UPDATE: This week's closure of the BP pipeline in
Prudhoe, AK underscores the dangers of arctic drilling. In March, the
same pipeline leaked nearly 270,000 gallons of oil leaked onto the
Arctic tundra. There are ~400 crude oil and toxic spills every year at
the Prudhoe oil field. And it all happens just 30 miles from the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.
ExxonMobil is swimming in cash...while polar bears are drowning in the Arctic.
ExxonMobil raked in over $35 billion in profits in 2005, and another $8.4 billion in the first quarter of 2006.
But where are Exxon's priorities?
- ExxonMobil has given its former CEO Lee Raymond a retirement package worth almost $400 million. Yet, it still refuses to pay punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill that killed birds, fish, sea otters and other wildlife some of which have yet to recover.
- ExxonMobil is the sole major oil company to remain in Arctic Power, the lobbying group whose only purpose is to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to toxic oil drilling.
- In the past five years, ExxonMobil has spent nearly $37 million on lobbyists and millions more in campaign contributions to relentlessly push its anti-wildlife agenda and fight efforts to curb global warming the same warming that's melting sea ice and leaving walrus calves and polar bears to starve and drown.
Tell ExxonMobil's CEO to stop pushing for oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge; to withdraw its support of the pro-drilling Arctic Power lobbying firm; and to start investing in renewable energy for the future.
Let ExxonMobil know that until they mend their anti-wildlife ways, you will be boycotting their gasoline!
To CEO Rex Tillerson:
I am disturbed and frustrated by ExxonMobil's insistence on putting corporate profits before the protection of wildlife and wildlife habitat. Our country remains overly dependent on oil, and the dangers of global warming threaten current and future generations of people and wildlife. This addiction to oil represents a failed energy strategy, one that your company not only supports but has helped to develop.
I am most disturbed by:
*ExxonMobil's active support of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge;
* ExxonMobil's efforts to block meaningful action to cut global warming pollution and its funding of junk science to hide the real facts about global warming;
* ExxonMobil's conscious decision to forgo investment in clean energy solutions - despite your record profits at a time of rising gasoline prices;
* ExxonMobil's failure to pay all of the punitive damages awarded to fishermen and others injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
ExxonMobil represents yesterday's energy policy; I would rather spend my money and time moving forward, not backward. Therefore, I am pledging to boycott ExxonMobil until your company abandons its lobbying efforts to open the Arctic Refuge up to harmful drilling and takes meaningful action to curb global warming, to invest in renewable energy, and to pay for the damages done by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]
