MONEY IN POLITICS

ExxonMobil must stop giving corporate political campaign donations and taking millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for environmentally and socially destructive projects.

No one institution should have the right to determine government policy in a democracy. ExxonMobil gets away with its outrageous activities through buying government influence. Since 1997 it has spent $47 million in lobbying government officials. In the 2000 election cycle, ExxonMobil and its employees donated $1,375,250, 89 percent of which went to Republican candidates, helping to ensure that fellow Texan and oil executive George W. Bush got elected to the White House. Note: All campaign finance and lobbying data above taken from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Its investment has paid off. ExxonMobil lobbied hard against the Kyoto Protocol, the only international treaty to address global warming. Last year, the Bush Administration pulled the US out of Kyoto. And in 2002, Bush announced that the US response to climate change would be voluntary reductions of carbon dioxide, and that under this plan emissions will be allowed to significantly increase. In the Senate, ExxonMobil's extensive lobbying with its fossil fuel allies has ensured a US energy policy that increases our dependence on polluting fossil fuels, instead of moving us toward energy security based on renewable energy sources.

Enron taught us all how corporations and government are intertwined. Similarly, ExxonMobil guarantees its influence over public policy by investing millions in campaigns and lobbying. In return, ExxonMobil receives access, which leads to millions in taxpayer subsidies that are provided by the US government and other public finance agencies, including the World Bank. Our tax dollars should not subsidize ExxonMobil's bad corporate behavior.

For more information:

Read the factsheet Cashing in on Democracy.

www.thealliancefordemocracy.org
www.seen.org

The Stop ExxonMobil Alliance is a broad association of rights groups working to influence ExxonMobil's behavior in the human rights, environment, governance and community relations areas. Alliance members support each others' demands but do not have expertise or take public position on all the issue areas.