“Mobil trying to fool New Zealanders”

June 25, 2001

Auckland Regional Council Chairman Philip Warren says Mobil is trying to dupe New Zealanders with its latest claims over lower sulphur diesel which cannot be backed up by facts.

Cr Warren says Mobil has repeatedly claimed in the media that lower sulphur diesel for Auckland would mean a higher sulphur level in the rest of the country’s fuel.

“That’s rubbish. The information we have from Mobil’s competitors is that the sulphur in Auckland’s diesel supplies could be reduced from 3000 parts per million to 1000ppm tomorrow without affecting the rest of the country.

“Mobil is asking New Zealanders to believe doing this in Auckland would prevent improving the standard of diesel nationwide.

“Again, that is simply not true and Mobil knows it.

Cr Warren says Mobil’s false statements are proof of their stalling tactics on the introduction of lower sulphur diesel and makes a mockery of their so-called commitment to lower sulphur diesel and environmental issues.

“The fact is that any national solution would probably take until the end of the year – at the very least. We’ve said to Mobil that we will happily work with them towards such an outcome, but in the meantime we want to use the refinery’s spare capacity to relieve the problem in Auckland,” he says.

“In other words we could do both if Mobil simply joins its three competitors – BP, Caltex and Shell – and agrees to the Auckland initiative. We’ve shown our commitment to low sulphur diesel but to date I’ve seen no evidence of Mobil’s.”

Cr Warren says thousands of supporters of cleaner fuel for Auckland have registered through a newspaper coupon or at www.smokey.org.nz/icare online.

From tomorrow people will also be able to show their support for cleaner air by phoning 0800 SMOKEY – the number which started ARC’s clean air campaign in August last year.

“We had almost 60,000 calls to the toll free number when we asked people to dob in smoky vehicles and I hope we have just as many this time around as we continue the fight to improve Auckland’s air quality,” Cr Warren says.

“My call to boycott Mobil continues.”

ENDS

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