[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H4274-H4275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WHITE HOUSE ENERGY POLICY

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I am here to express gratitude for the 
free press, in England. Because it is only for the English that we can 
finally find out what went on in the White House with Mr. Cheney and 
the oil boys. It says in the Guardian this morning, after the meeting 
with Mr. Blair yesterday, President Bush's decision not to sign the 
United States up for the Kyoto Treaty was partly a result of pressure 
from ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company.
  In briefing papers given before the meeting to the U.S. Secretary of 
State, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is 
found thanking Exxon executives for the company's, quote, active 
involvement in helping to determine climate policy.
  The President of the United States rejected Kyoto in part, and this 
is a quote, rejected in part on the input from you, the Global Climate 
Coalition.
  Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States runs the most 
secretive operation down there and does not tell us that the oil 
companies are running our energy policy. As long as that is what is 
going on in this country, we will continue to continue to be enmeshed 
in the Bush war and whatever goes on in Iran and whatever goes on 
anyplace else, and we will continue to destroy the environment.
  It is time to end that, Mr. Speaker.

                    [From the Guardian, May 8, 2005]

                Revealed: How Oil Giant Influenced Bush


          White House sought advice from exxon on kyoto stance

                            (By John Vidal)

       President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United 
     States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a 
     result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful 
     oil company, and other industries, according to U.S. State 
     Department papers seen by the Guardian.
       The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the 
     White House for discussions on climate change before next 
     month's G8 meeting, reinforce widely-held suspicions of how 
     close the company is to the administration and its role in 
     helping to formulate U.S. policy.
       In briefing papers given before meetings to the U.S. under-
     secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2002 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.
       Other papers suggest that Ms. Dobriansky should sound out 
     Exxon executives and other anti-Kyoto business groups on 
     potential alternatives to Kyoto.
       Until now Exxon has publicly maintained that it had no 
     involvement in the U.S. government's rejection of Kyoto. But 
     the documents, obtained by Greenpeace under U.S. 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 U.S. 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''.
       But in evidence to the UK House of Lords science and 
     technology committee in 2003, Exxon's head of public affairs, 
     Nick Thomas, said: ``I think we can say categorically we have 
     not campaigned with the United States government or any other 
     government to take any sort of position over Kyoto.''
       Exxon, officially the U.S.'s most valuable company valued 
     at $379bn (K206bn) earlier this year, is seen in the papers 
     to share the White House's unwavering scepticism of 
     international efforts to address climate change.
       The documents, which reflect unanimity between the company 
     and the U.S. administration on the need for more global 
     warming science and the unacceptable costs of Kyoto, state 
     that Exxon believes that joining Kyoto ``would be 
     unjustifiably drastic and premature''.
       This line has been taken consistently by President Bush, 
     and was expected to be continued in yesterday's talks with 
     Tony Blair who has said that climate change is ``the most 
     pressing issue facing mankind''.
       ``President Bush tells Mr. Blair he's concerned about 
     climate change, but these documents reveal the alarming 
     truth, that policy in this White House is being written by 
     the world's most powerful oil company. This administration's 
     climate policy is a menace to humanity,'' said Stephen 
     Tindale, Greenpeace's executive director in London last 
     night.
       ``The prime minister needs to tell Mr. Bush he's calling in 
     some favours. Only by securing mandatory cuts in U.S. 
     emissions can Blair live up to his rhetoric,'' said Mr. 
     Tindale.
       In other meetings documented in the papers, Ms. Dobriansky 
     meets Don Pearlman, an international anti-Kyoto lobbyist who 
     has been a paid adviser to the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments 
     both of which have followed the U.S. line against Kyoto.
       The purpose of the meeting with Mr. Pearlman, who also 
     represents the secretive anti-Kyoto Climate Council, which 
     the administration says ``works against most U.S. government 
     efforts to address climate change'', is said to be to 
     ``solicit [his] views as part of our dialogue with friends 
     and allies''.

[[Page H4275]]

       ExxonMobil, which was yesterday contacted by the Guardian 
     in the U.S. but did not return calls, is spending millions of 
     pounds on an advertising campaign aimed at influencing 
     politicians, opinion formers and business leaders in the UK 
     and other pro-Kyoto countries in the weeks before the G8 
     meeting at Gleneagles.

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