EXXON-MOBIL MERGER SIGNALS CORPORATE DISREGARD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLE (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

PROJECT UNDERGROUND

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE				             December 1, 1998

Contact: Steve Kretzmann, Ida Tarbell: (510) 705-8982

EXXON-MOBIL MERGER SIGNALS CORPORATE DISREGARD
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLE

ACTIVISTS CALL ON FEDRAL TRADE COMMISSION TO BLOCK MERGER 

Decrying the proposed merger of Exxon and Mobil, activists today noted the
imminent threat the union poses to the environment and democratic control
and called on the Federal Trade Commission to immediately block it.  

The proposed reunion of the two largest chunks of Nelson Rockefeller's
Standard Oil monopoly would create the world's largest fossil fuel company.
Central to the activists' concerns is one of the stated "benefits" of the
merger - namely the idea that the union will free up large amounts of
capital "to meet the increasing costs of exploration".  The major reason for
these increased exploration costs is that the oil industry is continuing to
press farther offshore, deeper into pristine rainforest ecosystems, and
further into indigenous homelands.

New oil and gas exploration is facing mounting global opposition, with over
300 indigenous nations, local governments, community, environmental and
human rights organizations currently calling for an end to new petroleum
exploration in pristine and frontier ecosystems.  Petroleum exploration
threatens old growth frontier forests in 22 countries, coral reefs in 38
countries, and mangroves in 46 countries. In addition, indigenous peoples on
every inhabitable continent and at least eight isolated groups face an
immediate or near-term threat from exploration.  Further exploration is also
opposed by the groups because of petroleum's primary responsibility for
climate change.  

"Big Oil is clearly intent on drilling to the ends of the earth, no matter
what the human or environmental cost," said Steve Kretzmann, Oil Campaign
Director at industry watchdog Project Underground.  "The notion that oil and
gas companies need vast amounts of capital for new exploration is
dangerously out of date. If efficiency in delivering the product - energy -
to consumers is a central concern, then we suggest the industry stop
business as usual and start investing in a clean energy future".

Activists also decried the merger on the grounds that it represented a
fundamental threat to democracy.  "This company is bigger than most of the
countries in which it will be operating" said Ida Tarbell, ex-officio oil
campaigner at Project Underground. "With Shell and Chevron in Nigeria,
Texaco in Ecuador and BP in Colombia we've seen the tremendous influence
that oil companies can exert on local and even national governments.  A
behemoth of this size can only threaten local sovereignty more," said Tarbell.

To obtain a copy of the report, "Drilling to the Ends of the Earth" released
jointly by Project Underground and Rainforest Action Network, go to:
http://www.moles.org 

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_______________________________________________________
Steve Kretzmann			510-705-8982 - office
Oil Campaign Director		      	510-705-8983 - fax

Project Underground
Supporting communities threatened by the mining and oil industries

1847 Berkeley Way			http://www.moles.org
Berkeley, CA, 94703, USA

"You may well ask, "why direct action?  Why sit-ins, marches, etc.?  Isn't
negotiation a better path?"  You are exactly right in your call for
negotiation.  Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action.  Nonviolent
direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative
tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced
to confront the issue.  It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no
longer be ignored." - MLK, Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963
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