ExxonMobil: $40 billion a year, and still “tacky”
Feb 12th, 2007 by Jon Stahl
Matt Stoller lets ExxonMobil VP Ken Cohen have it:
The politics of ExxonMobil are interesting, though expected. Cohen is not only the VP of Public Affairs, but the head of ExxonMobil’s PAC, and the head of the ExxonMobil Foundation that distributes charitable grants. That’s a lot of hats for a PR guy. I basically let him have it. I told him that I think the only reason he’s reaching out to progressive bloggers is because the Democrats control Congress and he’s trying to ward off an excess profits tax. Until Exxon acknowledges error and funds a PR campaign that suggests that gravity of the global climate situation, I told him I would strongly support such a tax because ExxonMobil clearly just won’t engage in ethical corporate behavior. Cohen explained at one point in the discussion that ExxonMobil supports Republicans because ExxonMobil is a business and he can’t find pro-business Democrats. I frankly don’t care and am glad Democrats don’t get oil money; it would be better if he actually convinced Republicans to take global warming seriously. Anyway, I don’t think it’s weird that the PAC director is the foundation director is the PR director of a company that makes $40 billion a year. It is tacky, though, especially when he tried to tell me about how ExxonMobil believes in traditional Jeffersonian principles. Tacky.
