Top off Exxon Mobil’s greed

Founder’s family says ‘enough’ to unhealthy profits

No doubt the Exxon Mobil annual shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday will open with great fanfare celebrating last year’s $40 billion in profits, and all the company is doing to make the world a better place. But not all shareholders are so thrilled about Exxon Mobil’s performance.

My family members and I are shareholders in Exxon Mobil, and many of us are very concerned about the devastating effect the largest privately held oil company in the world is having on the health of people living near our refineries and chemical plants, and on the planet.


My grandfather was Robert Lee Blaffer, co-founder of Humble Oil, the parent company of Exxon Mobil. He was a gentleman and humanitarian who volunteered at hospitals in his spare time. He would be appalled by the way the company has ignored the health effects of industry pollution, especially for low-income and disadvantaged people who live near oil refineries and chemical plants.

In the Political Economy Research Institute’s recent “Toxic 100″ report released in April, Exxon Mobil ranks 10th among the worst corporate toxic polluters in the United States. This is unacceptable considering the company’s huge profits.

My grandfather would also be dismayed by Exxon Mobil’s long-standing denial of the industry’s contribution to global warming and lack of efforts to diversify and move toward more sustainable energy solutions.

He would turn over in his grave if he knew that the company he helped start was benefiting from the Iraq war that has taken the lives of so many and plundered so much of the land and resources there.

Houston Chronicle