While it’s nice to see a corporate giant denounce money in judicial politics, the Texas courts would be better insulated from special interests if only ExxonMobil practiced what it’s preaching.

The behemoth companies that recently merged into ExxonMobil were parties to 20 Texas Supreme Court cases over the past seven years. During this period the high court was polluted by the $58,525 that its justices took from Mobil and Exxon sources. 

Exxon says it does not contribute to judicial elections. But Texas Supreme Court justices have scooped up campaign money from such top Exxon brass as General Counsel Charles Matthews, ex-President Charles Sitter and ex-CEO Lawrence Rawls.

A decade before the ExxonMobil merger, Multinational Monitor named both companies among "the 10 worst corporations of 1989." Mobil earned this distinction for toxic refinery releases and a 130,000 gallon spill of crude oil in Los Angeles.  Exxon made the grade when its Valdez tanker ran into a well-marked reef and spilled 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound. The company, which reported a record $4.3 billion profit for its most recent quarter, has yet to pay the $5 billion in punitive damages that it owes to Alaskans hurt by the spill.

ExxonMobil dumped 11 million pounds of toxic pollutants into Texas’ environment in 1998.  The company is facing a potential fine for failing to comply with safety precautions that might have prevented a police officer from being killed in a September natural gas explosion in Abilene.

ExxonMobil’s actions will speak louder than its words if and when it stops polluting the courts with cash and limits its legal liabilities by better protecting workers, communities and the planet.

Home | Dollar Dockets