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Alaskan Governor Receives BP Employee of the Year Award

"Polar Bears" surprise Knowles as he presses for Arctic oil drilling on Capitol Hill

Alaskan Governor Knowles is BP Employee of the Year

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2000 -- Recognizing his unwavering efforts to further boost BP Amoco’s record profits, despite the best interests of the public and the environment, Greenpeace presented Alaskan Governor Tony Knowles with a "BP Amoco Employee of the Year" award today. Activists costumed as "polar bears" presented a large plaque, with Knowles’ picture and BP Amoco’s logo, at a press conference called by the Governor to discuss his recent efforts in Washington to open more areas of the Alaskan Arctic to BP Amoco and other oil companies for development.

The award reflects Governor Knowles’s crucial role in the debate over oil expansion and environmental protection. Knowles has repeatedly gone "the extra mile" to serve BP Amoco’s interests. In Washington this week he lobbied both Congress and the Administration to open the pristine Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, a move that will certainly earn a special place for his portrait in BP Amoco’s London boardroom.

"BP Amoco couldn’t have asked for a better supporter. But long- term environmental interests couldn’t have found a worse advocate," said Gary Cook, Greenpeace climate change campaigner. "It’s time for Governor Knowles and other Alaskan politicians to realize it is not in the long-term interests of its citizens, or the environment, to keep drilling for new sources of oil. The answer to our country’s energy problems is clean renewable energy and energy efficiency, not more dirty oil."

The Governor’s efforts to promote BP Amoco’s controversial offshore Northstar project in the Arctic Ocean has set him apart from other award contenders. Without Knowles hard work and special assistance, BP Amoco would not have been able to begin construction this winter. Just one example of his dedication includes approving Northstar construction without it having an oil spill clean-up plan even though the Army Corps of Engineers has estimated Northstar poses up to a 1 in 4 chance of major oil spill.

The plaque presented to Knowles reads: "For consistently placing the interests of BP Amoco over the future of Alaska’s environment."

The "polar bears" who presented the award to Governor Knowles are poster children for the problems of Arctic oil expansion. Polar bear habitat is already under threat from global warming, which is fuelled by the burning of oil; since 1978 Arctic sea ice equivalent to the size of Texas has melted away.

Greenpeace is actively opposing BP Amoco’s drilling and exploration in Alaska, particularly its Northstar project. Ice Camp Sirius, located one mile from Northstar, has been monitoring construction on the frozen Arctic Ocean for the past five weeks. Greenpeace has also taken its case to the shareowners of BP Amoco, filing a resolution that calls on the company to cancel its Arctic exploration plans and invest instead into Arctic friendly solar power. This resolution will be voted on next week in London at BP Amoco’s annual general meeting.