Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (84 page)

Notes

P
rivate Empire
is based primarily on interviews with more than 450 people in the United States and abroad; some agreed to be interviewed multiple times. The interview subjects included current and former ExxonMobil executives, executives at competing corporations, lobbyists, scientists, lawyers, diplomats, military officers, intelligence officers and analysts, government policymakers, former guerrilla leaders, congressional staff, Wall Street analysts, energy industry consultants, environmentalists, and social activists. The narrative also benefited from the release of about eight hundred pages of documents—mainly State Department cables—that were provided to me in response to Freedom of Information Act requests concerning ExxonMobil’s recent activities in Indonesia, Russia, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and elsewhere in West Africa. The full release of Wikileaks’ collection of State Department cables from 2003 to early 2010 provided additional valuable insights and details, particularly about ExxonMobil’s activity in Chad, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Wikileaks cables—as opposed to those released in response to my F.O.I.A. requests—are indicated below by (W). Court records and trial and deposition transcripts from
Exxon Valdez
litigation in Alaska; the Jacksonville, Maryland, gasoline spill case
Jeff Alban et al. v. Exxon Mobil Corp.
; the litigation concerning the corporation’s involvement in the Aceh conflict,
John Doe I et al. v. ExxonMobil et al.
; and ExxonMobil’s court hearings concerning its operations in Venezuela provided much additional, valuable testimony by ExxonMobil executives, as well as excerpts from corporate documents and e-mails. Documents and diaries shared by former American oil advisers to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq were very helpful. Researchers at the Center for Responsive Politics provided guidance and support for analysis of the center’s important data sets on campaign contributions and lobbying. Investigative files on Equatorial Guinea produced by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the United States Senate provided unique banking and financial records. The extensive investigations into climate science policy carried out by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee brought forward numerous internal government records. The Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, and other environmentalist investigators have also obtained and published important government and industry documents on climate policy, from which I was able to draw. Oxfam, Global Witness, Catholic Relief Services, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Coventry Cathedral, and the International Crisis Group have published valuable investigations of conflicts and corporate responsibility issues in Africa and Asia that I sought to explore. Securities and Exchange Commission filings provided extensive data about ExxonMobil’s oil and gas production, reserves, and financial reporting. I am in great debt to the published work of many other reporters, scholars, and international affairs analysts, as the notes that follow reflect.

Many of the interviews for this book were conducted on the record. Where an interview subject spoke on condition that he or she would not be named, the notes provide as much information as possible, consistent with these agreements. On-the-record interviews conducted by researchers who worked with me on the book are indicated by the presence of the researcher’s initials in parentheses following the source information. To conduct interviews and field research, I traveled to Alaska and throughout the United States, as well as to Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Nigeria, Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere abroad. Other international interviews were carried out by telephone and by local researchers contracted for the purpose.

ExxonMobil authorized eight current executives and managers to provide background interviews and briefings, which were helpful but limited in scope. None of those interview subjects agreed to be quoted by name. The corporation declined other requests for interviews in the United States and abroad. The corporation’s chief executive, Rex Tillerson, declined several requests for interviews. The corporation did provide credentials so that I could attend a number of events where Tillerson spoke and took questions. His predecessor, Lee Raymond, agreed to be interviewed. More than four dozen other current and former ExxonMobil executives, directors, managers, employees, consultants, and contractors also provided interviews. Some of these people spoke without authorization or addressed sensitive subjects and therefore requested anonymity, as the notes reflect.

After the manuscript was substantially drafted, with researcher Haley Cohen, I attempted to fact-check material about current ExxonMobil executives and the corporation by submitting memoranda totaling more than one hundred pages to ExxonMobil’s public affairs department. Two current executives responded initially to fact-checking questions, but ultimately, spokesman Alan Jeffers said ExxonMobil would offer no additional response to the fact-checking questions. The corporation was the only party of the dozens reached during the fact-checking process that declined to participate. I also submitted to ExxonMobil for formal comment sixteen questions concerning controversies, lawsuits, and other matters. The corporation declined to reply to all of these questions except one, concerning 2008 contributions by ExxonMobil executives to the campaign committee of Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas), as is reflected in chapter 22.

The chapter-by-chapter notes below provide the sources for quotations, numbers, and narrative incidents recounted in this book.

PROLOGUE: “I’M GOING TO THE WHITE HOUSE ON THIS”

1.
Joseph Hazelwood descended: Keeble,
Out of the Channel
, p. 41. Yearbook motto, I.Q. score, Stonewall Jackson, and Oscar Wilde: Coyle,
Outside
, October 1997. Coyle’s extraordinary profile of Hazelwood is the best single published source on the former captain’s life and on the impact of the grounding on him; Hazelwood’s trial testimony is also bracingly direct.

2.
“midlife crisis”: Joseph Hazelwood’s trial testimony,
Baker v. Exxon
, No. 04.35182, United States Court of Appeals, May 10, 1994. “detected . . . take care of it”: Ibid. Ordering beer: John Donvan et al.,
Turning Point,
ABC News, June 15, 1994. The ABC News documentary is an exceptional work of television journalism. Also, Deposition of Lee R. Raymond, United States District Court for the District of Alaska, A-89-095, November 19, 1992. Two or three vodkas: Coyle, op. cit. When Coyle interviewed Joseph Hazelwood extensively in 1997, Hazelwood was employed at a maritime marine insurer in New York and said he had given up alcohol. In 1994, he testified at trial that “the last drink I recall having is March 23, 1989.”

3.
Salary: Joseph Hazelwood trial testimony,
Baker v. Exxon
, May 11, 1994. B.P. field party: Roderick,
Crude Dreams
, p. 124. July 28, 1977: Ibid., p. 417.

