ExxonMobil is still a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a company spokesman said, refuting reports that the oil giant had dropped its long-standing support for the activist organization that promotes conservative policies at the state and local levels.
“ExxonMobil supports ALEC and discloses our support annually on our website,” spokesman Alan Jeffers said. “We evaluate support for all groups on a yearly basis but continue to support ALEC and engage with the organization on matters relevant to our industry.”
Jeffers added that the false claim must have been spreading around based on the number of inquiries he received on the matter.
The oil giant has given almost $2 million to ALEC since 1998, its statements show. It gave $49,000 in 2013, according to its most recent statement.
The report that ExxonMobil had dropped out surfaced last month in a story in the Toronto Star, which was cited by the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal anti-corporate nonprofit group, during a press conference call Monday. The call was hosted by the coalition group Stand Up to ALEC and meant to highlight recent examples of companies dropping out of ALEC in the wake of a liberal PR campaign against it.
On Monday, news broke that Occidental Petroleum had said in a letter that it did not plan to continue its membership in ALEC. That followed similar news from tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Yelp.
One participant, Jay Riestenberg, research director for Common Cause, said the losses were so bad that the group was facing “a membership and funding crisis.”
It is not clear how many of these companies were long-standing supporters of ALEC, in which case the losses would be significant. Occidental’s letter stated only that it made donations in 2014. It is not clear if it contributed in previous years since ALEC doesn’t make that information public.
Meanwhile, ALEC critics conceded the other companies had not been longtime supporters. “The wave of tech companies that have left in the last few weeks, most of those are recently joined ALEC [members], that’s true,” said Nick Surgey, research director at the Center for Media Democracy.
Asked for an example of a major, long-standing funder that left ALEC, Surgey said, “One company that we are hearing about is ExxonMobil” though he admitted “this hasn’t been confirmed.”
“Exxon has been one of ALEC’s largest funders over the last 20 years,” Surgey told the Washington Examiner. So its leaving “would be really significant.”
But it isn’t happening, according to ALEC spokesman Wilhelm Meierling. “ExxonMobil is a member,” he said, adding that the company serves on ALEC’s Private Enterprise Advisory Council, which advises the group’s national board of directors.
Meierling said it is normal for the number of businesses in ALEC to wax and wane based on states’ legislative agendas, he said, while the number of lawmakers rises and falls due to term limits.
He pointed to a statement from Yelp last week that it was dropping out of ALEC, which said it had joined the group last year solely because it wanted to support the passage of model tort reform legislation.
“We found ALEC provided a unique forum to bring a good idea to the table. Our approach was not without irony and it invited a backlash, yet to ALEC’s credit, our model bill passed unanimously,” Yelp spokesman Luther Lowe said. “Given that our very specific goal was achieved, we allowed our membership to expire.”
Such brief arrangements are common, Meierling said, adding that its public-sector membership has held steady at about 2,000 over the last several years. “We have taken some hits but for every group that leaves another joins.”
