Are Oil Companies Greenwashing Gulf Coast Cleanup?

(This article is re-posted from PR Watch.)

Sandra Bullock, Lenny Kravitz, Harry Shearer and a slew of other celebrities jumped on the bandwagon to star in a public service announcement called “Be the One,” to support Restore the Gulf, a campaign to encourage people to sign a petition saying, “I demand that a plan to restore America’s Gulf be fully funded and implemented for me and future generations.” But when it was reported that “Restore the Gulf” was backed by major oil companies, stars started pulling their support.

“Restore the Gulf” is promoted by the America’s Wetland Foundation, which was reported to be a front group funded by BP, Shell, Chevron, the American Petroleum Institute and a host of other oil companies. Huffington Post wrote on July 29 that the situation has created “the bizarre spectacle of the oil industry using a perfectly-named front group to solicit taxpayer assistance for BP’s cleanup bill.”

Restore the Gulf operates “RestoreTheGulf.com,” which is not to be confused with the U.S. government-run site “RestoreTheGulf.gov.” America’s Wetland Foundation maintains that their campaign does not seek to get taxpayers to pay for coastal cleanup of BP’s oil disaster. Instead, the group wants a long-term commitment from the government to restore the Gulf’s wetlands.

Here is the commercial using media and sports celebrities.