ExxonMobil "Reaches Out To Critics" - Fortune (Greenwash Alert)

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- On issues ranging from global warming to corporate governance to gay rights, Exxon Mobil used to ignore detractors - or thumb its nose at them. That's changed. The oil giant has been quietly reaching out to critics, most importantly around the issue of climate change.

Exxon invited environmentalists, socially responsible mutual funds and religious investors to a two-day retreat in suburban Virginia late last year with company executives. It is participating in a project organized by Resources for the Future, a Washington-based environmental think tank, that will design a government plan for mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases. In its ubiquitous corporate advertising, the company is talking about what actions should be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, instead of questioning the science of climate change.

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As for the company's position on climate change, Cohen said: "We should be putting ourselves on a path, as a society, to reduce emissions in ways that are cost-effective and sustainable." Asked if that means that ExxonMobil now supports government regulation of greenhouse gases, either by imposing mandatory caps or taxes on fossil fuels, Cohen said that's the issue that business, government officials and NGOs now need to address. "There is a role for policy," he said. "The devil's in the details, and we want to be part of that discussion."

Longtime Exxon watchers aren't sure what to make of all this. Andrew Logan, an oil and gas analyst for Ceres, a coalition of institutional investors and environmentalists, said the company seems to have "moved from outright denial to what seems to be a more nuanced position" on climate change. "Given how large and how influential Exxon is, even small moves on their part can have a large impact," he said. Janet Sawin, director of the energy and climate change program at the Worldwatch Institute, participated in an Exxon stakeholder dialogue last year: "My sense is that it's more about a tactical shift," she says. "They realize that they are losing in their attempt to confuse and obfuscate the science of climate change. They see the change in congressional leadership, and they want to be in there to influence the course of discussion."

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http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/25/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_gunther_exxonmobil.fortune/

Though, hopefully, the jig is up on denying climate change. How will they survive once we get weaned off oil?