GROUPS TARGET BP AMOCO WITH ARCTIC SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION
Coalition Calls on Company to Go Beyond Petroleum By Staying Out of the ANWR

30, January, 2001

For Immediate Release: Contact: 
Ariane van Buren 212/870-2623
Athan Manuel 202/546-9707
Simon Billenness 617/423-6655, ext. 225 
Timothy Smith 617/695-5177


A coalition of environmental groups, investors, religious organizations, and indigenous peoples announced today the filing of an Arctic National Wildlife Refuge shareholder resolution with BP Amoco, the largest player in Alaska. The coalition called on BP Amoco and its shareholders to respect the wilderness values found in the Arctic Refuge, and review plans to drill for oil and gas in the area.

"BP Amoco and their allies in the Bush Administration want to ruin one of the planet's last wild places for less than six months worth of oil and gas," said Athan Manuel, director of the Public Interest Research Group's (PIRG) Arctic Wilderness campaign. "The best way for BP to go 'beyond petroleum' is to cancel drilling plans for the Arctic Refuge - America's Arctic - support wilderness for the coastal plain, and go solar instead."

Thirteen percent of BP Amoco shareholders voted in favor of a similar Arctic Refuge resolution supported by PIRG, Greenpeace, and Trillium Asset Management at last year's annual general meeting. This year, those three groups have been joined by the Walden Asset Management of Boston, the Green Century Balanced Fund, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club, Free The Planet! and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). The State PIRGs' national lobbying office, U.S. PIRG, is coordinating a corporate campaign targeting the four oil companies that have expressed interest in drilling in the Arctic Refuge. 

"The national debate to protect the Arctic Refuge is becoming more intense week by week and is a top priority for the environmental community. Protecting our fragile environment is a priority for many investors as well," said Timothy Smith, Senior Vice-president of Walden Asset Management. "Thus we are issuing this urgent appeal to BP Amoco to review their plans to drill. As President Clinton stated on January 17, 2001 - 'We must continue to safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last truly wild places on earth . . . the Serengeti of the Americas.'

 "BP cannot profess to be a leader in getting the petroleum industry out of oil," observed Dr. Ariane van Buren, Director of ICCR's Energy and Environment program, " when at the same time, it is promoting drilling in an area where it does not need to occur." 

The resolution was drafted by U.S. PIRG, Trillium Asset Management, and Walden representatives, who then reached out to gather the requisite number of 100 shareholders to file the resolution with BP Amoco. Among the more than 100 shareholders are the Green Century Balanced Fund, World Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club, United Methodist General Board on Church and Society, United Church of Christ, Mercy Consolidated Asset Management Program, Ethical Funds of Vancouver, British Columbia, Catholic Healthcare West, Hampshire College, Oxfam USA, Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, Tides Foundation, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and the As You Sow Foundation.

"BP Amoco represents one of the largest energy holdings in our portfolio," said Simon Billenness, Senior Analyst with Trillium Asset Management in Boston. "As ethical investors, we expect BP Amoco to honor its promise to move 'beyond petroleum' and leave the Arctic Refuge and the Gwich'in alone."

The Arctic shareholder resolution calls on BP Amoco "to prepare a report on the impact of oil and gas drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to be available to investors and the public by September 2001." The report should include an assessment of the potential damage to the ecosystem of the coastal plain, to the Porcupine River Caribou herd, and to the human rights of the Gwich'in Indians, that would result from the company drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and asks BP Amoco to include a summary of the research and positions taken by major environmental organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom on these issues.

In November 2000, BP Amoco CEO John Browne stated that the company would like to drill in the Arctic if George W. Bush, who supports drilling for the Arctic Refuge, was elected president. In June 1998, BP Amoco, Chevron, and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) finalized a lease for oil exploration and development in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. 

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the last pristine areas left in the United States. Caribou, muskoxen, wolves, polar, brown and black bears, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds rely on the wilderness habitat that the Refuge provides. The Gwich'in people, Alaska natives who live near the Refuge, depend on the caribou. For 20,000 years, their culture and way of life have been intimately bound up with the Porcupine River caribou herd. 

"The breadth of the shareholders sponsoring the resolution, from religious organizations to OXFAM, from Hampshire College to socially concerned money managers, is testimony to the depth of concern in America today regarding protecting the Arctic," said Kris Curtis, Treasurer of the Green Century Balanced Fund.

Trillium and Greenpeace have also filed a climate change resolution with BP Amoco asking the company to report to its shareholders on how and when it intends to move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy in response to climate change.

BP Amoco shareholders will vote on the resolutions at their annual general meeting on April 19, 2001 in London. Similar Arctic Refuge resolutions have been filed with ExxonMobil and Chevron. 

* * *
For more on the shareholder resolutions please visit PIRG's web site at www.pirg.org.
U.S. PIRG is the national lobbying office for the state Public Interest Research Groups. PIRGs are non-partisan, non-profit environmental and consumer watchdog organizations that are active across the country.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is a coalition of nearly 300 faith-based institutional investors representing over $100 billion in invested capital.

Trillium Asset Management is the oldest and largest independent investment firm that specializes solely in socially responsible investment. Founded in 1982, the firm manages over $750 million in client assets. 

Walden Asset Management manages $1.3 billion in assets for socially and environmentally concerned clients and has been involved since 1975 in corporate responsibility, advocacy, and social investing.