While mainstream media focused on ExxonMobil’s record profits and whether or not the person who chairs the board should also be chief executive officer, State and U.S. legislators and a member of the U.S. Congress took the time to hear from people who are suffering serious illness as a result of ExxonMobil refinery pollution that constantly permeates the air in their communities. An environmental justice hearing held the day before the company’s annual shareholder meeting helped bring clarity to the justice issues that are related to environmental pollution.

The Environmental Justice Hearing, sponsored by the Dallas Peace Center, was conducted at the Munger Place United Methodist Church. Residents and activists from the Texas Gulf Coast and Houston Ship Channel area gave testimony describing the pollution that is devastating the lives of people living in communities near the refineries.

Neil Carman, scientist and Lone Star Sierra Club Clean Air director, started off the testimony with information about the pollution caused by refineries in the gulf and ship channel. Carman, who formerly was an inspector with the Texas Air Quality Board, told the panel that, in 2005, ExxonMobil’s Toxic Release Inventory(TRI) included 53 plant sites with more than 12 million pounds of toxic air emissions including cancer-causing benzene and 1,3 butadiene. According to Carman, this is not the whole story. He referred to an EPA aerial surveillance study conducted seven years ago that found that emission levels of refineries in the area are six to seven times higher than reported. He noted that the state never took any action on this information.

“The Federal Clean Air Act and the Texas Clean Air Act guarantee people the right to clean air, even in industrial communities,” Carman said. “But these rights are not protected. TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) does not enforce the law.”

Juan Parras, director ofTEJAS (Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Service) and outreach coordinator for CLEAN (Citizens League for Environmental Action Now) informed the panel that a recent study by The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston found that children living within two miles of the Houston Ship Channel have a 56 percent greater risk of childhood leukemia than children living farther away. “Mayor White is taking on industry, but we have a tough fight on our hands, Parras said. “It is a violation of civil rights when we are denied clean air beacuse of our neighbors.”

Reverend Roy Malveau, pastor of the Shining Star Missionary Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas, called the pollution from ExxonMobil and other refineries “toxic terrorism.” “Children are affected by the toxins they breathe,” Malveau said. “The process of learning has been impeded by these chemicals. Children are not getting a fair shake, and there are 200,000 children living near the Ship Channel.”

Josefina Mendoza and her children lived in Archia Courts Apartments, across the street from the Baytown ExxonMobil refinery for about 10 years. She spoke of health problems her family suffered while living near the facility. Mendoza believes exposure to refinery pollution contributed to her two-year-old son’s mysterious death in 2003. “He would cough when he goes outside,” she said. “I don’t have money to see a doctor.”

In 2006, waste oil accidentally erupted from a refinery tower covering the apartments and cars with black rain. Hilton Kelley, CEO and founder of CIDA (Comunity In-power and Development Association) became involved when he read about the incident. “No one from the agencies came out to talk to these people,” Kelley says. “CIDA is the only group that went to see them.”

Ana Hernandez, who is chair of the Texas Legislative Environmental Caucus, chaired the environmental justice hearing. As a state legislator, she represents people living on both sides of the Houston Ship Channel, an area that is polluted from many industry facilities and gets pollution from the ExxonMobil Baytown Refinery when winds carry it in from the gulf. “It is very disturbing to hear about a community affected by spills and left without information,” Hernandez said. “I will look into this and work to require state to take more active role when there is a spill, to provide information and guidance to the community.”

She agreed that there had been plenty of studies and that the government needs to enforce laws on books. “We are focused on taking back the House (of Representatives) for a people’s government instead of industry government ,” Hernandez added.

Other panel members who heard testimony were Lon Burnam, Fort Worth representative, and a representative from U.S. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’s office, Byron Gipson.

Outside the shareholders’ meeting, the next day, activists and community leaders gave presentations about war profiteering and high gas prices at a time when ExxonMobil is enjoying record profits -- $40 billion in 2007. Shareholders walked past a banner held by activists that reached across the front of the Meyerson Symphony Center that said “Exxon Enough” in bright red and black letters.

Inside the meeting, Rex Tillerson assured shareholders that the company is achieving “operational excellence.” Shareholders’ resolutions directly related to the environment and sustainability ranged from asking the board of directors to report on potential environmental damage from company drilling for oil and gas in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to providing information to customers on carbon dioxide emissions generated by the diesel and gasoline they buy.

A resolution asking the board to adopt quantitative goals, based on current technologies, for reducing total greenhouse gass emissions from the company’s products and operations and to report by the fall on goals to achieve these reductions received the most support with 30.9 percent of shareholders’ vote. The only other resolution to garner votes over 10 percent ask the board to adopt a policy fore renewable energy research, development and sourcing, and to report its progress by 2009. This resolution received 27.4 percent of the vote.

Organizations such as the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, New Jersey have been calling on ExxonMobil to take responsibility for environmental impact and climate change for more than 10 years. These organizations and activists are likely to continue their efforts to raise awareness about corporate responsibility issues.