All posts tagged "Exxonmobil"

CHICAGO — In ballrooms, barrooms and backrooms this week, the business of big business is getting done with Democrats out of public view.

Yes, Bernie Sanders on Tuesday railed before Democratic National Convention delegates about how “millionaires and billionaires” should “not be able to buy elections.” And sure, curtailing “the corrupting influence of money in politics” is a plank in the 2024 Democratic Party platform.

But most Democrats in Chicago are ignoring the socialist senator and stepping over and around that party plank while pursuing cash that corporations and moneyed special interests are all too keen to contribute....

This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.

With demand for fossil fuels expected to decline as the world shifts toward electric vehicles and renewable energy, Big Oil is in the midst of an enormous pivot to plastic production. And taxpayers are helping them.

Petrochemical companies like Shell and Exxon Mobil have received nearly $9 billion in state and local tax breaks since 2012 to build or expand 50 plastics manufacturing facilities, according to a report the Environmental Integrity Project, or EIP, released today. Much of that activity occurred along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, often alongside marginalized communities. What’s more, 84 percent of the operations released more air pollutants than allowed during the past three years, despite their promises to protect public health and the environment, the nonprofit found. ...

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie omitted some notable perks and sources of income on the first go-around of a required financial disclosure report, according to a Raw Story analysis of new federal documents.

Christie, the former New Jersey governor who is polling fifth nationally for the Republican nomination, quietly amended his public financial disclosure report on Dec. 1 to reveal he had received "free attendance" to New York Mets baseball games and that he earned nearly $750,000 in previously undisclosed speaking fees during 2022 and 2023 from a variety of special interest groups and corporate entities.

The U.S. Office of Government of Ethics (OGE) certified Christie's amended disclosure on Wednesday....

An environmentalist Democratic congressman acknowledged that his wife purchased — then quickly dumped — nearly 100 stocks in various oil, energy, tobacco, defense and other companies, blaming a new investment firm for going on an erroneous stock shopping spree.

Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) reported that Nicole Stanton’s 94 stock purchases included shares in fossil fuel giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips; power utility NextEra Energy; tobacco company Philip Morris International; transportation companies Union Pacific and Tesla and communications technology company and defense contractor Qualcomm, to name a few.

Stanton explained the apparent snafu in a Nov. 9 disclosure to Congress: “In Sept. 2023, my wife started with a new investment firm for her assets, and this investment firm was unaware of our policy against owning individual stocks. On Sept. 26, the new investment firm purchased stock mimicking the S&P 500. I learned of the purchase of stock on Oct. 21, and immediately on the next business day (Oct. 23) requested the stocks be divested. The new investment firm sold the stock and instead invested in Exchange Traded Funds.”...

A noisy technology that blasts sounds below water to map the ocean for oil is being blamed for 100 melon headed whale deaths off Madagascar, experts said Thursday.