Founder Would Surely Be Troubled by Exxon
by Jane Dale Owen
The values we learn from our families can guide us for generations. As the granddaughter of Robert Lee Blaffer, one of the founders of Humble Oil (predecessor to ExxonMobil), I learned some very important values from my grandfather: integrity, concern for the community and responsibility. Now, as a major shareholder in ExxonMobil, I have become increasingly concerned with the company’s apparent failure to maintain the values my grandfather taught me.
In particular, I am greatly concerned about ExxonMobil’s position on global warming. Global warming has the potential to condemn generation after generation of the world’s people to hotter, more disease ridden, and more dangerous lives. Yet the company claims that “scientists remain unable to confirm” whether humans are causing global warming, and that addressing the problem would cause untold economic harm. ExxonMobil is nearly alone in promoting these views.
I believe ExxonMobil’s recalcitrant position on global warming, held in the face of widely accepted scientific facts in growing acceptance by the rest of the industrial sector, now casts serious doubt on the integrity of the company and its leadership.
Our company is separating itself form the responsible business and scientific communities. It is projecting the image of a corporate dinosaur- one that refuses to face facts and lacks the vision to meet the energy challenges of the 21st century.
Last December the heads of the British Meteorological Office and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a warning that “ignoring climate change will surely be the most costly of all choices, for us and our children … the evidence is almost incontrovertible that man has an effect and therefore we need to act accordingly.”
Rather than acknowledge the immediacy of these dangers, ExxonMobil has engaged in a massive misinformation campaign attempting to convince the public that there is no scientific consensus about global warming and that taking steps to mitigate the problem would wreck our economy. ExxonMobil was a long time member of the Global Climate Coalition, the GCC, and industry front group that has spent millions of shareholders dollars to pay scientists and economists to conclude there is no need to alter the present course of unchecked fossil fuel use and carbon emissions. The company still spends shareholders money on misleading advertising intended to spear the reality of global warming.
I believe that my grandfather, were he alive, would have been the first to accept the scientific consensus concerning global warming and would have taken responsibility for the company’s contribution to the problem. By pursuing the irresponsible course it has chosen, ExxonMobil is violating the values of my grandfathers company and risking the money that other shareholder and I have invested.
The eventual likelihood of enormous liability lawsuits poses risks to investors. We’ve recently seen the financial dangers to which the cigarette industry exposed itself by denying sound science. For ExxonMobil, liability seems virtually inevitable as the world begins to experience coastal flooding, greater insurance premiums, loss of waterfront properties, increased frequency of extreme weather events and higher disease rates dues to expanded rages of disease carrying- insects. The Insurance industry has already recognized the contribution of global warming to the escalation of weather- related losses. As a long-term shareholder, I would like ExxonMobil to reflect these liability risks in shareholder reports and to take immediate action to redirect the company and minimize these liabilities.
Other companies have taken such action. Ford and Toyota released statements in the past two weeks indicating that they are working hard to produce, within the decade, cars that do not require fossil fuel power. British Petroleum and Shell are investing over 750 million in renewable energy just in the next few years.
By continuing to exclusively focus on fossil fuels ExxonMobil not only threatens our climate, but also risks its own financial future. For these reasons, I support the efforts of Campaign ExxonMobil, a coalition of religious investors which is committed to reversing the company’s position on global warming.
My grandfather was a firm believer in corporate accountability and fiscal responsibility. For ExxonMobil to deny its role on global warming is not only unscientific, it neglects the long-term interests of shareholders.
ExxonMobil should drop its current stance and take responsibility for its role in global warming.
