Heated words

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

Two U.S. senators urged ExxonMobil to stop funding groups that have raised doubts about global warming, prompting complaints that the lawmakers used strong-arm tactics bordering on censorship. In a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller and Maine Republican Olympia Snowe said the company should cease funding global warming “deniers” and instead invest in curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The letter compared the company’s tactics to “those used by the tobacco industry for so many years.” One of ExxonMobil’s beneficiaries, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said it doesn’t “deny” the existence of global warming, but rather, disputes “climate alarmism.” Critics also said the senators’ reference to tobacco could be read as a veiled legal threat.