GREENPEACE STOPS OIL BOUND FOR THE US IN NORWAY OVER BUSH CLIMATE STANCE

12 June 2001

Norway, 11.30am CST - As George W Bush touches down on European soil for the first time as President, Greenpeace activists occupied a tanker full of oil bound for the US to protest Bush’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol and support the European Union’s action on the agreement with or without the US.

Fifteen Greenpeace activists today stopped the Greek registered oil tanker Cosmic from leaving the Statoil owned Mongstad terminal and hung a banner which read STOP OIL TO BUSH – RATIFY KYOTO (1). The tanker was to carry 150,000 tones of crude oil from Norway to the US East Coast, leading to more unregulated CO2 emissions.

“It is too easy just to talk. Bush needs to be shown that the rest of the world is serious on this issue. We are stopping oil exports to show Bush the costs of not joining the international community to address global warming,” said Truls Gulowsen, Greenpeace campaigner.

“These exports undermine Norwegian policy on the Kyoto Protocol by allowing Bush to take no legitimate action on climate change. Norway must show where they really stand on climate and stick to Kyoto together with the rest of Europe,” said Gulowsen.

“Though it is a first small step towards safeguarding the Earth´s climate, the Kyoto protocol which has been formulated over ten years, is the ONLY global legal instrument available to start tackling the problem. Oil exports to the US will only lead to continued unregulated CO2 emissions by a country that is trying to destroy the Kyoto Protocol.”

Norway is currently the eighth largest oil exporter to the US, and fuels the unregulated US emissions with two percent of the total oil consumption. Norwegian exports in February amounted to more than 355 thousand barrels a day, which represents two tankers the size of the “Cosmic” per week. The Norwegian state-owned Statoil, soon to be privatised, supplies ten percent of the oil consumed on the US east coast.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
In Norway:
Truls Gulowsen, +47 90107904
In Amsterdam:
Steve Sawyer +31 653504715
Susan Cavanagh +31 621296910
Photos and video available from www.greenpeace.org

(1) The activists are from 10 different countries: Austria France Germany Greece Netherlands Norway Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom USA