Stanford and Exxon Mobile Partnership: Donor Yanks Funds
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 03.13.07
Stanford University and Exxon Mobile on the same team: Fishy business? According to a recent article in Mercury News, a big donor to Stanford is outraged over the school's partnership with the oil giant. Movie producer Steve Bing has already given the university $22.5 million, but after seeing a recent Exxon Mobile ad using the school's name, he yanked a promise for $2.5 million. "Exxon Mobil is trying to greenwash itself, and it's using Stanford as its brush," says Yusef Robb. (Bing would only speak through Robb, his collaborator for climate issues.) Stanford's prize? $100 million over 10 years. Thanks tipster John Laumer. :: Mercury News
http://www.alaskareport.com/z45631.htm
For more than a decade, Exxon Corporation (now ExxonMobil) has waged a comprehensive campaign against punitive damages awards, triggered by the decision of a jury in Alaska to impose a $5 billion penalty on the company for the misdeeds that led to the Valdez oil spill, the worst in the nation's history. This campaign paid off handsomely in December 2006, when a federal appeals court reduced Exxon's punitive damages liability for the Valdez spill by $2 billion.