Environmental advocacy organization EARTHWORKS is calling on the American Petroleum Institute to cease its multi-million dollar public-relations campaign designed to burnish the green credentials of the oil industry, while gearing up for a marketing campaign of its own. "The best public relations your industry could buy would be to take the funds you have earmarked of this campaign and spend them, starting today, to create and bring to market renewable, sustainable energy sources," writes EARTHWORKS attorney Bruce Baizel in a letter today to API president Red Cavaney. Meanwhile, EARTHWORKS is taking the fight to API on another front.
Baizel tells U.S. News and the Bulletin that the organization will launch a No Dirty Energy campaign this summer modeled on the success of its previous No Dirty Gold campaign. In that instance, EARTHWORKS leaned on jewelers with the threat of negative publicity to get them to apply pressure to mining companies. Now, with a coalition of environmental groups like Natural Resources Defense Council, the Rain Forest Action Network and Environmental Defense Canada, EARTHWORKS will seek to put pressure on producers and consumers of dirty fuels. A major target will be the Alberta Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada. "A lot of the tar sand oil is being refined and used for diesel, jet fuel, and in some cases gasoline, so you have some large purchasers of the product who have an interest in reducing their carbon footprint," Baizel says. "We think on the market side there's quite a bit of opportunity to bring pressure to bear on companies." EARTHWORKS has already placed some print ads in national and Washington, DC media, and may target local media around the sites of energy production. Baizel said "there's no set amount" for a budget for the campaign. -- Bulletin exclusive from U.S. NewsWhite House Bulletin
