2,500 Oil Spill Protesters Converge on Exxon Offices

More than 2,500 demonstrators converged on the headquarters of Exxon Corp. in New York on Saturday as part of a series of actions planned across the nation and around the globe by environmentalists, protesting the Alaska oil spill and demanding an end to “corporate pollution of the planet.”

Demonstrators gathered at the Exxon Plaza in midtown Manhattan, waving balloons, chanting “Boycott Exxon” and “Life Not Profits” on the 19th anniversary of Earth Day. The protesters carried placards denouncing the company responsible for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

“It’s fitting that we’re here today,” Jeremy Rifkin, a rally organizer, told the crowd. “This company in the last few weeks has shown the world a total, utter, unconscionable disregard for the environment in which we live.”

On March 24, an Exxon tanker struck a reef near Valdez, Alaska, spilling more than 10 million gallons of crude oil in the environmentally fragile Prince William Sound, fouling an area the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined and killing thousands of birds, hundreds of sea otters and other marine life.

Similar Demonstrations Held

The rally, sponsored by the Save the Earth Campaign, a coalition of peace, environmental and other groups, coincided with similar demonstrations in California, Texas, Kansas, a number of European countries, India and Malaysia, organizers said.

The demonstrators also were protesting against companies that produce chlorofluorocarbons and other gases responsible for ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect.

The protesters marched across town to the United Nations, where they listened to speakers and a host of singers, including Peter Yarrow of the group Peter, Paul and Mary, and Roger McGuinn, formerly of the Byrds.

Among those speaking out against global pollution were former Rep. Bella S. Abzug, actress Morgan Fairchild and actor Ed Begley Jr.

“We’re going to start our conservation effort at the pumps of Exxon,” Begley vowed.

Exxon officials could not be reached for comment on the protest.

Will Push Exploration

But a company official in Sparks, Nev., said the oil industry would continue its push for expanded oil exploration on Alaska’s North Slope, despite the spill. Robert J. Young, who said he was speaking as chairman of the American Petroleum Institute’s Onshore Committee, said Alaska oil is critical if the country is to avoid a reliance on foreign crude.

In Alaska on Saturday, Gov. Steve Cowper asked the state’s residents to observe five minutes of silence today in remembrance of the way things were before the Exxon Valdez oil spill fouled hundreds of miles of pristine coastline.

Many fishermen have expressed frustration with Exxon and the Coast Guard over the lack of progress since the accident. They have been scooping up oil with bait buckets.

A Coast Guard spokesman in Homer said the fishermen so far had been more productive than the 435-foot, 11,400-ton Soviet ship Vaydaghubsky--the world’s largest oil-skimming ship.

Exxon Offers Bounty

Free-lance fishermen, told that Exxon Corp. was offering a $5-a-gallon bounty for oil brought to five collection barges, have headed their small boats out into rough seas from ports along the coast to try their luck.

A line of violent storms kicked up six-foot swells in Prince William Sound on Saturday, and scuttled aerial reconnaissance of the spill.

Cleanup work halted on Smith Island, where Exxon is in a race with nature to decontaminate the shoreline’s rocky coves and inlets vital to the survival of the sound’s sizable sea lion population.