Common Dreams / Published on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 by the Huffington Post Charlie Cray
The WSJ reports that ExxonMobil is the key funder of a front group called Public Interest Watch which has been pushing the IRS to audit Greenpeace.
Greenpeace says an IRS auditor told it that the PIW letter triggered the audit.
"PIW's most recent federal tax filing, covering August 2003 to July 2004, states that $120,000 of the $124,094 the group received in contributions during that period came from Exxon Mobil."
ExxonMobil has not only been one of the biggest funders of climate change denialists and other cigarette scientists , but also been one of the biggest funders of the American Enterprise Institute -- you know, the neocon think tank that pushed the war that has nothing to do with oil. I guess I'm not surprised that the Journal says Michael J. Hardiman, a Washington-based lobbyist and public-relations consultant who worked at PIW "left in February 2004 to work in Iraq as a civilian employee of the Defense Department." Shocked. And awed.
But why is it that so few -- with the exception of Michael Klare, Chalmers Johnson and Kevin Phillips -- are willing to confront the phenomenon of American "petroimperialism" head on?
Anyway, the Journal reports that Greenpeace was given a clean bill of health. So it can go back to doing what it does best -- exposing Exxon's campaign to wage war on the truth about global warming.
But what about Exxon?
How much did Exxon pay in taxes last year -- when it rendered an extraordinary profit of $36 billion from ordinary Americans, mostly by constraining refining capacity to drive up prices.
That's before they got another windfall from Bush's $14.5 BILLION in tax breaks and incentives for the energy industry.
Trickle up economics is working in Dallas, or as they say at the Times, a rising tide lifts all bonuses (and few cries of "windfall tax" in Congress): Energy industry CEOs' (the same guys who wouldn't be sworn in before Congress) median compensation has been jacked up 215 percent since 2002.
For Exxon CEO Lee Raymond the take in 2005 was a total of $25.8 million in compensation.
What else makes me think the IRS might wanna audit Exxon?
Well, gee. ExxonMobil has 7 subsidiaries incorporated in the Bahamas and one in the Caymans.
How much oil is there?
How much money did Exxon park in these offshore havens and claim they were reinvesting in oil and gas exploration to get some obscure tax deduction or deferment before Congress passed a tax amnesty for corporations that want to repatriate their profits? Was any of it used to pay bribe in places like Kazakhstan? Oh no, couldn't be, after all, companies that participate in corrupted dealings do themselves no favors.
Oh, and what about ExxonMobil's reserve reports? Are they accurate. After all, Dow Jones reported last year that of the large oil companies, ExxonMobil put up the greatest resistance to a new rule that changed accounting policy for reported reserves.
I could go on and on for days and account for about bejillionth of the hot air that Exxon puts out each year.
E.g. everyone see the 60 Minutes story about how Exxon was behind the White House quashing of NASA's top climate scientist?
It had a great clincher:
"For months, 60 Minutes had been trying to talk with the president's science advisor. 60 Minutes was finally told he would never be available. Phil Cooney, the editor at the Council on Environmental Quality didn't return 60 Minutes' calls. In June, he left the White House and went to work for Exxon Mobil."
Another Bush Cheney crony with no respect for the truth leaves government to go to work for Exxon. Gee, somebody hook up a generator to that well-oiled revolving door.
Better yet, maybe it's time someone did something serious.
You know, like Oil Change's proposal to force a separation between oil and state.
Charlie Cray is the director of the Center for Corporate Policy in Washington, DC. He helped establish Halliburton Watch, and is co-author of "The People's Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy" (Berrett-Koehler), and is a former associate editor of Multinational Monitor magazine.
