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A moment in the sun for (green) Rockefellers

Print | Comments () Posted by David Beard, Globe Staff May 28, 2008 07:30 AM

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Today is the day.

Today, four resolutions supported by members of the Rockefeller family go before shareholders of the company their ancestor founded -- record profit-making Exxon Mobil -- and the family may succeed in getting the heave-ho of alt-fuel-unfriendly Rex Tillotson, at least from his job as chairman, even if Tollotson remains as CEO.

Three other green resolutions are unlikely to succeed, according to a New York Times report. One encourages Exxon to reduce emissions; another presses the company to do more research on alternative fuels; a third asks Exxon to study the impact of global warming on poor countries. (UPDATE late Wednesday: Exxon shareholders ended up rejecting all the Rockefeller initiatives).

Why come out now? As Neva R. Goodwin, a Tufts instructor (and the great-granddaugher of John D. Rockefeller), told Alex Beam earlier this month: "I am 63 and I've tried to live quietly, but this issue seemed to me tremendously important. ... There is real concern that Exxon could run into real trouble and may be ignoring opportunities as well as ignoring risks to its future."

Read Beam's whole article here.

Derrick Jackson meantime is not counting on Rockefellers, but says it's hard to muster up courage when everyone is busy making compromises. "Who is going to be the people's proxy to tell ExxonMobil and the other companies to stop gouging us?'' Jackson asks in this column.

Thomas Friedman writes today that if every presidential candidate could tell the truth to voters, they would guarantee high gas prices to make the structural changes needed for the United States to survive.

The alternative? Gas fantasyland. Referencing a new promotion from Detroit, Friedman quotes Tim Shriver, head of the Special Olympics, as saying: “So Dodge wants to sell you a car you don’t really want to buy, that is not fuel-efficient, will further damage our environment, and will further subsidize oil states, some of which are on the other side of the wars we’re currently fighting. ... The planet be damned, the troops be forgotten, the economy be ignored: buy a Dodge.”

More of Friedman's column here. For more on Dodge and Chrysler's gas rebate plan, check out this post by the Globe's Noah Bierman.