ExxonMobil, Rockefellers Face Off in Climate Battle

ExxonMobil is facing an onslaught from environmentalists and some shareholders alleging it hid what it knew about the effects of fossil fuels on climate change.

In an ironic twist: among the opponents is the Rockefeller Family Fund, built on the fortune amassed by John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, which became Esso, then Exxon and then, in 1999, ExxonMobil.

The RFF met last January, in secret, in Manhattan with environmental nongovernmental groups "to establish in the public's mind that Exxon is a corrupt institution that has pushed humanity (and all creation) towards climate chaos and grave harm," according to an internal document on the meeting seen by AFP.

"We hosted a meeting with leading advocates to understand their thoughts on how to best respond to the outrageous conduct," Lee Wasserman, the director of RFF, said.

They adopted a strategy to attack ExxonMobil on legal grounds, by convincing authorities to launch investigations and by filing lawsuits. In other words, replicating the tactics used against the tobacco industry in the 1990s.

"This is a conspiracy to deliberately misrepresent the company position and to tear down the company,"  said Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for ExxonMobil.

According to a person close to the situation who requested anonymity, certain members of the Rockefeller family have privately expressed opposition to the campaign against ExxonMobil.

Bill McKibben, founder of the NGO 350.org who participated in the January meeting, has pushed for investigations into whether ExxonMobil broke the law.

"We want everyone we can think of to know it broke every kind of moral law," McKibben said in an email.

The ecologist led the ultimately successful opposition against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought Canadian oil sands production from Alberta to the US Gulf states.

The ExxonMobil critics accuse the oil company of having, since 1977, research showing that fossil-fuel energy has a harmful impact on climate, but that it kept the information to itself.

Denouncing the critics charges as "inaccurate" and a "conspiracy", ExxonMobil insists that it had acknowledged the risks of  climate change as soon as it was possible, that is, in the 2000s.

Accusing the Rockefeller organization of influencing the media and the authorities, the Texas firm has pledged to publicly defend its positions, although until now it has maintained a certain discretion about the subject.

The change in attitude is due to the power of the Rockefellers, who not only have the colossal financial means to contest ExxonMobil on all battlegrounds, but also the influence of their powerful family name.
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Mitsubishi Admits to Manipulating Fuel Economy Test Data

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said it manipulated mileage test data for its minicars sold in Japan, resulting in 620,000 vehicles produced in the past three years being labeled more fuel efficient than they actually are.

The tests overstated fuel efficiency by 5% to 10%, and Mitsubishi Motors said it’s investigating who’s responsible. The company said the violation may result in the Japanese automaker having to pay back government tax rebates for the vehicles, of which 468,000 were supplied to Nissan Motor Co.

Mitsubishi Motors’ shares fell 15% for the biggest decline in more than a decade in Tokyo trading, cutting its market value to 721 billion yen ($6.59 billion). The company’s manipulation of tests will further intensify scrutiny of the auto industry after Volkswagen AG’s admission last year that it had rigged diesel models with software to meet U.S. emissions standards.

“This may be different from Volkswagen’s issue, but the market has become very sensitive to such kind of news,” said Seiji Sugiura, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center. “It may have a similar impact in terms of sales and the company’s reputation.”

The company said it tested the vehicles using tire and air resistance that yielded better fuel economy than the actual rates. The mishandling of the test data was “intentional,” said President Tetsuro Aikawa, who bowed in apology before a briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Mitsubishi Motors is also checking whether the cheating affected overseas models and said it was unable to estimate the impact of the manipulation on its business at this point. Separately, the company said it has used a method to test mileage since 2002 that is not compliant with Japanese standards.

Nissan, which sells the eK model as the Nissan DayZ in Japan, had discovered the discrepancy in mileage. The company has suspended sales of the DayZ and DayZ Roox models Wednesday until Mitsubishi Motors provided further clarification, Nissan spokesman Jonathan Adashek said.

Mitsubishi Motors’s disclosure may cause further damage to consumers’ trust in car companies’ fuel economy claims. Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. agreed to pay fines and forfeit emissions credits in late 2014 to settle U.S. claims that they overstated mileage ratings. Ford lowered ratings for hybrid models in both 2014 and 2013.

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Bild: German Carmakers to Recall 630,000 for Emissions

A handful of German automakers, including Volkswagen AG and its Audi and Porsche division, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit and General Motors Co.’s Opel will recall 630,000 cars to fix diesel models’ emissions systems’ temperature setups, Bild newspaper reported, citing an unidentified German government representative.

