Nationwide Boycott Day Targets Exxon

Consumers, environmentalists and politicians in scattered cities yesterday joined a one-day "Boycott Exxon" campaign protesting the company's huge oil spill in Alaska and the overall rise in gasoline prices.

Meanwhile, state attorneys general in the Northwest and U.S. Senators from Nebraska called for a federal investigation into the sharp gasoline price increase since the March 24 Exxon Valdez spill.

"We are beginning the war of words and actions against any oil company that doesn't understand its responsibility to protect the environment," said Massachusetts state Sen. Carol Amick (D-Bedford) at a boycott rally in Boston.

J. Edward Surette Jr., executive director of the Bay State Gasoline Retailers Association in Billerica, Mass., said his group surveyed dealers yesterday but found that it was too early to assess the impact of the boycott.

Exxon spokeswoman Sarah Johnson said 10,000 credit cards out of 7 million have been cut up and returned to the company since the spill. But the company said it had received no reports from dealers of losses in the volume of gasoline sold.

Surette accused Exxon Corp. of "obvious negligence" but said it was unfair for consumers to vent their anger at dealers, most of whom run small, independent businesses. About 5 percent, or 620, of the 12,400 Exxon brand stations in the United States are owned and operated by Exxon. The rest are independent.

Consumer activist Ralph Nader said in Washington that Exxon "should not be allowed to forget" the Alaskan spill and that a boycott was the way to send a message to the oil giant.

Nader joined representatives from several environmental and consumer groups in accusing Exxon of failing to be prepared for the spill and not rapidly responding to the accident.

Twenty state legislators from Oregon and 16 from California backed the boycott. Consumer groups in Alaska and New York state also asked consumers to join in.

Exxon issued a statement calling the boycott unjust, and added: "Exxon believes in the basic fairness of the American people and is confident that they will see Exxon's employees, dealers and owners as victims of human error, not as an institution that should be discriminated against for an accident that occurred while we were doing our job."

Since the Exxon Valdez accident, gas prices have increased by an average of 10 percent nationally, while the Pacific Northwest saw surges as high as 25 percent in less than a month, said Marla Rae, executive assistant to Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer.