 to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington." Similarly, ExxonMobil has devoted millions to ad campaigns touting clean energy without actually investing significantly in renewable energy. In 2007, for example, ExxonMobil spent $100 million on advertising and "green-washing" campaigns in an attempt to exaggerate its commitment to renewable energy. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil spends just $10 million per year on renewable energy research -- a tenth of the amount it spent talking about investing in clean energy. This latest evidence of ExxonMobil's continued opposition to clean energy comes less than a month after the American Petroleum Institute released a report revealing just how little the top Big Oil companies invest in renewable energy -- and how far they'll go to claim otherwise.