In a briefing to a group of Wall Street fund managers, Exxon [3] Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson reportedly stated "we recognise that we need to soften our public image. It is something we are working on." An oil industry analyst with the Oppenheimer stockbroking firm pointed out in a briefing note that while the company's "tone has changed, the substance remains the same." Exxon remains a major contributor to a range of think tanks [4] which contest the necessity to take action to limit global warming [5]. The week after Tillerson's comments, the company announced [6] that it was requesting a federal appeals court to reconsider a December 2006 decision requiring the company to pay $2.5 billion in damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster in Alaska.