Nature Conservancy to honor Carol E. Dinkins, ConocoPhillips and Chevron during 15th annual Conservation Leadership Awards Luncheon

HOUSTON, TEXAS — October 11, 2007 — The Nature Conservancy will honor attorney Carol E. Dinkins of Houston and ConocoPhillips for their outstanding efforts, commitment and leadership in furthering conservation during the 15th-annual Conservation Leadership Awards Luncheon on Oct. 24. Chevron will receive a special award for its longtime support of the luncheon.

With the theme “Wide Open Spaces,” the event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Hyatt Regency Houston, 1200 Louisiana Street. Some 800 Houston-area corporate and business leaders and representatives are expected to attend. Carter Smith, The Nature Conservancy’s Texas state director, will deliver the keynote address. Doug Foshee, president and CEO of El Paso Corporation, is this year’s event chairperson.

Dinkins will receive The Nature Conservancy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to recognize an individual who has made a remarkable lifelong commitment to conserving Texas’ irreplaceable natural heritage. This award is not bestowed annually, but only when an individual’s achievements warrant recognition.

ConocoPhillips will be presented with the Conservation Leadership Award, which recognizes corporations whose leadership sets an outstanding example to others in the community through land conservation, restoration, compatible development, environmental responsibility, environmental policy, public involvement and education, financial contribution and/or in-kind donation.

Chevron, founding underwriter of the event, will be recognized with a special award for 15 years of generous funding and service in support of the annual luncheon.

“We are so grateful to have the opportunity to recognize Carol Dinkins’ passion for conserving our natural world, and ConocoPhillips’ and Chevron’s commitments to conservation,” said John Cronin Jr., The Nature Conservancy’s director of philanthropy for Houston. “The leadership, intelligence and dedication that Carol brings to our cause gives us hope for the future of conservation. The recognition by ConocoPhillips and Chevron that embracing conservation is more than a social obligation but is sound business management should serve to inspire other business leaders in a variety of industries.”

Dinkins is a senior partner with Vinson & Elkins, where she is chairperson of the administrative and environmental law section. She has served as assistant U.S. attorney general in charge of the Environment and Natural Resource Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and was the first woman to hold this post. She also served on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, and is the only commissioner to visit every state park in Texas.

She has been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the nation’s leading practitioners of environmental law, and was honored as Outdoors Woman of the Year in the TNN nationally televised Concert for Conservation. She is a frequent lecturer on environmental law issues and is co-author of a book on environmental crimes.

Dinkins is past chairperson of The Nature Conservancy’s Texas Board of Trustees and continues to serve that board as an ex-officio member. She also is a past chairperson of the Conservancy’s international Board of Directors and now serves as a vice chairperson on the board.

ConocoPhillips has provided leadership among corporations through its support of external conservation programs and its own internal conservation initiatives. For example:

The company committed $1 million to launch SPIRIT of Conservation in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a program focused on conserving threatened birds and their habitat worldwide through grants to conservation organizations. ConocoPhillips is a founding partner of the Playa Lakes Joint Venture, dedicated to conserving migratory bird habitat in a six-state region, including Texas.

The company is working with Houston Wilderness on education initiatives and has formed partnerships with the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory and the Wildlife Habitat Council. ConocoPhillips has supported Yellowstone National Park for more than 90 years. It has made corporate commitments to high standards in health, safety and environmental policies as well as to sustainable development, and supports employee volunteerism to benefit communities and the environment.

During its 15 years of sponsorship, Chevron has donated more than $750,000 to support the annual Houston Conservation Leadership Awards Luncheon, which supports The Nature Conservancy’s nature preserves and conservation projects throughout Texas. With more than 7,000 employees and contractors locally, Chevron is a significant influence in Houston. Many of Chevron’s most important business operations are managed in Houston and local employees offer thousands of volunteer hours to support the company’s community engagement program, working for people in need as well as the environment.

Individual tickets for the luncheon cost $250 and tables for 10 begin at $2,500. Call (713) 524-6459, Ext. 105, to learn more.

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The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at nature.org. In the Lone Star State, The Nature Conservancy of Texas owns more than 30 nature preserves and conservation projects and assists private landowners to conserve their land through more than 80 voluntary land-preservation agreements. The Nature Conservancy of Texas protects 250,000 acres of wild lands and, with partners, has conserved 750,000 acres for wildlife habitat across the state. Visit The Nature Conservancy of Texas on the Web at nature.org/texas.