Exxon Hates Arkansas

Exxon doesn't want you to know what their environmental destruction looks like -----

Two weeks ago, an oil pipeline carrying Tar Sands oil ruptured in a small town in Arkansas. Toxic, smelly sludge is still seeping into back yards, local swimming holes, and the drinking water of several communities. But that tragedy may not be televised, or even seen, by millions of people unless we take action.

Exxon is trying to stop you, and the rest of America, from seeing the dirty, oily truth about this spill. They've set up a no-fly zone to prevent aerial photos, threatened to arrest a reporter covering the story, and last week they censored a paid ad YOU helped create off the air.

Here at Environmental Action, we think it's time to say "No more pipelines in anyone's backyard." And we can start by saying no to the mother of all pipelines: Keystone XL. But we need your help to get leaked images of the Mayflower AR spill where they can help convince the people who need to see them. Will you chip in to help get these images out, despite Exxon's threats?

Exxon and their Big Oil buddies are absolutely terrified of these images: Baby ducks covered in oil, playgrounds submerged in brown ooze, and men in hazmat suits pressure-washing toxic goop down the storm drain (and into local waterways). These are not the images Big Oil wants you to see or think about when you hear the word 'pipeline'.

But that's the truth of oil pipelines. It's not a question of if they'll break, but when. And when they do, they devastate local wildlife, ecosystems and any human communities nearby as well. Last year there were over 560 pipeline spills nationwide, some of them worse than the one in Mayflower.¹

But Exxon has been relentless at suppressing any coverage of this local disaster. When Greenpeace took aerial photos of the spill that proved oil was leaking into local rivers and streams, Exxon set up a no-fly zone to shut down the images but still hasn't cleaned the oil out of local waterways². When a reporter demanded answers from government officials at the EPA who are supposed to be supervising the cleanup work, Exxon threatened to have her arrested and threw her out of the command center.³

We thought if there's any community in America that needs to see our snarky, satirical ad about how Exxon and other Big Oil companies take our money, destroy our future, and then try and put a happy face on it—it's the folks in Mayflower. So we bought airtime on local TV to run our over-the-top ad "Exxon Hates Your Children", which thousands of Environmental Action members helped fund and create. But Exxon won't even let a seriously funny critique of their oil spill stand: they threatened to sue the local TV stations if they ran the ad.⁴

We're fighting Exxon to get the ad on the air, but there's another group of people who need to hear the truth about how pipelines and Big Oil are bad and untrustworthy—the employees of the U.S. State Department.

Right now, State Department staff are reviewing over 1 million public comments on the Keystone XL Pipeline. At stake is whether or not to build the largest oil pipeline in America, and truck more Tar Sands oil, the same stuff that spilled all over Mayflower, through thousands more towns and across millions of acres of nature. I can't think of anyone who needs to see the images of what a pipeline leak looks like than these State Department employees.

But with Exxon locking down all the information, it's possible they'll never see a photo of the Mayflower spill, unless we put it where they can't ignore it. So we want to run ads in the D.C. Metro stops where thousands of State Department employees commute every day. That way, every time they come to work or leave for home, they'll have to look environmental devastation in the face, and think about the next oil spill they'll be helping to create -- unless they say NO to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Donate now to help us put the truth about oil pipelines - that they all break, and when they do they destroy the environment and our homes - where State Department employees can't ignore the message.

We're fighting to end all pipelines, everywhere. And we'll keep fighting to get the images and news people need to hear out of Mayflower, and other front line communities where oil spills and pollution are devastating the environment. But we only have a few weeks left to convince the State Department not to build the Mother of All Pipelines, Keystone XL. This is a special opportunity and we need your help to make it happen.

Thanks for never flinching in the face of censorship, and taking action for the environment.

Drew Hudson
Director | Environmental Action

1 - U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
2 - Philip Radford, The Arkansas Oil Spill Photos the Keystone Cabal Doesn't Want You to See, Huffington Post, April 2, 2013
3 - Susan White, InsideClimate News Reporter Threatened With Arrest at Ark. Oil Spill Site, InsideClimate News, April 5, 2013
4 - Environmental Action, Exxon Pressures Arkansas TV Stations To Ban Critical Ad Following Mayflower Tar Sands Spill, April 11, 2013

 

 

 

Big Oil Doesn't Want You to See This:

or this

or this

 

Or anything about the Mayflower oil spill. Donate now so we can put these images (and more) where they can't be ignored.

https://secure.flickr.com//photos/tarsandsblockade/show/