4.
1,264,155 barrels: There are several published estimates of the ship’s load, all within a fairly narrow range. This is the number published by the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services. More than one hundred times: ABC News, op. cit.

5.
Author’s visit to Prince William Sound, June 2010. Every four seconds: Coyle, op. cit. “Judging . . . over”: ABC News, op. cit.

6.
Coffee break: Ibid. Radar, blood tests: Keeble, op. cit., p. 43.

7.
Quotations from Gregory Cousins’s trial testimony: Keeble, ibid., p. 44.

8.
“Wasn’t a compelling reason”: Coyle, op. cit.

9.
For a thorough reconstruction of what occurred on the bridge, drawn from trial testimony and testimony before the National Transportation Safety Board, see Keeble, op. cit., pp. 45–47. “Serious trouble”: From Cousins’s testimony, Coyle, op. cit.

10.
“Vessel . . . fucked”: Keeble, op. cit., p. 48. Vomited, “breadbasket . . . an end”: Joseph Hazelwood’s trial testimony,
Baker v. Exxon,
op. cit. “We fetched up . . . a while”: ABC News, op. cit.

11.
“I’ve got . . . heart attack”: Steve McCall oral history, in Bushell and Jones,
The Spill
, p. 47. “You could . . . the crew”: Mark Delozier oral history, ibid., p. 29.

12.
“may have . . . with it”: Steve Cowper oral history, ibid., p. 41. “The game rules . . . previously”: Keeble, op. cit., p. 51. Exxon employment cuts:
New York Times
, April 2, 1989. Profits per employee in 1987:
BusinessWeek,
July 18, 1988. For N.T.S.B.’s assessment of Exxon’s culpability, see the letter of its chairman, James Kolstad, to Exxon’s chairman, Lawrence Rawl, September 18, 1990. The N.T.S.B. found that Cousins was working on too little sleep because of crew scheduling and that “evidence indicated that watch-keeping safeguards . . . had been compromised because of the manning level” aboard the tanker. See also, “Grounding of U.S. Tankship
Exxon Valdez
on Bligh Reef, Prince William Sound Near Valdez, AK, March 24, 1989,” N.T.S.B. Report no. MAR-90-04.

13.
“It was hard . . . unmanageable”: Don Cornett oral history, in Bushnell and Jones, op. cit., p. 98. Transcripts of telephone recordings from the Alyeska Emergency Center, from 4:57 a.m. on March 24, 1989, and on March 26, 1989: Transcribed by the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services. Cornett worked on Exxon’s public relations challenges stemming from the spill for the next seven years. Despite his initial enthusiasm for the
Valdez
media battle, he later reflected that “this was not a job that any sane person would ever seek.”

14.
“Chagrined . . . for Exxon”: Trial testimony of Lee Raymond,
In Re
Exxon Valdez
Oil Spill
, August 25, 1994.

15.
Dennis Kelso oral history, in Bushnell and Jones, op. cit., p. 62.

16.
Senior Coast Guard officer: Interview with Admiral Paul Yost. “a lot of cleanup equipment . . . oil spill specialist”:
New York Times,
April 2, 1989. “There is . . . opposed”: Raymond deposition testimony, op. cit., November 19, 1992.

17.
Ibid.

18.
All quotations from Admiral Paul Yost oral history, Bushnell and Jones in op. cit., pp. 124–127, and from an interview with Yost.

19.
Transcript,
The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,
July 27, 1989.

20.
“didn’t get along . . . Go ahead”: Admiral Paul Yost oral history, in Bushnell and Jones, op. cit.

21.
Ibid.

22.
Keeble, op. cit., p. 186.

23.
“no matter . . . envisioned”: Lee Raymond deposition testimony, op. cit.

24.
All John Browne quotations and biography citations: Browne,
Beyond Business
. Valdez episode, Browne’s flight and reflections: Ibid., p. 39. “That oil company was now Exxon”: Ibid., p. 40.

25.
“A Conversation with Lee Raymond,”
Charlie Rose
PBS, May 6, 2004.

CHAPTER ONE: “ONE RIGHT ANSWER”

1.
Associated Press, April 30, 1992;
New York Times
, May 1, 1992.

2.
United States of America v. Arthur D. Seale
and
United States of America v. Irene J. Seale
, findings of the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 20 F.3d 1279 decided April 7, 1994. “This tragic allegation”:
New York Times,
May 8, 1992.

3.
“Wherever he is”:
New York Times
, May 11, 1992. “If you interfere . . . soldiers in war”:
New York Times
, July 24, 1992.

4.
New York Times
, June 20, 1992.
United States v. Arthur D. Seale
, op. cit.

5.
Interview with Lee Raymond.

6.
Arthur and Irene Seale biography:
New York Times
, June 21, 1992; June 28, 1992; and July 1, 1992.

7.
Surveillance, kidnapping, shooting:
United States v. Arthur D. Seale
, op. cit. “More like a closet”: Arthur Seale’s interview with ABC News, released November 12, 1992.

8.
Deposition of Lee Raymond, United States District Court for the District of Alaska, A-89-095, November 19, 1992.

9.
Interview with Lee Raymond.

10.
New safety regime, Raymond Rule: Ibid. Joseph R. Carlon: Interview with a former Exxon manager involved with corporate security.

11.
Prizes: Interview with a twenty-eight-year retired Exxon manager. “If we have a whole lot of paper cuts”: Glenn Murray, Exxon corporate safety program manager, in the
Dallas Morning News
, June 20, 2010.