Mrs. Snowe, Who Wrote This Letter?

by nukegingrich | December 4, 2006 at 09:39 pm

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James Taranto has an editorial in today's WSJ which links to the text of a letter from Senators Rockefeller and Snowe to Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil. The letter is remarkable for several reasons. First, it is obvious that neither of the two signees actually wrote the letter. It was written by a global warming activist, who revels in the Gaiaist Apocalyptic Syndrome (GAS) known as Global Climate Change. GAS was formerly known as Global Warming, but that was officially changed last week by John F. Kerry, on any of several cable interviews: this from Rita Cosby's interview,

"What I am concerned about is dealing with global climate change, dealing with major issues of the economy that we face and I think the American people voted overwhelmingly in November..."

The major issues of the economy? Global Climate Change? This is what the American People voted about overwhelmingly in November?

The GAS activist letter writer accuses Exxon Mobil of preventing the United States from "demonstrating moral clarity it needs across all facets of its diplomacy." In addition, Exxon Mobil should cease and desist providing funding and support for any GAS "deniers" , and includes, by name, Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

ExxonMobil and its partners in denial have manufactured controversy, sown doubt, and impeded progress with strategies all-too reminiscent of those used by the tobacco industry for so many years.

Taranto sums it up very nicely:

Let's compare the balance of forces: on one side, CEI; on the other, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, the U.N. and EU, Hollywood, Al Gore, and every politically correct journalist in the country. We'll grant thats a fair intellectual fight. But if the Senators are so afraid that a handful of policy wonks at a single small think-tank are in danger of winning this debate, they must not have much confidence in the merits of their own case.

The letter is so over-the-top that we also wonder if Mr. Rockefeller in particular has even read it. (He and Ms. Snowe didn't return our call.) The Senator hails from coal-producing West Virginia, where people know something about carbon emissions. Come to think of it, Mr. Rockefeller owes his own vast wealth to something other than non-carbon energy. But perhaps it's easier to be carbon free when your fortune comes from a trust fund.