A new disclosure shows the think tanks and universities that took ExxonMobil money in 2022.
by Donald Shaw, Sludge
In April 2021, an ExxonMobil lobbyist was covertly filmed by Greenpeace UK activists as he said that the company had aggressively fought against some climate science and had joined “shadow groups” to work against climate policy efforts. In response to the sting video, the bipartisan Climate Leadership Council suspended Exxon, one of its corporate founding members, from its coalition. However, several other groups that work on climate policy continued taking the oil major’s money, according to a document posted online last month.
ExxonMobil’s “Worldwide Giving Report” for 2022 reveals that the company remained in the good graces of several of the most influential think tanks in Washington D.C., including the Brookings Institution, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Brookings Institution, which says on its website that “addressing climate change is one of the most pressing challenges we face today,” received $100,000 from ExxonMobil in 2022 for its Corporate Council and Foreign Policy Program, according to the document. Brookings has long called for the United States government to adopt a carbon price to discourage emissions of the greenhouse gas, something that the Exxon lobbyist, Keith McCoy, said the company claims to support in public as a public relations tactic. “Nobody is going to propose a tax on all Americans, and the cynical side of me says we kind of know that, but it gives us a talking point,” McCoy was recorded saying.
Recent Posts
ICC Targets Smotrich For War Crimes— He Responds by Promising More War Crimes
May 20, 2026
Take Action Now Smotrich reportedly bragged about helping create more than 100 new settlements and 160 farming outposts, while the U.N. has reported…
Establishment Democrats Still Don’t Get Why They Lost in 2024
May 20, 2026
Take Action Now No amount of messaging acumen could have plastered over the gaping hole in Harris’ campaign: a total dearth of popular policies.By…
The CIA Goes to Cuba
May 19, 2026
Take Action Now After decades of covert operations, the CIA director has given the Cubans an overt ultimatum for change on the island.By Peter…
Minnesota Officials Charge ICE Agent Who Shot Venezuelan Immigrant & Falsely Reported What Happened
May 19, 2026
Take Action Now “That is what democracy looks like. It looks like separation of powers and getting material consequences [for] wrongdoing,” she……




