Exxon Exposed?

Truth never seems to get in the way of the extreme Left when it comes to demonizing American capitalism and industry. Such was the case this week when a cadre of environmental groups got together to accuse ExxonMobil and President Bush of having conspired to invade Iraq in order to gain access to that country’s oil reserves.

At a Dallas, Texas, press conference held on May 30th, Valley Reed, the spokeswoman for an outfit called Consumers for Peace (is there also a group called Consumers for War? Never mind.), declared, “We believe that ExxonMobil . . . has been involved in conceiving of and then promoting the invasion and occupation of Iraq. When the Iraq war was being cooked up, we think ExxonMobil was in the kitchen.”

Ms. Reed conveniently ignores that “regime change” in Iraq was the official policy of the environmental movement’s favorite president, Bill Clinton. As Clinton said on February 17, 1998:

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."

Similarly, recall the words of Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright (February 18, 1998):

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face."

And what has Al “Inconvenient Truth” Gore had to say about Iraq?

"We know that he [Saddam] has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country. Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power” (September 23, 2002).


Was Al Gore fronting for American energy companies when he sought the overthrow of Saddam during the first Gulf War? Here’s what the former vice president said on September 23, 2003:

“I was one of the few Democrats in the U.S. Senate who supported the war resolution in 1991. And I felt betrayed by the first Bush administration's hasty departure from the battlefield” (September 23, 2003).

Al Gore felt “betrayed” because the first Bush administration did not take out Saddam? In whose “kitchen” was Gore cooking?

So much for the ExxonMobil/Bush conspiracy.

Another brilliant participant in the May 30th press conference was Shawnee Hoover, campaign director of a project called Exxpose Exxon. In her remarks Ms. Hoover opined that, “ExxonMobil is using its profits and its power to continue to keep this country addicted to oil.”

Earth to Shawnee: the world runs on oil. The world today consumes the equivalent of close to 230 million barrels of oil per day. By the year 2030, with population growth and the ever-expanding world economy, world energy needs are expected to reach nearly 335 million barrels per day of oil-equivalent. That’s about a 50-percent increase in the next 25 years.

Where will the energy come from? Global oil use will expand about 1.4 percent annually, held down by major improvements in vehicle fuel economy (a tip of the hat to the great folks in Detroit!).

Natural gas and coal use will each expand annually at about 1.8 percent as the world’s need for electricity mushrooms.

Nuclear power, hydro power and biomass are expected to grow respectively about 1.4 percent, 2 percent and 1.3 percent annually.

Ms. Hoover will be pleased to know that wind and solar energy growth will likely average about 11 percent per year! Isn’t that wonderful? Sure is, but even with this impressive growth, wind and solar energy will make up only about 1 percent of total world energy by 2030.

Creating all this new energy will require huge investments. In 2005 ExxonMobil spent over $700 million in technology R&D, and $3.2 billion since 2001. And they are not alone—together the major oil companies are spending billions each and every year on research into better, more efficient, more environmentally responsible ways to produce energy.

The truth of the matter is that ExxonMobil is a global company with a presence in about 200 countries. The company has the largest inventory of discovered oil and gas resources of any energy company in the world as well as being the largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products. Oh yeah, they also generate electric power in Hong Kong.

I’d say, thank goodness America and the world has ExxonMobil.

—Bill Lauderback.