Upcoming Alabama and Mississippi GOP Primaries Beg Oil Spill Question: If BP had to Clean up Gulf Coast, why Doesn’t Chevron Have to Clean Larger Spill in Ecuador?
NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The upcoming Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries (March 13) beg the most pressing environmental and corporate responsibility question of our time: If British Petroleum (BP) has to clean its oil spill along the Gulf Coast – and does anyone disagree it does? – why doesn’t Chevron have to clean up its larger oil spills in Ecuador?, the conservative-oriented group You Break It You Fix It today said. Chevron’s 16-18 billion-gallon oil spills inside Ecuador are widely considered the world’s largest.
BP has created a $20 billion fund to remediate damage it caused the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Chevron, in contrast, has walked away from the oil and chemicals it left contaminating Ecuadorian lands and drinking waters. It has delayed taking responsibility for its spills through continuous legal dodges for years.
“The gulf coast oil tragedy can serve one important good; it can highlight to Americans an even larger spill that has gone un-remediated for more than two decades,” said You Break It You Fix It spokesman Joshua Rizack. “We rightly howled as Americans when a British oil company fouled our waters; clearly we should not take a different position when it’s a U.S. company contaminating a Latin American neighbor. American honor is at a stake in how the Chevron oil spills are resolved, and federal candidates at all levels, especially those running for President, need to address the issue.”
You Break It You Fix It is working to educate conservative-minded Americans about Chevron’s responsibility to clean up the oil and pollutants it left behind after drilling in Ecuador, poisoning its streams and drinking water and sickening countless Ecuadorians. The group has begun a national education campaign that will inlude a variety of paid and earned media tactics. It will emphasize three key points:
- BP is doing the right thing. Why isn’t Chevron?;
- Chevron is dishonoring America through its negligence, and
- The situation in Ecuador is an ongoing emergency. Children and adults are being sickened every day from Chevron’s contamination.
“Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana voters know how it feels to have their natural resources fouled by oil spills caused by a foreign-based company,” Mr. Rizack continued. “In that, they have a lot in common with the people of Ecuador. The difference is that the Ecuadorians are being ignored. Do the presidential candidates think that’s okay?”
SOURCE You Break It You Fix It
