Business and Accountability Archives

Exxon Cordoba Hydrid-Gas Electric Car Technology Brochure (1978)

As part of its advanced battery program in the 1970s, Exxon had developed electric motor technology to be used in a hybrid-gas electric vehicle. In 1978, the EEI automotive team created a brochure that showed off to automakers the hybrid prototype Exxon had built with its ACS technology: a Chrysler Cordoba, which got 27 miles per gallon. That was the mileage target that the Environmental Protection Agency required of vehicles by 1985.

At the time, the American auto industry grappled with the tough new mileage standards they feared could make their gas guzzlers obsolete.

“Detroit, your future can be both as big and as small as America wants it to be,” the brochure’s cover read.

Published October 5, 2016 • Adobe PDF • 2.19MB

The Electric Car and the Petrochemical Industry: Boon Or Bane? Treat or Threat? (1970)

In 1970, Victor Wouk, an independent scientist presented a paper at the Petroleum Chemical Industry conference in Tulsa, Okla. about the challenges and rewards of electric vehicles. The electric car could be “a treat that can be introduced via the bridge of the heat engine/battery hybrid vehicle over the next several decades. Everyone should be encouraged to promote the development of electric vehicles,” he concluded.

Wouk built a prototype1974 hybrid Buick Skylark that got 30 miles per gallon, double its regular mileage, and emitted 9 percent of the emissions a typical model did.

Published October 4, 2016 • Adobe PDF • 0.73MB

Outline of Possible Interpretative Release by States’ Attorneys General Under The Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (Draft by Bevis Longstreth)

“The approach that institutional investors should take towards investing in the fossil fuel industry and in industries affected by climate change is a question of pressing concern…There is a need for interpretative guidance for fiduciaries subject to the Act as to how the duty of prudence should be exercised with respect to the rapidly growing climate change risks to the coal, oil, gas and other fossil fuel industries as well as to industries significantly dependent on such sources of energy.”

Published June 8, 2016 • Adobe PDF • 0.49MB

Mobil CEO on Oil Sands’ CO2 Emissions (1982)

Mobil CEO Rawleigh Warner, Jr. on the potentially “disastrous” consequences of rising CO2, particularly as it relates to heavy fossil fuels such as oil sands. Warner’s comments appear in an article he wrote for a 1982 special issue of the journal UNEP Industry and Environment. It’s re-printed here with permission from the United Nations Environment Program.

Published May 6, 2016 • Adobe PDF • 1.76MB

API Climate Models (1982)

The American Petrolem Institute published a paper in 1982 titled “Climate Models and CO2 Warming A Selective Review and Summary.”

Published February 4, 2016 • Adobe PDF • 1.30MB

Comments on API CO2 Research (July 1979)

Exxon’s Raymond Campion’s memo about the American Petroleum Institute’s CO2 research strategy, July 1979.

Published December 22, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 0.29MB

Comments on API CO2 Paper (Sept. 1979)

Exxon’s Raymond Campion comments on the American Petroleum Institute’s background paper on CO2 effects.

Published December 22, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 0.31MB

Global Climate Coalition Meeting (2001)

A 2001 State Department briefing memo about a meeting with representatives of the Global Climate Coalition.

Published December 22, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 0.85MB

Global Climate Science Communications Plan (1998)

The American Petroleum Institute’s draft Global Climate Science Communications Plan from 1998.

Published December 22, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 0.71MB

AQ-9 Task Force Meeting (1980)

The American Petroleum Institute’s “CO2 and Climate Task Force” (AQ-9) meeting minutes from March 18, 1980.

Published December 22, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 4.77MB

Exxon Position on CO2 (1981)

A brief summary of Exxon’s position on the global warming in 1981.

Published November 30, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 1.28MB

Weinberg CO2 Memo (1980)

Exxon’s Harold Weinberg questions the concentration of CO2 in the ocean versus the atmosphere in a letter to his colleagues.

Published November 30, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 0.32MB

Shaw Climate Presentation (1984)

A 1984 conference presentation called “CO2 Greenhouse and Climate Issues” by Exxon scientist Henry Shaw.

Published November 30, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 3.59MB

CO2 Research Update (1985)

Exxon scientist Brian Flannery reviews the company’s climate change research efforts in a presentation.

Published November 25, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 4.07MB

Budget Cutting Memo (1982)

A memo announcing Exxon’s decision to slash its CO2 budget.

Published November 25, 2015 • Adobe PDF • 0.47MB