A key member of the California Senate urged Dodgers boss Mark Walter to end his sponsored deal with oil and gas companies and told him “continue to connect these companies with our beloved boys, not in the best interest of our community or the planet.”
Senate Majority Leader D-Long Beach wrote in a letter Tuesday that Angelenoz “breathed some of the country’s worst polluted air, linked to negative health outcomes.”
She said the recent Los Angeles County wildfires have attracted attention, that “fossil fuel pollution has caused not only the climate crisis, but also the area’s persistent harmful air quality.”
One of the most obvious advertisers for the Dodgers is Houston-based oil giant Phillips 66, which owns a chain of 76 gas stations. The orange and blue 76 logos are shown throughout Dodger Stadium, including the logos on two scoreboards, which are climate red flags I highlighted in my column last year.
My column prompted climate activists to rally outside Dodge Stadium and started a Moveon.org petition (which had received nearly 23,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon – calling on Walter to dump Phillips 66. Activists and academic experts say fossil fuel companies (such as Tobacco, like Tobacco, use tobacco companies in gyms and other cultural institutions to build products and other constructed products.
Gonzalez noted that California is suing major oil and gas companies, including Phillips 66, for climate damage, with state officials accusing the industry of a “decade-long deception campaign” to hide the truth about global warming and delay the transition to clean power. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the lawsuit to move forward.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors last year charged Phillips 66 for violating the U.S. Clean Water Act, dumping oil and grease from the Carson refinery outside the Gonzalez area into the sewer system in Los Angeles County.
Deleting Phillips’ 66 ads from Dodger Stadium “will convey a message that it’s time to end our embrace of polluted fossil fuels and work together toward a cleaner, greener future,” Gonzalez wrote.
The Dodgers did not respond to a request for comment.
The legislation was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) on display in 2019.
(Robert Gourley / Los Angeles Times)
The 2024 World Series champion is not the only professional sports team that pays for fossil fuels. A recent survey by UCLA Law Emmitt College counted at least 59 U.S. franchises that received sponsorships from oil giants, or, its energy is primarily fossil fuels. The roster includes five other California teams: LAFC, Sacramento Kings, Track and Field (formerly Oakland), San Francisco Giants and San Francisco 49ers.
However, the Dodgers occupy a unique position in American sports history.
As Gonzalez wrote, the team has long been ahead of the curve. The Dodgers broke the color barriers of baseball when they signed Jackie Robinson in the 1940s and banned cigarette ads from Dodger Stadium in the 1960s. Recently, the team encouraged fans to transfer public transport to the game and launch sustainable development efforts.
Gonzalez wrote that these efforts “make the Dodgers continue their ongoing partnership with Big Oil,” Gonzalez wrote.
Gonzalez wrote to Walter after hearing about Zan Dubin, the climate activist led the Dodgers to abandon Phillips66. Dubin, who has worked with the local Sierra Club, has worked for the local Sierra Club chapters on the campaign, praised Gonzalez for showing “real leadership and unwelcome courage, the preferred official for our campaign.”
“Green must end so we can accelerate the adoption of renewable energy,” Dubin said.
A Phillips 66 spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor is there a spokesperson for Ohio Marathon Oil, whose ARCO gas station has opened ads at Dodger Stadium in recent years.
In an interview, Gonzalez described himself as a “huge baseball enthusiast” and cheered the Dodgers. She said she hopes players on the team can also start talking about fossil fuel ads.
“I love so much [Shohei] Ohtani or [Freddie] Freeman or someone says, “It’s important to us too.”
The Dodgers head to Tokyo this week and they will open the season with two games against the Chicago Cubs. They will return to Los Angeles on March 27 to open their home game at Dodger Stadium.
The 76 logo will be imminent. Withdrawn from the Eaton and Palisades fires for several months, Dodgers fans taking photos and posting them on social media will provide free publicity to Phillips in many cases 66.
The 76 logo is located above the left-field scoreboard at Dodger Stadium.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
