By John Vidal in
The Guardian:
In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is found thanking Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable.
More below the fold:
Until now Exxon has publicly maintained that it had no involvement in the US government's rejection of Kyoto. But the documents, obtained by Greenpeace under US freedom of information legislation, suggest this is not the case.
"Potus [president of the United States] rejected Kyoto in part based on input from you [the Global Climate Coalition]," says one briefing note before Ms Dobriansky's meeting with the GCC, the main anti-Kyoto US industry group, which was dominated by Exxon.
The papers further state that the White House considered Exxon "among the companies most actively and prominently opposed to binding approaches [like Kyoto] to cut greenhouse gas emissions".
For me, this is just one more bit of evidence about the Bush administration colludes with coporations to decieve the U.S. public and the world in order to deliver short term profits to a select few while ignore the long term costs to the General Public and the planet. The most recent Mother Jones has an excellent article on how Exxon/Mobil basically bought and paid for experts who were then publicized through out the MSM. Also see Hollywood Oz's recent diaryabout the "fixing" of climate reports.