
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990                   TAG: 9005040770
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EXXON IS US

OUTNUMBERED by company supporters, environmentalists didn't make any headway at the Exxon Corp.'s annual shareholders' meeting in Houston a few days ago. They were often booed or shouted down, and all their initiatives - such as creating a committee of directors devoted to environmental issues - were voted down.

More than a year after the colossal oil spill in Prince William Sound, not everyone might agree with Rosemary King, a retired Exxon employee and stockholder, who declared that the company "has put forth the greatest effort." But she could have caused a few people to squirm when she suggested that environmentalists dissatisfied with Exxon's handling of the spill should "store your car, stop flying airplanes and walk or ride a horse in the winter snow or summer heat."

That may sound like an attempt to change the subject and divert attention from Exxon's derelictions. But King's comments were very much to the point.

It's easy to rail at oil companies and other polluting businesses, and to hold them responsible for all the contaminants and poisons that are loosed. Surely, businesses do bear a heavy responsibility to control and minimize wastes and emissions so as to prevent harm to the environment that supports all life.

But it's also easy to forget that such companies are our agents. They supply our wants and needs, and we become very upset when they don't. Remember the oil embargo in the early 1970s? Consumers don't demand pollution, but we do demand the products and services that can lead to pollution.

In the case of oil, it is impossible to prevent each and every spill that occurs. There can and should be greater safeguards. But the United States is a voracious user of energy, and most of that comes from oil. To get it to refineries and to tank farms such as the one in Montvale, then to our homes, service stations, utility plants and other places it's burned, the stuff has to be pumped, shipped, hauled, poured and moved in various ways.

On average, says the Wilderness Society, more than 20 oil spills of various size happen daily on U.S. soil or in its waters. Experts estimate that in the 12 months after the Exxon Valdez disaster of March 1989, there were about 10,000 other spills within our boundaries totaling as much as 20 million gallons of oil.

Without American consumer demand, those spills and that pollution would not have occurred. And U.S. oil consumption,after declining for several years in the wake of the cartel's price run-ups, is on the rise again. That means more spills, maybe bigger ones. As more oil is burned, that also means more atmospheric pollutants, leading to more global warming.

Exxon's stockholders,including Rosemary King, are secure in the knowledge that the nation's not going to revert to 19th-century ways of getting around. Fortunately, there are other alternatives for controlling pollution. But one of them, as King's words imply, is to conserve energy so that there are fewer chances for pollution. She addressed her message to environmentalists. There aren't enough of them yet.

by CNB