Don’t you love it when the CEO of one of the largest most profitable bloodsucking corporations on the planet opens up and tells you “This I believe? Well, maybe not beliefs, exactly . . .
Exxon Mobil Chairman Rex Tillerson issued a ringing defense of the oil titan at the company’s annual meeting Wednesday, where 11 shareholder proposals, all opposed by management, were roundly defeated in a spirited gathering at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Tillerson praised Exxon’s record-breaking financial performance in 2008, its handsome returns to shareholders in recent years, technological advances that have greatly enhanced oil and natural gas recovery, and its efforts to reduce the environmental harm of its far-ranging operations. He defended the company’s large buybacks of company stock, saying that they have increased value to shareholders. […]
… [H]e said the world isn’t anywhere close to reaching “peak oil,” the point at which oil production will crest and then begin an irreversible decline as a result of dwindling petroleum deposits. A full-scale transition from fossil fuels could be “100 years away,” he said. […]
Tillerson strongly indicated that Exxon’s primary focus in coming decades will likely remain on its core businesses of oil and gas exploration and production, refining and chemicals. He said there appears to be “a pretty bright future” for drilling in previously untapped shales — such as the natural-gas-rich Barnett Shale of North Texas and Haynesville Shale in northwest Louisiana and East Texas — as a result of technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
Yes, technological advances like hydraulic fracturing or, as they say in the parlance of the oil industry, fracking:
Each hydraulically fractured horizontal well can require from 2 million to 7 million gallons of fresh water mixed with sand and thousands of gallons of industrial chemicals to make the water penetrate more easily.
This frac-water mixture is blasted at high pressure into shale deposits up to 10,000 feet deep, fracturing them. The sand lodges in the cracks, propping them open and providing a path for the gas to exit after external pressure is released.
Besides using vast amounts of groundwater, scientists and environmentalists worry that toxic frac water – 30 percent or more – remains underground and may years later pollute freshwater aquifers.
Millions of gallons of frac water come back to the surface. It could be treated, but in Texas it is most often reinjected into the ground.
Millions more gallons of “produced” water flow out later during gas production. This flow, too, is often tainted with radioactivity and poisons from the shale. Often stored in pits, that waste can leak or overflow while awaiting reinjection.
Simply put: “Each of these wells uses millions of gallons of fresh water, and all of it is going to be contaminated,” Ms. Carluccio says. […]
. . . New Mexico and Colorado, which have struggled with leakage from frac-water waste pits involving gas exploration, are now moving forward with legislation.
“There are numerous instances in various states of surface water and drinking water contamination from hydraulic fracturing,” says Kate Sinding, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York. “Nobody, including the industry, has done any in-depth examination to find out the impact on ground water. We are seeing some bad stuff coming out of individual wells and taps.”
To hell with safe groundwater! To hell with Global Warming! Too hell with mass extinctions! To hell with going green and building a better, fairer, more sustainable economy! Rex Tillerson is Samson in the temple of the Philistines and by God he’ll pull it all down on top of the rest of us just as a service to the only Two Gods he believes in: The Great God Exxon Mobil and the Greater God of Obscene Profits!
I bet the faithful lapped it up. That is, those who believe in the only gods that rule our world, not those poor deluded souls who believe in a God who loves the world.
The Rev. Michael Crosby, a Franciscan friar from Milwaukee who deals with corporate responsibility issues, told Tillerson that he has “a moral obligation” to address global warming, which many scientists say is aggravated by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.
“I think Exxon Mobil should put a warning on every one its gas pumps . . . about the dangers of burning fossil fuels,” similar to tobacco companies putting warning labels on cigarettes, Crosby said.
Oh Father Crosby, how quaint thou art. And those in the know, who speak for the true gods aren’t likely to let you in on their little secret:
Tillerson was stumped by one question: When will the U.S. again see record prices of $147 a barrel for oil and $4.11 a gallon for the average price for regular-grade gasoline, as it did last summer?
“I don’t know,” he responded with a bemused smile.
Hey if I had a potential $600 MILLION retirement package and utter control of both senior management and the Board of Directors of Exxon, I’d have a lot of bemused smiles on my face, too. But then I’d have to be a slimy lizard alien overlord bent on destroying the Earth, now wouldn’t I?
What? You don’t believe Exxon Mobil has an agenda that disregards the health and safety of all life on this planet, in order to suck every last cent from your piggy bank? Well, consider the following:
None of the 11 proposals offered by shareholders came close to passing. […]
. . . Proposals to adopt goals for limiting greenhouse-gas emissions, craft a policy for renewable energy research and development, and establish a task force to report on the likely consequences of climate change drew 29, 27 and 10 percent of shares voted, respectively.
I rest my case.
