California Sen. Lena Gonzalez, one of the state's top crusaders against the oil industry, is urging Los Angeles Dodger owner Mark Walter to end the team's sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies. The letter was inspired by Dodger Fans Against Fossil Fuels, an ongoing petition campaign waged by Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, which sent Walter an Open Letter now signed by 23,000 Dodger fans and activists.
The petition campaign urges Dodger owners to end the team's advertising deal with oil giant Phillips 66, owner of 76 gas-station brand whose logo is displayed across Dodger Stadium. Noting that team owners also advertise for Arco gas, campaigners assert that associating Big Oil with America's beloved pastime makes fossil fuels seem wholesome and trivializes the deadly pollution and climate change they cause.
Describing herself as a "lifelong Dodger fan," Gonzalez, the state's senate majority leader, noted that the Dodgers have long been "ahead of the curve" on issues from banning stadium cigarette ads to supporting public transit and recycling. But such sustainability efforts, Gonzalez wrote, "make the Dodgers' continued partnership with Big Oil all the more anachronistic."
"The state of California is currently suing five of the largest oil and gas companies in the world for decades of misleading the public about climate change,” Gonzalez wrote. "This lawsuit includes Philips 66....As a State, we are leading the way in climate action and decarbonizing our economy. Yet, Big Oil continues to engage in climate denial and just last year spent a record amount lobbying the State Legislature against common-sense public health measures.”
Gonzalez noted how LA’s recent fires have highlighted fossil fuels’ contribution to health-damaging pollution and the climate change that worsened such disasters. “Continuing to associate these corporations with our beloved boys in blue is not in our community or the planet's best interest...Ending the sponsorship with Phillips 66 would send the message that it’s time to end our embrace of polluting fossil fuels and work together towards a cleaner, greener future.”
Said petition campaign lead Zan Dubin: "We applaud Sen. Gonzalez for showing true leadership and unflinching courage as the first elected official to endorse our campaign by challenging a beloved world champion baseball team, not to mention the fossil fuel industry. But she has it right: Such greenwashing must end so that we can speed greater adoption of renewable energy and break the political power of the fossil fuel industry that’s working to block it."
The next protest will be at the Dodgers’ first home game, on Thursday, March 27th. We will meet pre-game at at 2:30 p.m. outside Dodgers Stadium on the SE corner of Stadium Way and Vin Scully Avenue. Recommended parking: Lot 13 south of entrance on Stadium Way. All are welcome. RSVP here.