“Big Oil” Paying Off Climate Scientists:
An Insider’s Story

But according to one administrative assistant who was recently let go from her employer, what is already known by watchdog groups like Greenpeace and ExxonSecrets.org might be just the tip of the iceberg.

“Sylvia” (not her real name) told our reporter that her employer, EM Distribution Services, paid her $1,500 a week, in cash, for encrypting and sending e-mails, receiving and decrypting e-mails, and shredding them after being processed by her boss.

“I didn’t complain…they paid me well, and I didn’t ask any questions”, Sylvia said. “But then I left one e-mail laying out in the open just when the mailman walked in. Afterward, my boss was irate…interrogating me about whether the mailman saw the e-mail. I was informed that this would be my last day working for EM Distribution”.

Her last day was Friday, November 9, 2007. The next day, the more she thought about it, the more she fumed over what she thought was unfair treatment by her superior. “When no one was looking, I took that e-mail, walked over to the shredder, and carefully shredded a blank piece of paper while secretly folding and hiding the real e-mail in the palm of my hand.”

“I don’t care anymore”, Sylvia said with a sigh. “I always suspected that these people were up to no good… maybe even doing something illegal. After all, paying me in cash? All I knew for sure was that they were some sort of processing organization for funds that were being passed from a few oil companies to climate researchers. For some reason, though, it sounded like the money changed hands a few times before arriving at its destination.”

The e-mail that Sylvia stole from her employer is reproduced below. While it is not clear exactly what organizations and individuals were being funded, a little digging might uncover the likely recipients. One thing for sure is that the amounts of money being transferred were quite substantial — in the millions of dollars.

You can still use the same account number as last year. Please follow the latest security protocol (SP-2006-4) for this message. I’ll be contacting you separately about the climate dataset project approvals. I’m told that, with the L-W bill pending in congress, it is particularly important to keep the pressure up.

Sincerely,

(signature)

Ron

p.s. give my love to Randi

A journalistic caution: We were unable to verify the existence of either an “EM Distribution Services” or a “Climate Communications Group”. Nevertheless, the fact that Sylvia was paid in cash during her employment suggests that these organizations could well be operating under the radar screen of the government.

So, if these accusations are true, then we can only wonder: How far have the tentacles of the dinosaur energy giants reached into our science community? Our government? Unfortunately, we may never know.

This is one of the few direct references to Big Oil paying what are basically bribes to “researchers” who come up with reasons to keep more oil wells from being drilled and to keep plentiful nuclear energy always on the horizon.  It may be that spoof is fact.