The recall is meant to fix a device designed to turn off emissions controls at certain temperatures, Bild said.

Volkswagen AG CEO Matthias Mueller in happier times, as the head of Porsche back in 2014.

Sean Gallup, Getty Images

Transport minister Alexander Dobrindt is scheduled to reveal the findings of regulatory tests of cars’ diesel engines later Friday. Ministry spokeswoman Svenja Friedrich declined to comment when asked about the nature of Dobrindt’s planned announcement.

The German probe across a broad range of manufacturers and models was prompted by Volkswagen’s revelations in September that it had installed software on diesel motors designed to cheat on official emissions test. The German investigation showed no other models with illegal software, Bild reported.

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Daimler is among carmakers that have acknowledged the existence of a component that turns off controls at low temperatures, saying it’s legal and designed to protect the engine. Joerg Howe, a spokesman for the carmaker, declined to comment on any recall. Nico Schmidt, a spokesman for Opel, also declined to comment.

“The question is whether this number is just the start, or if there’ll be more,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. “What’s clear is that there are legal tricks the whole industry is using. That might be legal, but it’s not a legitimate thing to do, and shines a negative light on the industry as a whole. This isn’t a good sign.”

Daimler is among carmakers that have acknowledged the existence of a component that turns off controls at low temperatures, saying it’s legal and designed to protect the engine. Joerg Howe, a spokesman for the carmaker, declined to comment on any recall. Nico Schmidt, a spokesman for Opel, also declined to comment.

“The question is whether this number is just the start, or if there’ll be more,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. “What’s clear is that there are legal tricks the whole industry is using. That might be legal, but it’s not a legitimate thing to do, and shines a negative light on the industry as a whole. This isn’t a good sign.”

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Automakers Brace for Greater Scrutiny after Emissions Scandals

Carmakers have to be clearer about the way they certify their fuel-economy and emission ratings as regulators ramp up scrutiny over the gap between laboratory results and on-road conditions, according to Daimler AG Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche.

“You can only be transparent and if there’s any shortfalls anywhere, fix them and move forward,” Zetsche told Bloomberg News ahead of the Beijing auto show opening this week. “And then of course it will take some time” for the industry to be where they were before the Frankfurt motor show last year.

Revelations that Volkswagen AG (IW 1000/7) cheated on diesel emissions emerged days after the Frankfurt exhibition last September. Since then, government fraud investigators have raided French manufacturer PSA Group as part of broader checks into vehicle emissions. In Japan, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said last week it manipulated fuel-economy tests to mislead consumers.

Investigating Certification Process

Also last week, Daimler (IW 1000/15) said it had been asked by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the certification process of its cars. The internal probe follows U.S. class action suits that allege some of its cars violated emissions standards. Daimler has said it’s cooperating fully with authorities and that the suits are “baseless.”

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ExxonMobil Launches Venture for Low-cost Carbon Capture

ExxonMobil said on May 5 that it was starting a new venture that could make carbon-dioxide capture a more economically attractive way to fight global warming.

ExxonMobil said its new agreement with FuelCell Energy Inc.  aims to develop technology for capturing carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants using fuel cells.

The idea is that the fuel cells could generate the additional electricity needed for the carbon-capture process, eliminating at least part of what has been seen as a burdensome cost in the process.

"Carbon capture with carbonate fuel cells is a potential game-changer for affordably and efficiently concentrating carbon dioxide for large-scale gas and coal-fired power plants," said FuelCell Energy chief executive Chip Bottone.

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Majority of Canada's Oil-Sands Plants Emerge Unharmed from Wildfire

Canadian oil-sands facilities representing more than 90% of production taken offline during a wildfire in northern Alberta have emerged unscathed and are expected to restart within days to a couple of weeks.

Mines and drilling projects north of Fort McMurray are already bringing back some of the roughly 1 million barrels a day of supply that was curbed, Steve Williams, chief executive officer of the nation’s largest energy company  Suncor Energy Inc., said Tuesday, speaking for the industry. Facilities south of the energy hub that represent much less of the lost supply and were more affected by the fire may take longer, he said.

“It’s that quick -- some facilities are turning back up the volumes now,” Williams said at a media briefing in Edmonton, flanked by his peers at companies including Imperial Oil Ltd. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Other projects to the south may take longer. “South, where there have been a few more direct impacts from the fire, we have to go in and evaluate and put the plans in place.”

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Decline of Air Pollution, Rising Abatement Costs

U.S. manufacturers have been highly successful in reducing pollution over the past two decades, yet their costs to shrink their environmental footprint continue to grow. They're being affected by the law of marginal returns and each new pollution regulation that EPA devises will be increasingly more costly to implement.

