This is What Happened When Oil Giants Exxon and Mobil Joined Forces

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Our DeSmog UK epic history series continues with the merger between two oil giants, Exxon andย Mobil.

A global superpower was created on 30th November 1998, with the $81bn merger between Exxon and Mobil.

The deal was quick on the heels of rival BPโ€™s merger with Amoco, but the ExxonMobil deal outshone that of BP Amoco by billions ofย dollars.

In its first year, ExxonMobil earned $228bn โ€“ more than Swedenโ€™s GDP at the time. In the coming years, the denial machine would have the economic force of an OECD nation state behindย it.

An Out-And-Outย Sceptic

Exxon boss Lee โ€œIron Assโ€ Raymond announced the deal, speaking for 28 minutes before Mobilโ€™s partner got a word in. The hunting man’s views on climate science were well known: he was an out-and-outย sceptic.

Exxonโ€™s favoured think tanks were those whose strategies emphasised โ€œthe promotion of free-market principles,โ€ as lobbyist and future Whitehouse mole Phil Cooney putย it.

With Raymond at the helm, Antony Fisherโ€™s libertarian think tanks thrived as the super-corporation spent millions funding their network of โ€œindependentโ€ scientists and researchers, whose explicit aims were to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on globalย warming.ย 

Annualย Donations

Donations to Fisherโ€™s Atlas Foundation, for instance, rose from around $280,000 to nearly $800,000 between 1998 and 2003; his Fraser institute received $120,000 from ExxonMobil in just two years to work specifically on climateย change.ย 

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) saw its annual donations more than double from $460,000 to over $1.1m. Its tagline was โ€œFree Markets and Smallย Governmentโ€.

By 2003, Exxonโ€™s donations to the CEI represented more than 15 percent of its total income. After bankrolling George W Bush into office, Exxonโ€™s agents would doctor documents, hire and fire public servants at national and international levels, and dislocate international efforts to combat climateย change.

After an environmental offensive on both sides of the pond from Tony Blair, Lord Browne and Al Gore, this was the empire strikingย back.

Next up on the DeSmog UK epic history series, ExxonMobil uses its PR power to change the publicโ€™s mind on climateย change.

@brendanmontague

Photo: Mike Mozart viaย flickr

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