unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/06/89)
GROUPS UNITE TO OPPOSE OIL INDUSTRY
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October 2, 1989
By JEFF BERLINER
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (UPI)--Fishers and environmentalists united
Friday to create an organization called Oil Reform Alliance to
pressure the oil industry into changing its ways to prevent oil
spills and protect the environment.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill and on-going oil industry problems
for the Environment.
Environmentalists and fishers joined forces after the 11-
million-gallon spill, the worst in U.S. history, but six months
later they are still working together against what they consider
to be a common enemy.
Despite a host of changes in oil industry activities--largely
forced upon the industry by state threats of criminal and civil
sanctions and the governor's threat to shut down the Alaska oil
pipeline--Libenson said, "It's still business as usual for the
industry up here."
"The oil industry has a bad attitude," said Riki Ott, a marine
toxicologist and board member of the Cordova fishers' union,
which helped form the alliance.
"The reality is that they still don't have much of a spill
capability," Libenson said of the Alaska oil industry.
Only "minimal" changes have occurred since the spill, she said.
She noted that Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the oil company
consortium that operates the trans-Alaska pipeline and Valdez oil
terminal and which is responsible for the first spill response,
went to court to fight state environmental controls within days
of the Exxon spill.
"You'd think they would have come into line out of shame,"
Libenson said.
The Oil Reform Alliance targeted Alyeska for its inaugural
session this weekend in Anchorage in a program focusing on "a
decade of non-compliance" with environmental safeguards.
Libenson said the alliance expects to take advantage of the
environmental movement's new respectability to become a
counterpoint to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, an industry
lobbying and support group.
"Our mission is committed to reforming oil industry practices by
mobilizing the public," Libenson said.
"The Exxon Valdez spill has cut across social and cultural
lines, awakening many Alaskans to the serious problems with
current oil industry policy and the power of the industry,"
Alliance coordinator Marsha Hodson said.
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