Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Dirty Money and Fossil Knowledge: #ExxonKnew (and Exxon gave money to Washington University). Was this part of a broader illegal practice? Should we disavow this history?

Original post: May 4, 2016.
Latest update (below): June 6, 2017

 So, I innocently clicked on this tweet yesterday, out of curiosity:
And, scrolling through the list was not surprised to find a Washington University connection, the Weidenbaum Center, formerly known as the Center for the Study of American Business.  Murray Weidenbaum (d. 2014) was a Reagan advisor and professor here, and apparently this center was the nucleus of free-market 'research' for a long time.  What I should also have already known is that there is some connection to the #ExxonKnew case (see Scientific American summary here), as I quickly discovered when I started sniffing around. (Here's update, as of 5/9/16 from Politico).

S. Fred Singer was an early denier of the dangers of smoking, and went on to become one of the chief anti-climate science actors, as detailed at length in Oreskes and Conway's Merchants of Doubt.  You have to hand it to him, at 91 years old he even went to Paris with the Heartland Institute to stage an anti-COP meeting in 2015.  His task was to sow the seeds of doubt and confusion, as was that of all of these actors.  And, they did so at a center at WUSTL that was moving money tax-free (501 (c)(3)) and as below, a lot of that money appears to have come from Exxon, hence the subpoeana referenced above (stay tuned for more on tax-free money laundering).




Why would it be illegal?  Well, this is the subpoena submitted by the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands.  California, New York, and several other states are also reportedly preparing similar cases.  Here's what they wrote to Exxon when they requested these documents:
http://media.washtimes.com.s3.amazonaws.com/media/misc/2016/05/03/U_S__subpoena_file.pdf

 "Criminally Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act".  This is basically what it means to perpetuate science obstructionism, which is what Washington University and Exxon were doing when they published this kind of work.  

 So, I tried to find out if in fact Exxon had given money to the Center (pretty sure they had since most of the reporting on the ExxonKnew case has already linked to the Weidenbaum Center) and...
Updated May 9, 2016:  Well I guess I was just being blissfully naïve about Murray Weidenbaum, because the Union of Concerned Scientists was already calling him out (and detailing Exxon funding of his climate science distortion, denial, and obstructionism, as early as 2007).  
http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/exxon_report.pdf

 In 2007 Exxon continued to fund Washington University, in particular, its global conference on energy.  I'm pretty sure they got what they paid for.

 So, decide for yourself.  Here's how the center represented itself, as a place for "unbiased" research....

You can read and decide if this is 'unbiased' work.  Below is the list of articles published during the hey-day of climate science denialism at WUSTL.  Well, I take that back.  We are still an anti-public health, anti-climate science, pro-fossil fuel university, but this mission is now carried out through slightly more subtle greenwashing tactics tied to our way of (not) acting on 'sustainability' and using the phrase 'clean coal' much like Donald Trump.  More on that later.

Global Climate Change  (Source:  https://wc.wustl.edu/csab)

Applying the Precautionary Principle to Global Warming, Indur M. Goklany, Policy Study 157, August 2000
Comments on "Climate Change Impacts on the United States" Overview Section, Kenneth W. Chilton, Public Comment, August 11, 2000
What Do We Know about Human Influence on Climate Change? S. Fred Singer, Contemporary Issues Series 96, November 1999
A Current View of the Kyoto Climate Change Treaty, William H. Lash III, Contemporary Issues Series 94,August 1999
Hearing on Global Climate Change, William H. Lash III, May 1999
Statement before the U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Energy Research, Development, Production and Regulation, and the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs, May 20, 1999
Global Deception: The Exaggeration of the Global Warming Threat, Patrick J. Michaels, Policy Study 146,June 1998
Designing Global Climate Policy: Efficient Markets versus Political Markets, Jonathan Baert Weiner, Policy Study 143, December 1997
Framing A Coherent Climate Change Policy, Frederick H. Rueter, Policy Study 141, October 1997 

 Updated March 2, 2017.  They must be contractually obliged to keep those climate science denialist publications on their websites.  But in case they ever decide to take them down, here's the screenshot (3/2/2017):

Updated March 13, 2017:  Story breaks that DOS head Rex Tillerson was using an alias while CEO at Exxon:  Here's Bloomberg.  Here's Buzzfeed. 

Updated June 6, 2017:  NY Atty General investigation reveals probable accounting malfeasance at Exxon to misrepresent climate risks to investors.

Updated October 21, 2019: NY AG case going to court against Exxon for fraud:  Story: Inside Climate News; NYT & case history here
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