Two recent studies help bear this out. In one, the MAPI Foundation compared pollution abatement costs among manufacturers around the world and found that U.S. manufacturers have the highest bill -- roughly double that of Japan, three times as much as Germany, and about six times as much as Canada and Korea. MAPI Foundation Chief Economist Dan Meckstroth's analysis, which examined air pollution, greenhouse gases, waste disposal, and wastewater treatment, showed that U.S. manufacturers spend roughly $25 billion annually in pollution abatement costs, the highest for any country in the world. This amounts to about 1.2% of manufacturing value-added, comparable to what manufacturers experience in most other advanced economies, where strict regulations have also increased business costs. (Canada's manufacturers pay the most as a percentage of manufacturing GDP, at 2.2%, primarily because of the nation's preponderance of waste- and wastewater-intensive industries, such as pulp and paper, steel, and petroleum refining. Mexico's manufacturers pay the least, at 0.8%.)


When looking at air pollution abatement -- including the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM) -- U.S. manufacturers spend $5.3 billion annually, more than the other eight countries in the study combined. As a percentage of manufacturing value-added, this amounts to 0.27%, which is higher than every other country except Canada.

Another study demonstrates U.S. manufacturers' resounding success in reducing their air pollution. Georgetown economist Arik Levinson shows that between 1990 and 2008, U.S. factory air emissions fell by two-thirds, even as the real value of manufacturing output grew by 35%. Dr. Levinson observed that advances in production techniques led to more than 90% of this cleanup.

This accords with a 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that shows dramatic reductions in air pollutants from electric power plants over the past two decades. Two pollutants in particular, SO2 and NOx emissions, fell dramatically -- from about 16 million short tons of SO2 and 6 million short tons of NOx in 1990 to about 3.4 million and 1.8 million, respectively, in 2012.

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments clearly incented industry to develop new technologies that have led to a far more efficient and cleaner manufacturing sector. So the question isn't one of effectiveness, it's one of efficiency -- that is, as we become a cleaner society, how do we reduce pollution without reducing U.S. manufacturers' competitiveness? It's a very relevant question: The law of diminishing returns tells us that as more resources are invested on a fixed resource, you'll eventually reach a point at which additional investments yield progressively smaller results. In pollution control this means it's becoming progressively more expensive for manufacturers to eliminate their remaining emissions.

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Climate impacts 'overwhelming' - UN

The impacts of global warming are likely to be "severe, pervasive and irreversible", a major report by the UN has warned.

Scientists and officials meeting in Japan say the document is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impacts of climate change on the world.

Some impacts of climate change include a higher risk of flooding and changes to crop yields and water availability.

Humans may be able to adapt to some of these changes, but only within limits.

Scientists fear a growing impact of global warming on humans

An example of an adaptation strategy would be the construction of sea walls and levees to protect against flooding. Another might be introducing more efficient irrigation for farmers in areas where water is scarce.

Natural systems are currently bearing the brunt of climatic changes, but a growing impact on humans is feared.

Members of the UN's climate panel say it provides overwhelming evidence of the scale of these effects.

Our health, homes, food and safety are all likely to be threatened by rising temperatures, the summary says.

The report was agreed after almost a week of intense discussions here in Yokohama, which included concerns among some authors about the tone of the evolving document.

This is the second of a series from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) due out this year that outlines the causes, effects and solutions to global warming.

The mercury doesn’t lie: We’ve hit a troubling climate change milestone

This latest Summary for Policymakers document highlights the fact that the amount of scientific evidence on the impacts of warming has almost doubled since the last report in 2007.

Be it the melting of glaciers or warming of permafrost, the summary highlights the fact that on all continents and across the oceans, changes in the climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems in recent decades.

In the words of the report, "increasing magnitudes of warming increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts".

"Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,'' IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri told journalists at a news conference in Yokohama.

Dr Saleemul Huq, a convening lead author on one of the chapters, commented: "Before this we thought we knew this was happening, but now we have overwhelming evidence that it is happening and it is real."

Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, said that, previously, people could have damaged the Earth's climate out of "ignorance".

"Now, ignorance is no longer a good excuse," he said.

Mr Jarraud said the report was based on more than 12,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies. He said this document was "the most solid evidence you can get in any scientific discipline".

US Secretary of State John Kerry commented: "Unless we act dramatically and quickly, science tells us our climate and our way of life are literally in jeopardy. Denial of the science is malpractice."

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