H@rd Truths by GHK Lall – ExxonMobil and that 50-year-old lie

Oct 26, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

---

Kaieteur News – If ExxonMobil can conceal to deceive the world about what it knew about climate change, then what would this American oil giant not to do to a midget in the oil-producing world like Guyana? If ExxonMobil can take public postures that went against the results of its own studies, then how much would it think little of misleading this country about what it is doing (really doing) in Guyana’s rich offshore oilfields?

How much would Exxon not roll the dice and cheat Guyana, particularly when this country is so limited in what it knows about oil, and how weak and ineffectual its political leaders are? A lawsuit in California is shedding some light on what kind of company ExxonMobil is. About 50 years ago, the company’s own people arrived at some findings: greenhouse gas emissions were a serious problem, and urgent action was needed. ExxonMobil cannot plead ignorance, it definitely has a lot to answer for, given what it knew, and how it fought against those who kept pushing the issue into the public domain.

In January, Science magazine’s science historians Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supan put it rather bluntly:  “Climate projections reported by Exxon Mobil scientists between 1977 and 2003 were accurate and skillful in predicting subsequent global warming,” then the hammer: “ExxonMobil accurately foresaw the threat of human-caused global warming, both prior and parallel to orchestrating lobbying and propaganda campaigns to delay climate action.”

It is said that the best defense is a strong offense, and so, true to form, ExxonMobil went on the offensive. Exxon went against those who were filing lawsuits, by attacking the credibility, their motives and agendas, and others who exposed what the company is about, behind the smooth leadership exterior. Exxon was so desperate to suppress climate change realities that the company put its foot in its mouth, and blundered badly, rather embarrassingly.  A gathering as far back as 2012 in La Jolla, California involving the Union of Concerned Scientists and troubled environmental activists was attacked by Exxon’s people.  In Exxon’s haste to disparage the group, the company forgot something: it had received funding for its work from the Rockefeller Family Fund.

For those Guyanese who are slightly behind the knowledge curve, the patriarch of Rockefeller Family Fund was none other than oil titan, John D. Rockefeller, whose Standard Oil of New Jersey became Exxon Corporation in 1972.  It could be reasonably said that the people challenging Exxon’s climate change pretenses and farces were receiving some of their funding from the original parent of Exxon itself.  It is the height of perverse irony that Exxon could be chopping away at its own roots.

In the judicial arena where ExxonMobil is a longstanding ringmaster, the results have been mixed: some judges are feeling their way around climate change litigation, even when they partially agree with plaintiffs.  In San Francisco, however, one federal judge came right out in 2018 and said that “he accepts the science behind global warming”, but stopped short of issuing any groundbreaking decision. Meanwhile, California is contending that much valuable time has been lost, and much harm inflicted, because of Exxon’s public deceptions on climate change. Its own records confirm that it knew about climate change realities, but either put a lid on its own research, or pushed alternate narratives in public.  In many respects, Exxon resembles Big Tobacco, which was killing Americans, while pushing it lethal product as safe.

The issue for Guyanese is that, given the company’s record of two-faced behavior, how can it ever ne considered a trusted partner in this nation’s massive oil patrimony.  Its operations are 200 km from shore: a temptation.  Its production, flaring, and other numbers furnished to Guyana are from its own systems and records, as unmonitored by any Guyanese: more temptations.  The bottom-line question is whether Guyanese can ever have any confidence that Exxon will do right by this country, when it has the field all to itself, and out of sight to boot.  A company with a history of principled corporate practices could be given a try.  But here Guyana stands, with a partner that did wrongs in its own birthplace.  If ExxonMobil could do what it did in America, then it is a reckless stretch of credibility to think that it would spare Guyana its shenanigans, outrages.  It is my position that any action that would save the company money, or help it to make money (including use of extra-curriculars), Exxon will pull the trigger.

Further, just as Exxon has attacked messengers and civil-minded activists in the United States, it would do the same in Guyana.  In Guyana, however, Exxon gets politicians and their supplicants in the PPP Government to do its dirty work, viz., working diligently to intimidate and suppress locals, who point to the depraved nature of the company.  Some are in regular media, others on social media, and some really low Guyanese creatures operate in communities to spread the gospel of Exxon.  Yes, there are Guyanese at different levels in this society, who are that craven and traitorous.  Nothing is new about this; it is simply an extension of what Exxon has perfected over the decades, and what is now unleashed here.  I do not trust Exxon, and no Guyanese should.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

---

• ExxonMobil, GHK Lall, Guyana, H@rd Truths, misleading

---