Please tell Oprah Winfrey that it is not good to promote the Saudi Aramco oil company propaganda on her TV network

Readers, please note that TransCanada is on record telling Canadian regulators that one of their committed customers was Motiva - which is 50% owned by Saudi Aramco (and half by Shell). So the Saudis will actually be profiting directly from Keystone XL pipeline.

Tell Oprah: Stop promoting dirty tar sands lies on your network

*If you are Canadian, click here to sign the petition.*

Oprah Winfrey is a respected voice who has fought hard to advance the rights and lives of women all over the world.

But now she's allowing that work to be co-opted, by validating on her network a dangerous campaign of flat out lies that promote the development of the Canadian tar sands.

'Ethical Oil' is a purportedly grassroots Canadian group but it has major ties to the tar sands industry. The astroturf group ran an ad last week exclusively on Oprah's Canadian TV station, pushing the lie that developing the tar sands will aid the plight of women living in the oppressive Saudi regime, by reducing demand for Saudi oil.¹

The ad is the worst kind of propaganda that manages to exploit both women and our environment.² Oprah shouldn't let a legitimate concern for the rights of women be co-opted to promote the dirtiest oil in the world, while keeping us addicted to the oil that fuels the Saudi regime.

Tell Oprah: Denounce the dirty tar sands lies broadcast on your network -- it's outrageous to suggest that exploiting Canadian tar sands oil will empower women in the Middle East.

The Keystone XL pipeline is primarily being built to help export dirty Canadian oil from ports in Texas and Louisiana to Asia and Europe.³ And incredibly, one of the Gulf Coast refineries that would process this tar sands oil is half owned by Saudi Arabia's national oil company.⁴ So if anything, this tar sands oil will make the Saudis even richer.

The Keystone XL pipeline, the key to rapid development of tar sands oil, won't help reduce America's reliance on Middle East oil one bit. But the fact of the matter is we need to confront climate change by drastically reducing our consumption of oil no matter where it is produced.

Tell Oprah: Denounce the dirty tar sands lies broadcast on your network -- it's outrageous to suggest that exploiting Canadian tar sands oil will empower women in the Middle East.

The unconscionable ad of 'Ethical Oil' aims to tug at the heart strings with stories of unjust arrests of Saudi women - glossing over environmental devastation in Canada, massive oil spill risk in the US, major escalation of the carbon emissions that threaten our future, and the fact that Keystone XL pipeline won't actually reduce our demand for Saudi oil.

None of those is the least bit ethical. Oprah should do the right thing and denounce the ads, stop running them on all her stations, and explain that we must end our dependence on all oil.

Tell Oprah: Denounce the dirty tar sands lies broadcast on your network -- it's outrageous to suggest that exploiting Canadian tar sands oil will empower women in the Middle East.

1. "'Ethical Oil' TV Ads Re-Brand Canada Oil Sands On Oprah Winfrey Network," Huffington Post, August 28, 2011
2. "Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey on 'Ethical Oil' Ads," Desmog Blog, September 7, 2011
3. "Key facts on Keystone XL," Tar Sands Action
4. "U.S. Oil Giants Poised to Gain on Keystone Pipeline," National Journal, August 5, 2011


http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/oprah_tar_sands/?r=231215&id=-3437340-xNHOUwx