Hard Times Coming on the River

The river De Nial, I mean. Climate denial, as in denying the evidence of human caused global warming, in particular. Climate denial has been a minor industry for the past decade or two, funded by those with a big financial stake in continued unchecked emission of carbon dioxide - the fossil fuel energy industry. The way it works is simple: if your center, institute, or web site produces denialist reports and other propaganda, the oil and energy companies might funnel you some money. Junkscience.com is a prominent example, but other right wing "think" tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute do a bit of climate denial on the side.

This gravy train appears to be derailing though. The true believers of climate denial are psuedo-religious in their convictions, but Exxon Mobil is run by hard-headed realists. They can read the handwriting on the wall and will try to adapt. From Steve Mufson and Janet Eilperin's Washington Post story:

While the political debate over global warming continues, top executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable.

The Democratic takeover of Congress makes it more likely that the federal government will attempt to regulate emissions. The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works. They are also working to change some company practices in anticipation of the regulation.

"We have to deal with greenhouse gases," John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press Club. "From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?"

Hofmeister and other top energy company leaders, such as Duke Energy Corp.'s chief executive, James E. Rogers, back a proposal that would cap greenhouse gas emissions and allow firms to trade their quotas.

Paul M. Anderson, Duke Energy's chairman and a member of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, favors a tax on emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas. His firm is the nation's third-largest burner of coal.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the highest-profile corporate skeptic about global warming, said in September that it was considering ending its funding of a think tank that has sought to cast doubts on climate change. And on Nov. 2, the company announced that it will contribute more than $1.25 million to a European Union study on how to store carbon dioxide in natural gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea, Algeria and Germany.

The Exxon Mobil shift, however glacial, is huge, because they have been the biggest player and shrillest voice in the global warming denial racket.