2002 US Global Climate Change Program Scientist Michael MacCracken Letter to ExxonMobil’s Lee Raymond
- Contributed by
- Kert Davies (Climate Investigations Center)
p. 1
Office of the U. S. Global Change Research Program
400 Virginia Avenue, SW, Suite 750
Washington, D.C. 20024
Tel: 202-314-2233; Fax: 202-488-8681
Web: http://www.usgcrp.gov
email: mmaccrac@usgcrp.gov
Office of the U. S. Global Change Research Program
September 26, 2002
Lee R. Raymond
Chairman and Chief Executive
ExxonMobil Corp.
5959 Las Colinas Blvd.
Irving, TX 75039
RE: With regard to the ExxonMobil facsimile on February 6, 2001 from Dr. A. G. Randol to Mr.
John Howard of the Council on Environmental Quality
Dear Mr. Raymond:
As former director of the National Assessment Coordination Office of the US Global Change
Research Program, I am writing to you in order to provide a response to the critical comments
from ExxonMobil about the US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate
Variability and Change. In that the National Assessment report provided the basis for the US
National Communication released in June, I feel it important to clarify the issues and specifically
address a number of the criticisms.
On August 10, 2000, ExxonMobil ran an advertisement in the Washington Post entitled
“Political cart before a scientific horse” that was severely critical of the draft synthesis report1. In
partial fulfillment of a Congressional call for periodic assessments in the Global Change
Research Act of 1990, the preparation of this report had, at this point, been in progress for
several years under the leadership of a federal advisory committee.
Without having participated in the Federal Register review process that had led up to the draft
report being made available for public comment (after two rounds of technical review), nor
having participated in the public meetings discussing the draft report and its contents until the
very end, the ExxonMobil proceeded to make a number of charges in the advertisement,
generally based on rather poor understanding of what was being done and why the National
Assessment was being undertaken.
1 This was actually not the first involvement of ExxonMobil regarding the National Assessment; a few years ago an
executive in Exxon’s Gulf Coast region reportedly tried actively to halt the participation of the EPA’s Gulf Coast
laboratory in the EPA’s support for the Gulf Coast assessment led by Southern University on behalf of four
Historically Black Colleges and Universities. EPA headquarters ensured the effort proceeded.
400 Virginia Avenue, SW, Suite 750
Washington, D.C. 20024
Tel: 202-314-2233; Fax: 202-488-8681
Web: http://www.usgcrp.gov
email: mmaccrac@usgcrp.gov
Office of the U. S. Global Change Research Program
September 26, 2002
Lee R. Raymond
Chairman and Chief Executive
ExxonMobil Corp.
5959 Las Colinas Blvd.
Irving, TX 75039
RE: With regard to the ExxonMobil facsimile on February 6, 2001 from Dr. A. G. Randol to Mr.
John Howard of the Council on Environmental Quality
Dear Mr. Raymond:
As former director of the National Assessment Coordination Office of the US Global Change
Research Program, I am writing to you in order to provide a response to the critical comments
from ExxonMobil about the US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate
Variability and Change. In that the National Assessment report provided the basis for the US
National Communication released in June, I feel it important to clarify the issues and specifically
address a number of the criticisms.
On August 10, 2000, ExxonMobil ran an advertisement in the Washington Post entitled
“Political cart before a scientific horse” that was severely critical of the draft synthesis report1. In
partial fulfillment of a Congressional call for periodic assessments in the Global Change
Research Act of 1990, the preparation of this report had, at this point, been in progress for
several years under the leadership of a federal advisory committee.
Without having participated in the Federal Register review process that had led up to the draft
report being made available for public comment (after two rounds of technical review), nor
having participated in the public meetings discussing the draft report and its contents until the
very end, the ExxonMobil proceeded to make a number of charges in the advertisement,
generally based on rather poor understanding of what was being done and why the National
Assessment was being undertaken.
1 This was actually not the first involvement of ExxonMobil regarding the National Assessment; a few years ago an
executive in Exxon’s Gulf Coast region reportedly tried actively to halt the participation of the EPA’s Gulf Coast
laboratory in the EPA’s support for the Gulf Coast assessment led by Southern University on behalf of four
Historically Black Colleges and Universities. EPA headquarters ensured the effort proceeded.