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JULY
28, 1999 8:30 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Corporate
Watch
Joshua Karliner 415-561-6567
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| BP-AMOCO'S
Deployment Of Solar Powered Gas Pumps Garners Greenhouse Greenwash Award |
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SAN
FRANCISCO - July 28 - Celebrating the entry of the word "greenwash" into the official
lexicon of the English language (via the Oxford English Dictionary), Corporate
Watch www.corpwatch.org today gave the Summer Greenwash Award to the BP-Amoco
corporation for its "Plug in the Sun" program. BP claims that by installing solar
powered gas pumps, it allows you to "fill your tank with sunshine."
"Solar panels notwithstanding, the pumps still fill your tank with gasoline, the
lifeblood of the oil industry and a leading cause of global warming," said Corporate
Watch Editorial Coordinator Joshua Karliner.
While BP's acquisition of Solartex, now makes it the largest solar energy company
in the world, solar represents and infinitesimal fraction of the oil giant's revenues.
Its acquisition of Amoco, however, makes it one of the largest oil companies in
the world --- and one of the largest corporations of any kind, anywhere. Sound
outrageous? The panels are already up in many places in Europe, Australia, Malaysia
and in the US in Atlanta and Nashville.
Meanwhile, the Tenth Edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary recognized
the word "greenwash" as part of the official English language, defining it as
"Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally
responsible public image. Derivatives greenwashing (n). Origin from green on the
pattern of whitewash."
Corporate Watch's own definition, developed in 1996 is quite similar: green*wash:
(gr~en-w^osh) -washers, -washing, -washed 1.) The phenomenon of socially and environmentally
destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing
as friends of the environment and leaders in the struggle to eradicate poverty.
2) Environmental whitewash. 3) Hogwash.
###
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