Eds: INSERTS 1 graf after 5th graf, ``We are...' to UPDATE with protest in Anchorage; picks up 6th graf, `J. Edward...;' SUBS 16th graf, `Oil from...,' with 4 grafs to UPDATE with oil spreading, sightings of thousands of dead birds, eagle covered in oil; picks up 17th graf, `The tanker...'
Coast Guard Commandant Paul A. Yost on Tuesday attacked Exxon's plan to clean up the Alaskan oil spill. Consumers, politicians and environmentalists expressed their anger in a one-day ``Boycott Exxon'' campaign. Yost, the top federal official tracking the environmental disaster, said Exxon's plan was poorly drafted and lacking in specifics. But he stopped short of rejecting it, saying he wanted to meet with Exxon and state officials. In Washington, consumer activist Ralph Nader said Exxon ``should not be allowed to forget'' the spill and that a boycott would send the oil giant a message. He and others blasted Exxon for failing to be prepared for the spill and not rapidly responding to the accident that fouled hundreds of miles of Alaska's coast. They also questioned subsequent increases in gas prices. ``We are beginning the war of words and actions against any oil company that doesn't understand its responsibility to protect the environment,'' Massachusetts state Sen. Carol Amick told a boycott rally in Boston. In Anchorage, about 400 chanting and sign-waving protesters rallied in front of Exxon's Alaskan headquarters to urge a consumer boycott. J. Edward Surette Jr., executive director of the Bay State Gasoline Retailers Association in Billerica, Mass., said it was too early to assess the boycott's impact. Exxon spokeswoman Sarah Johnson said 10,000 credit cards out of 7 million have been cut up and returned to the company since the spill. The oil company's cleanup strategy must gain Yost's approval before being put into effect. Yost said he would make a decision on the proposal within a week. ``The plan is very thin,'' he told a news briefing. ``There's not a lot of backup or substantiation. It was quite light, very thin. There must have been a lot of figures there that I haven't seen. ``We are going to be done this summer,'' Yost said. ``Some beaches are going to be sparkling, some beaches are going to be far from sparkling.'' Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner, who is to make his second trip to Alaska on Wednesday as overall coordinator for the cleanup, said he expected the size of the operation to double or triple by the end of the month. In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, Skinner called the spill ``the most significant environmental disaster this nation has ever faced.'' However, he said the cleanup, to be paid for by the oil industry, could add $100 million to $500 million to Alaska's economy, which he said is more than the effect of the fishing industry. Exxon released a statement that called the boycott unjust. Exxon President William D. Stevens said the company was ``turning heaven and Earth to set things right.'' Exxon's 60-page, two-part revised strategy to cleanse some 364 miles of Alaska's coastline of the oil spilled March 24 by the tanker Exxon Valdez was released Monday. The tanker struck a reef 25 miles from Valdez, spilling more than 10 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. About 300 miles from the spill site, an observer saw thousands of dead birds in a wide tidal basin in the Hallo Bay area. ``We saw 2,000 to 3,000 dead birds. ... You can't really tell what they are. They're one big blob of oil,'' said Ray Bane, superintendent of Katmai National Park, about 275 miles southwest of Valdez. ``We found large oil debris washing and slopping up on our shores. ... It was very bad,'' Bane said. ``We saw eagles carrying oil-covered birds. We saw one eagle so coated in oil that it couldn't fly.'' State and federal officials said the focus of the cleanup is moving southwest, following the drifting oil along the Alaska Peninsula through the Shelikof Strait east of Kodiak Island. Oil has tainted the coast at least as far as Chignik, 525 miles southwest of Valdez. The tanker is undergoing preliminary repairs in the sound, and is to be moved next month to Portland, Ore., home of the only drydock on the West Coast capable of handling the 987-foot ship. In its proposal, Exxon said it wants to burn or bury the sludge recovered in the cleanup, which may require exemptions from Alaska environmental law. But Bill Lamoreaux, the ranking state environmental officer at the spill, said the laws would not be relaxed. ``The general feeling is that we would expect that they would comply with the environmental laws,'' Lamoreaux said. Exxon's plan also notes that 191 miles of coastline it describes as ``lightly oiled'' may be left untouched to be cleansed naturally by wind and water. Lamoreaux said, ``When we talk about `light oiling,' it doesn't mean it won't have a devastating effect on wildlife.'' U.S. Sens. James Exon and Bob Kerrey, both Nebraska Democrats, called on U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh to investigate potential price gouging by the oil industry. They noted that gas prices in Nebraska rose 20 percent from the first of March until mid-April. State attorneys general in Washington, Oregon and Idaho echoed the call. Since the Exxon Valdez accident, gas prices have increased an average 10 percent nationally, while the Northwest saw surges as high as 25 percent in less than a month, said Marla Rae, executive assistant to Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer. At a news conference in Houston, Exxon President Stevens said it showed ``shocking naivete'' to blame the price hikes on his company. ``As you know,'' he told reporters, ``the market for petroleum products is set by thousands of markets, thousands of independent dealers across the nation.''
exxon's plan;tanker exxon valdez;alaskan oil spill;oil industry;fishing industry;boycott exxon;significant environmental disaster;gas prices;cleanup strategy;oil company;exxon valdez accident