FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                   

April 24, 2006

CONTACT:  William Lutz (202) 772-0269

Cindy Hoffman 202/772-3255

 

Group Honoring Rep. Richard Pombo Revealed as Exxon-Funded Industry Front Group

Climate Change Denial Among Sham-Science Group’s Agenda

Washington D.C. – The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, which announced recently that they would be recognizing Richard Pombo for “his activism in reducing government regulations, taxation and spending” at the group’s annual dinner on Tuesday, April 25, is an industry front group more concerned with advancing the agenda of special interests than good science, according to research compiled by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

 

“It’s only appropriate that a group like the Annapolis Center would be honoring Rep. Pombo. They are both funded by big business, oil companies and other special interests and they both use manipulated science to gain support for bad policies,” commented Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

 

For instance, the Annapolis Center promotes several reports and articles on its web site that question the science behind climate change.  In one such piece printed in the Washington Times in 2001, their President and Chairman, Harold M. Koenig, M.D., suggests, “If global warming occurs, sea level New Orleans might face a rising tide, but a farm belt extending further into northern latitudes could help us become much more agriculturally productive. We must review and understand both potential misfortune and opportunity.”

 

According to a 2004 Wall Street Journal article, the Annapolis Center has received 80 percent of its funding from the National Association of Manufacturers since 1997. Exxposeexxon.com and exxonsecrets.org report that Exxon-Mobil has donated millions to the Annapolis Center over the years based on figures gathered from the oil giant’s annual reports. The Annapolis Center’s conclusions and stance on global warming are clearly parroting their financial backers, as well as many of their board members, some of whom include executives or representatives from General Motors; SAIC, a research and engineering firm whose subsidiary Bechtel SAIC Company promoted the storage of radioactive waste under Yucca Mountain against the will of local Nevadans; and Rowan & Blewitt, a crisis-and-issue-management consulting firm that helps industries deal with self-made environmental disasters.

 

As in the past, Exxon-Mobil has also made large donations to Rep. Pombo’s campaign to help in his bid for re-election this year. For the 2006 election cycle alone he has received $508,031 in PAC contributions, $126,950 of that coming from energy and natural resource industries (www.opensecrets.org). 

 

Last year the group honored Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), a staunch supporter of drilling for oil and natural gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and along America’s coasts, and the 2004 honoree was Sen. James Inhofe, who has publicly denounced global warming as a hoax.  Inhofe received the award for his "rational, science-based thinking and policy-making."

 

“Pombo has voted against clean energy and renewables and against increased fuel efficiency standards.  And he is against any involvement with the Kyoto protocol.  He rammed legislation through the house to gut the Endangered Species Act including creating new hurdles for the use of the best available science.   He has repeatedly voted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and our fragile coastlines to harmful oil and gas drilling.  All these positions mirror the position of the Annapolis Center. So I guess this award is just a way to say, ‘Thanks for the votes, we’ll be in touch,’” said Schlickeisen.

 

As a tribute to Earth Day, Congressman Pombo has even turned the House Resources government web page into a source of propaganda for the dirty industries that support him. View the site at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/earthday/index.htm.

 

 

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The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund provides a powerful voice in Washington to Americans who value our conservation heritage.  Through grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy and political campaigns, the Action Fund champions those laws and lawmakers that protect wildlife and wild places while working against those that do them harm. Visit our web page at www.defendersactionfund.org.   

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