Consumer Advocates Call on Congress to Subpoena Exxon’s Funding Records As Oil Giant Underwrites Efforts to Deny Reality of Global Warming

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Santa Monica, CA — The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) today called on Congress to subpoena ExxonMobil’s records and probe the oil giant’s funding of organizations involved in disputing the reality of global warming.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation’s call came as a widely respected international report warned that climate change cannot be stopped and is “very likely” caused by human activity.

FTCR urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch the investigation after a report in the respected British newspaper, “The Guardian,” that the Exxon-financed American Enterprise Institute (AEI) was offering scientists and economists $10,000 each to write articles undercutting the report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Travel expenses were also being offered.

The AEI has received more than $1.6 million from Exxon Mobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration, which has resisted reports of global warming. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI’s board of trustees, “The Guardian” reported.

“ExxonMobil made a profit of $40 billion last year — more than any company ever — not just on the on the backs of overcharged motorists, but at the expense of human life on earth itself. Now it’s using the profits to bury the evidence and distract attention from the most serious problem the world faces,” said John Simpson, FTCR consumer advocate. “Profiteering is one thing, but willfully undermining serious scientific research to maintain those profits simply cannot be allowed.”

According to the “Los Angeles Times” the IPCC report released today in Paris says scientists’ “best estimate” is that temperatures will rise 3.2 to 7.8 degrees by 2100. In contrast, the increase from 1901 to 2005 was 1.2 degrees. The report also projects that sea levels could rise by 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century.

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The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. More information is available on the web at: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org.

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