A powerful senator in California is telling Dodgers owner Mark Walter that “continuing to associate these corporations with our beloved boys in blue is not in our community or the planet’s best interest.” And he wants Walter to end the team’s sponsorship deals with oil and gas companies.
Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) wrote in a letter on Tuesday that Angelenos “breathe some of the most polluted air in the country, with demonstrated links to negative health outcomes.”
She said that the recent wildfires in L.A. County have brought attention to the fact that “fossil fuel pollution is to blame for both the climate crisis and the region’s still-bad air quality.”
Texas-based Phillips 66, which owns the 76 gas station chain, is one of the Dodgers’ most well-known sponsors. There are orange-and-blue 76 logos all over Dodger Stadium, including above both scoreboards. This is a climate red flag that I wrote about in a piece last year.
As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly 23,000 people had signed a MoveOn.org petition asking Walter to get rid of Phillips 66 after reading my piece. The petition was started by climate activists outside of Dodger Stadium. Activists and academics say that fossil fuel companies, like tobacco companies before them, put ads in sports stadiums and other culture venues to make people like them and make the bad things that their products do seem normal.
Gonzalez mentioned that California is suing big oil and gas companies, like Phillips 66, for damages to the climate. State leaders are accusing the industry of a “decades-long campaign of deception” to hide the truth about global warming and slow down the switch to clean power. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said the case could go forward.
Phillips 66 was charged with breaking the U.S. Clean Water Act last year for dumping oil and grease from its Carson plant into the L.A. County sewer system. This happened just outside Gonzalez’s district.
González wrote that taking down the Phillips 66 ads from Dodger Stadium “would send the message that it’s time to stop supporting dirty fossil fuels and work together toward a cleaner, greener future.”
The 2024 World Series winners aren’t the only professional sports team that takes money from fossil fuels. A new study from the Emmett Institute at UCLA Law found that at least 59 U.S. franchises take sponsorship money from oil companies or utility companies that get most of their power from fossil fuels. The list also had the Los Angeles FC, the Sacramento Kings, the Athletics (formerly the Oakland Athletics), the San Francisco Giants, and the San Francisco 49ers.
There is one team in American sports history that stands out from the rest: the Dodgers.
González wrote that the team has been ahead of the game for a long time. When the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson in the 1940s, they broke baseball’s color barrier. In the 1960s, they said no to cigarette ads at Dodger Stadium. These days, the team has started steps to be more environmentally friendly and has asked fans to take public transportation to games.
Gonzalez wrote that these measures “make the Dodgers’ continued partnership with Big Oil all the more out of date.”
Zan Dubin is the climate campaigner who is leading the charge for the Dodgers to drop Phillips 66. Gonzalez wrote to Walter after hearing from Dubin. Gonzalez was praised by Dubin for being “true leadership and unflinching courage as the first elected official to endorse our campaign.” Dubin worked on the campaign with the local Sierra Club chapter.
“Greenwashing must end so we can accelerate adoption of renewable energy,” he said.
A Phillips 66 spokesperson didn’t answer right away when asked for feedback. A representative for Marathon Petroleum, based in Ohio, also did not answer. In recent years, ads for their Arco gas stores have been shown at Dodger Stadium.
Gonzalez said she grew up cheering for the Dodgers and is a “huge baseball lover” in an interview. She said she wishes the other players on the team would talk about ads for dirty fuels too.
“I’d love for [Shohei] Ohtani or [Freddie] Freeman or someone to say, ‘This is important to us, too,'” I told her.
This week, the Dodgers are going to Tokyo to play their first two games of the season against the Chicago Cubs. At Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on March 27, they will play their first home game.
There will be a lot of 76 logos. Since the Eaton and Palisades fires happened only a few months ago, Dodgers fans who take pictures and share them on social media will often be giving Phillips 66 free exposure.
A powerful senator in California is telling Dodgers owner Mark Walter that “continuing to associate these corporations with our beloved boys in blue is not in our community or the planet’s best interest.” And he wants Walter to end the team’s sponsorship deals with oil and gas companies.
Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) wrote in a letter on Tuesday that Angelenos “breathe some of the most polluted air in the country, with demonstrated links to negative health outcomes.”
She said that the recent wildfires in L.A. County have brought attention to the fact that “fossil fuel pollution is to blame for both the climate crisis and the region’s still-bad air quality.”
Texas-based Phillips 66, which owns the 76 gas station chain, is one of the Dodgers’ most well-known sponsors. There are orange-and-blue 76 logos all over Dodger Stadium, including above both scoreboards. This is a climate red flag that I wrote about in a piece last year.
As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly 23,000 people had signed a MoveOn.org petition asking Walter to get rid of Phillips 66 after reading my piece. The petition was started by climate activists outside of Dodger Stadium. Activists and academics say that fossil fuel companies, like tobacco companies before them, put ads in sports stadiums and other culture venues to make people like them and make the bad things that their products do seem normal.
Gonzalez mentioned that California is suing big oil and gas companies, like Phillips 66, for damages to the climate. State leaders are accusing the industry of a “decades-long campaign of deception” to hide the truth about global warming and slow down the switch to clean power. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said the case could go forward.
Phillips 66 was charged with breaking the U.S. Clean Water Act last year for dumping oil and grease from its Carson plant into the L.A. County sewer system. This happened just outside Gonzalez’s district.
González wrote that taking down the Phillips 66 ads from Dodger Stadium “would send the message that it’s time to stop supporting dirty fossil fuels and work together toward a cleaner, greener future.”
The 2024 World Series winners aren’t the only professional sports team that takes money from fossil fuels. A new study from the Emmett Institute at UCLA Law found that at least 59 U.S. franchises take sponsorship money from oil companies or utility companies that get most of their power from fossil fuels. The list also had the Los Angeles FC, the Sacramento Kings, the Athletics (formerly the Oakland Athletics), the San Francisco Giants, and the San Francisco 49ers.
There is one team in American sports history that stands out from the rest: the Dodgers.
González wrote that the team has been ahead of the game for a long time. When the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson in the 1940s, they broke baseball’s color barrier. In the 1960s, they said no to cigarette ads at Dodger Stadium. These days, the team has started steps to be more environmentally friendly and has asked fans to take public transportation to games.
Gonzalez wrote that these measures “make the Dodgers’ continued partnership with Big Oil all the more out of date.”
Zan Dubin is the climate campaigner who is leading the charge for the Dodgers to drop Phillips 66. Gonzalez wrote to Walter after hearing from Dubin. Gonzalez was praised by Dubin for being “true leadership and unflinching courage as the first elected official to endorse our campaign.” Dubin worked on the campaign with the local Sierra Club chapter.
“Greenwashing must end so we can accelerate adoption of renewable energy,” he said.
A Phillips 66 spokesperson didn’t answer right away when asked for feedback. A representative for Marathon Petroleum, based in Ohio, also did not answer. In recent years, ads for their Arco gas stores have been shown at Dodger Stadium.
Gonzalez said she grew up cheering for the Dodgers and is a “huge baseball lover” in an interview. She said she wishes the other players on the team would talk about ads for dirty fuels too.
“I’d love for [Shohei] Ohtani or [Freddie] Freeman or someone to say, ‘This is important to us, too,'” I told her.
This week, the Dodgers are going to Tokyo to play their first two games of the season against the Chicago Cubs. At Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on March 27, they will play their first home game.
There will be a lot of 76 logos. Since the Eaton and Palisades fires happened only a few months ago, Dodgers fans who take pictures and share them on social media will often be giving Phillips 66 free exposure.
