Our World and Everything in It

 
Congratulations James Mulva. For those of you who do not know this man, he is the CEO of Conoco Phillips Petroleum. This is BIG NEWS. Conoco Phillips is the third largest integrated energy company in the US and the fifth largest refiner in the world. Its CEO, Mulva, has just announced his support of emmission limits on greenhouse gases. This is the first major oil company to agree to capping greenhouse gas emissions. He said that their was no one event that caused his decision but that he reflected on this personally. An oil man with a conscience! I wonder if this has anything to do with a scandal I wrote about not long ago. For anyone that missed that here is a recap:

 
Gale Norton was the head of the Department of the Interior, which oversees the EPA. Under Norton was Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles. Further down the line was Sue Ellen Wooldridge Deputy Chief of Staff to Norton. Griles becomes a target for criminal prosecution in connection with corruption and lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He is the highest-ranking member of the administration to be targeted for corruption. He resigned and went to work for, of all things, Conoco Phillips as a lobbyist. Meanwhile, Norton promotes Sue Ellen to Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources despite the fact she was asked by Senator Ron Wyden about her supposed relationship with Griles. She didn’t answer the question honestly even when her new position would actually oversee the department’s ethics office watching Griles. She and Griles live together in Virginia. An investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found another love nest between Griles and Wooldridge with a third party, Conoco Phillips. It seems Conoco Phillips VP Donald Duncan, Griles, and Woodridge chipped in to buy a million dollar plus beach vacation house in South Carolina Duncan owns 50%, with Griles and Wooldridge pitching in 25% each. The house was purchased before Wooldridge allowed Conoco Phillips to postpone a half billion-dollar pollution cleanup. I wonder where that was? Talk about strange bedfellows. This is the most unethical love triangle yet.
 
This is why I wonder what got to Mulva? Did this scandal tweak his conscience that the Bush administration has covered up much when it comes to the environment?  His statement is his affirmation that he believes greenhouse gases do indeed play a part in the overall global warming of our planet. He acknowledged that in the future the costs of mining coal, and refining petroleum will be higher and it’s going to get passed on to the consumer. Consumers are already overwrought with rising prices and no jobs so this is a good sign. Conoco Phillips is increasing their funding for research into alternatives. Last year the company spent 100 million dollars. They will increase that to 150 million dollars this year.
 
This announcement may create a shift in protocol for other major players in the dirty energy business. BP Petroleum was the first to go green and invest in alternatives, now Conoco Phillips is not only investing more but believes in capping emissions as a way of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. The sticklers that are left are Chevron and Exxon Mobil. Don’t hold your breath for Exxon Mobil. Many of the detractors for environmental cleanup that blog, have websites, and write against global warming have ties with Exxon Mobil. It appears they’ve invested their money into fighting global warming instead of cleaning up their act.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 6:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.