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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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