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Executive Summary
We stand at a crossroads on energy policy in the United States. Our dependence
on oil is costing consumers at the pump, draining the economy, endangering our
national security, and polluting the environment. For better or worse, the decisions
our elected officials and business leaders make to address this problem will
have repercussions not only at home but worldwide.
The United States is simply
too dependent on oil. The United States holds only two percent of the world’s
oil reserves but consumes 25 percent of the world’s total petroleum production.1
Oil pollutes the environment from the point of extraction to combustion, leaving
a trail of oil spills, smog-forming air pollution, and global warming in its
wake. Consumers also pay a price in the form of unpredictably high gasoline
prices at the pump while oil companies are earning record profits.
Unfortunately, U.S. policy-makers
have responded not with a plan to lead our country away from oil dependence
but with more of the same. The Bush administration and its allies in Congress
have rejected efforts to cap global warming pollution and make a significant
investment in renewable energy technology. They have called for oil and gas
drilling in pristine places such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. At
the same time, they have rejected efforts to make cars go farther on a gallon
of gas—an efficiency measure that would reduce our dependence on oil while saving
consumers money at the pump.
ExxonMobil, the world’s
largest oil company, has not only echoed these short-sighted policy decisions
but led the charge to craft and implement them. In contrast to many of its peers
in the oil industry, ExxonMobil has acted consistently to move our country backward,
not forward, on energy policy.
- ExxonMobil is still actively
pushing to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
- ExxonMobil continues to deny the urgency of global warming, fund junk science
to cloud the issue, and actively inhibit domestic and international efforts
to cut global warming pollution.
- ExxonMobil is making record-breaking profits because of high gasoline prices
but refuses to invest that windfall in renewable energy to ease America’s oil
dependence.
- ExxonMobil continues to
challenge the 1994 court ruling ordering the company to pay $4-$5 billion in
punitive damages to fishermen and others injured by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
In ExxonMobil’s ideal world,
the U.S. and other countries would use more and more oil, not less, allowing
the company to collect even higher profits in the short term. Automakers would
continue to produce gas-guzzling cars despite advances in fuel-efficient vehicles.
The U.S. and other countries would relax their environmental rules to allow
the company to drill to the ends of the Earth, even in our most precious places.
In ExxonMobil’s ideal world, the U.S. and the rest of the world would ignore
global warming science and continue to let global warming pollution climb precipitously.
ExxonMobil has the power
to wreak significant damage on the world’s environment, but it also has the
power to direct the oil industry and American decision-makers toward a new energy
future. The “Exxpose Exxon” campaign is calling on ExxonMobil to:
- Commit to not drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and pull out of
Arctic Power, the single issue lobbying group dedicated to drilling in the Arctic
Refuge.
- Support mandatory caps
on global warming pollution and stop funding junk science to obscure the facts
about global warming.
- Pay all of the punitive
damages awarded in 1994 to fishermen and others injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez
oil spill.
- Save consumers money at the pump and ease our oil dependence by investing
in renewable energy and energy efficiency and supporting stronger fuel economy
standards to make cars go farther on a gallon of gasoline.
As the world’s largest and
most profitable oil company, ExxonMobil should shed its past as an irresponsible
oil company and move forward as a responsible energy company—one committed to
more than drilling to the last drop.
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