Just three weeks ago, Exxon Mobil made a big deal about their softening their global warming stance, saying they cut off funding to several think tanks they’d hired to promote their policies. Today we find out, through the British press, naturally, they are actually behind the paying off individual scientists to dispute the UN report on climate change that is finally being released today.

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered.

Yes, I know that the AEI is not technically Exxon Mobile, just as Bushco is not technically a wholly owned subsidiary either. But world’s ugliest human inside and out, Lee Raymond, who resigned as head of Exxon Mobil last year, is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of AEI. And Exxon has funded AEI to the tune of 1.6 million dollars (chump change to them, for sure, but you can buy a lot of hacks with that, apparently.)

In related news, a new study by the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be published soon, avers that crude oil from the Exxon Valdez spill is still badly contaminating the waters off Alaska 18 years after the infamous spill.

Crude oil is still polluting Alaskan waters almost 18 years after the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, according to a study by US government scientists to be published in two weeks.

The study, an advance of which was released on Wednesday, found more than 26,600 gallons of oil remaining at Prince William Sound. Researchers say it is declining at a rate of only 4% a year and even slower in the Gulf of Alaska.

The disclosure came as Exxon Mobil posted the largest annual profit by a US company, $39.5bn (£20bn) yesterday.

Also:

Predictions that the pollution would have disappeared by now have proved to be inaccurate, and the damaged ecosystem is struggling to recover. The lingering oil, lying below the surface, affects wildlife and the general environment, and “degrades the wilderness character” of protected lands, the report says.

I don’t know who made all those predictions, but it would be a stretch to believe there’s no payoffs to think tanks involved here:

Mark Boudreaux, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil said yesterday the company would review the findings. “Based on our initial review of the report, there is nothing newsworthy or significant in the report that has not already been addressed,” he said. “The existence of some small amounts of residual oil in Prince William Sound on about two-tenths of 1% of the shore of the sound is not a surprise, is not disputed and was fully anticipated.”

Mr Boudreaux said Exxon has supported more than 350 independent studies whose scientists have found no evidence of significant long-term impact.

Yeah, tell it to this guy.

Richard’s Update, 12:15PM - talk about managing the message - AP rushed a story out with the following headline (click the screenshot below to read the story):

Let’s play “interpret the message” - click on the comments link below.