the giant us oil company Texaco Inc has quit from the Global Climate Coalition ( gcc ), a business group that opposes the Kyoto Treaty's approach to combat global warming. The gcc is also an aggressive critic of scientific studies linking global warming to emissions from fossil fuels.

After Ford Motor Co and Daimler/ Chrysler, Texaco is the third company in recent months to move out of the group. Among the other major companies that had earlier quit the gcc is the European-based Royal Dutch/Shell Group (1997) and bp Amoco Plc (1998). Refuting any fundamental differences with the gcc , Texaco said it was leaving the group because it wanted to speak for itself through other broad-based organisation on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Texaco spokesperson Faye Cox said, "We agree with the coalition that the Kyoto Protocol, though well intentioned, is not going to responsibly address the goal of controlling greenhouse gas emissions.'

However, this move by Texaco is viewed as yet another dent in the gcc . Environmentalists are particularly pleased that gcc has lost another member. "It seems like lying about global warming has finally fallen out of fashion in corporate us ,' said Christopher Ball of the Ozone Action environmental group in Washington dc .