Coast Guard Attacks Exxon Cleanup Plan

Coast Guard Commandant Paul A. Yost on Tuesday attacked Exxon’s plan to clean up the Alaskan oil spill, as 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 gasoline 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.

Too Early to Assess

J. Edward Surette Jr., executive director of the Bay State Gasoline Retailers Assn. in Billerica, Mass., said it was too early to assess the boycott’s impact.

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 K. Skinner, who is to make his second trip to Alaska today as overall coordinator for the cleanup, said he expects 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 on the fishing industry.

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.