In an act of surprising bi-partisanship so close to the mid-term elections, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.VA) have penned a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson demanding that Exxon, โend any further financial assistance [to groups] whose public advocacy has contributed to the small but unfortunately effective climate change denial myth.โ The Senators singled out the Washington lobby group Competitive Enterprise Institute, whose penchant for promoting junk science on climate change has been stoked over the years by over $2 million oily dollars from ExMo.
Of course, ExMo isn’t the only one who has provided climate change denial groups with funding over the years, I recently called Ford Motor Company to the carpet on the very issue of continuing to fund the CEI, while promoting all sorts of climate change friendly Ford initiatives. This type of wolf-in-sheeps-clothing typifies the PR technique of โgreenwashing:โ to create a fancy PR image of being a โsustainableโ or โenvironmentally friendlyโ company, like Ford has attempted, while at the same time continuing to provide funding to an organization whose goal is diametrically opposedย to the very image you are attempting to create.
Here is an in-depth ABC News piece on the Sens. letter toย ExMo.
