Dodgers Urged to Cut Ties to Big Oil:

Bill McKibben, Naomi Oreskes & Other Environmental Leaders, Cultural Luminaries & Concerned Citizens Sign Open Letter  

Others telling team to drop its Phillips 66 sponsorship deal include actor Kyra Sedgwick, the Center for Biological Diversity, “Don’t Look Up” director Adam McKay’s production studio, rock legend John Densmore and UCLA & Caltech astronomers 

Campaign also highlights absence of electric vehicle chargers at stadium 

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6, 2024–With Earth clocking its hottest days on record, a rapidly expanding coalition of environmental leaders, cultural luminaries and concerned citizens are urging the Los Angeles Dodgers to immediately drop the team’s sponsorship deal with oil giant Phillips 66, owner of the 76 gas-station brand whose logo and ads are emblazoned throughout Dodger Stadium. 

Among signatories to an Open Letter calling on the championship team to stop the greenwashing are environmental leaders Bill McKibben, Harvard University professor Naomi Oreskes and Emmy Award-winning actor Kyra Sedgwick; the Center for Biological Diversity; “Don’t Look Up” director Adam McKay’s Yellow Dot production studio; John Densmore, drummer of the legendary Doors rock band; and Maya Williams, a plaintiff among 18 youths suing the EPA over climate change (Genesis B. v. EPA). 

“The Dodgers shouldn’t be shilling for Big Oil, which is driving the climate change that’s fueling wildfires and other natural disasters,” McKibben said. 

Wildfire smoke has already forced Major League Baseball to relocate games and consider more night games to avoid triple-digit heat. 

“I’ve spent many happy hours in the bleachers of major league ballparks,” McKibben said. “Big Oil is threatening the things we love the most.” 

The Open Letter campaign is led by L.A. advocates including environmentalist Zan Dubin, who engineered a similar effort resulting in Disneyland’s pledge to electrify the polluting gas cars at its Autopia ride, environmental attorney Lisa Kaas Boyle and accountability leader Naomi Seligman. 

“Climate change,” the letter states, “threatens the very fate of civilization and all living things. Big Oil is a major contributor to this threat and to the pollution that kills millions of people yearly. Yet, it has engaged in decades of climate denial and greenwashing, even as carbon emissions keep rising. 

“Using tactics such as associating a beloved, trusted brand like the Dodgers with enterprises like 76, the fossil fuel industry has reinforced deceitful messages that “oil is our friend,” and that “climate change isn’t so bad.”  

Signatory Jordan Howard, a South Los Angeles sustainability and community engagement strategist, said, “I grew up in the shadow of a Phillips 66 gas station for 18-wheelers, which may be a cause of the chronic autoimmune disease that has subverted my life. Sponsorship deals like the Dodgers’ are brokered on our bodies. Greenwashing masks the poison. This must end now.” 

“Like Disneyland,” campaign organizer Dubin said, “the L.A. Dodgers are a beloved institution whose influence has a global reach. Imagine the example the Dodgers could set, the enormous good they could do if they told the world, by dropping their Big Oil sponsorship deal, that it’s time to leave fossil fuels behind.” 

In addition to visibly promoting Big Oil, Dodger Stadium lacks even a single electric vehicle charger, according to the PlugShare app, even though Los Angeles has more EV chargers and ranks among the top in total EV drivers nationally. By contrast, SoFi Stadium and the Kia Forum have 50 and 20 EV chargers, respectively, like other destinations across Southern California, including Central Park in Santa Clarita, the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, East Los Angeles College, the Getty Center in Brentwood, downtown L.A.’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and Disneyland. 

“It’s time for the team to retire its Big Oil sponsorship and make some long overdue 21st-century trades,” said Chris Paine, director of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and the upcoming “Rise of the Electric Car.” “How about prominent EV charging and parking-lot solar panels to illustrate and accelerate a future free from the consequences of fossil fuel use such as childhood asthma?” 

Campaign organizers sent their letter to Dodger owner Mark Walter, other franchise officials and the Dodgers Foundation, noting that they will continue collecting signatures until the Dodgers drop the Phillips 66 sponsorship. Online petition is here. Open Letter and list of signatories as of Aug. 5, 2024 here. 

Other initial signatories include the Plastic Pollution Coalition; Earthworks; Rainforest Action Network; Los Angeles and Long Beach chapters of the Sierra Club; a Pomona solar and EV business; Azusa bike shop owner Carlos Morales, founder of Eastside Bike Club; and actor, human rights and social justice advocate Mike Farrell (“M*A*S*H”).

AVAILABLE FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS:
Bill McKibben
Jennifer Krill, executive director, Earthworks
Chris Paine, director
Zan Dubin, campaign organizer