| WASHINGTON
- March 18 - A group of 100 Greenpeace activists from the United States and United Kingdom
announced today that they have purchased shares in BP Amoco and established a
new investor group. SANE BP (Shareholders Against New oil Exploration) hopes to
encourage other shareholders to challenge BP Amoco's investments in new oil
exploration, and steer the company instead toward investment in renewable energy
sources that do not cause global warming.
"BP Amoco pledged to take precautionary action to stop climate change,
but this requires a reduction - not an increase - in the use of fossil fuels
like oil," said Iain MacGill of SANE BP. "However the company's
business strategy still appears to assume that it will be able to sell more oil
in the future rather than less."
In the last reporting year (1997) BP spent approximately $7 billion on oil
exploration and development. In contrast, the company has been spending only
around $20 million per year on renewable energy.
"Even as it acknowledges that international action on climate change can
adversely impact its oil business, BP Amoco continues to pour money into risky
oil exploration and development," MacGill added. "SANE BP is asking
whether this is an ethical or financially prudent strategy, particularly given
the enormous business opportunities now emerging in renewable energy
markets."
The focus of SANE BP's activity this year is a challenge to BP Amoco's
controversial Northstar oil development in Alaska, the first ever production oil
field in the Arctic Ocean. The Northstar development has split US federal
agencies on the issue of its environmental impact. If BP proceeds with Northstar
it is likely to open the way for opening up of new reserves in the Beaufort,
Chukchi, Barents, Kara and other Arctic seas.
The Army Corp of Engineers estimates that there is up to a one in four chance
of a large oil spill during the life of Northstar. In the worst case scenario
oil could leak unnoticed under the ice from its oil pipeline for the long months
of the Arctic winter.
"By pushing ahead with Northstar BP Amoco is gambling with the future of
the Arctic," said MacGill. "Even if major spill doesn't occur, the oil
will come back to haunt the people and wildlife of the region as the effect of
greenhouse gases takes an ever greater toll on the western Arctic."
SANE BP will attend BP Amoco's Annual General Meeting
(AGM) on April 15th and
argue that not only is the risk to the Arctic environment too great, but the
cost of new oil exploration on the earth's climate is indefensible. Greenpeace
is also writing to ethical fund managers in the UK and US to inform them of BP
Amoco's oil developments in the Arctic, advise them of the establishment of SANE
BP, and urge them to communicate any concerns about Northstar directly to the
company.
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