Wilderness Society

Chevron Alternative Annual Report Slams Gorgon and James Price Point LNG Projects West Australians Head to U. S. for Chevron Shareholder Meeting.

The deadly impacts to humpback whales, flatback turtles and wildlife from oil and gas operations in Western Australia are exposed in a report and advertising targeting Chevron that were released in the US.

The Chevron Alternative Annual Report details Chevron's harm to people and the environment, including Barrow Island and the Kimberley, from global oil and gas operations.

The report is being released to coincide with the Chevron shareholder meeting in Houston, Texas, on May 26. Both The Wilderness Society of Western Australia and Turtle Island Restoration Network of California are co-authors and co-sponsors of the Chevron Alternative Annual Report. See the report here.

Australian flatback sea turtles are featured in one of a series of advocacy ads targeting Chevron, with the message: "Dear Chevron, Thanks for destroying vital habitat. Yours, Australia."

Both Aboriginal activist Neil McKenzie from Save The Kimberley in Broome and conservationist Josh Coates of The Wilderness Society in Perth are travelling independently to Houston to help publicize the report, testify at the Chevron shareholder meeting and generate international support for protection of the Kimberley coast, flatback turtles, whales and the West Australian environment from industrialization by Chevron and other Big Oil companies.

"I will be attending the Chevron AGM in Houston and a string of other public talks and rallies to draw international attention to the unacceptable environmental impacts of proposed LNG processing on the Kimberley coast," said Mr. Coates. "It is time that the international
community became aware of the threat to one of the worlds least impacted coastlines and pristine wild places. It is not only the world's largest humpback whale nursery area that will suffer if the James Price Point proposal goes ahead, and the crazy part is there are environmentally and economically viable alternatives."

McKenzie said "I am honoured to have the opportunity to draw worldwide attention to the impacts of the proposed industrial site would have on my traditional lands. As an Indigenous Traditional Owner, tourism operator and family man I will be sending a strong message that the proposed LNG processing at James Price Point in the Kimberley is not acceptable and must be stopped."

"Chevron must stop constructing dirty oil and gas projects on the backs of sea turtles," said Teri Shore, Program Director for Turtle Island
Restoration Network (TIRN, www.seaturtles.org). "Sea turtles are in trouble from drilling and spilling across the oceans. They are swimming through oil and losing beaches due to the fossil fuel frenzy being led by Chevron and Big Oil." All seven species of sea turtles are endangered or threatened.

The Alternative Annual Report tells about Chevron's involvement in the joint venture seeking to build a natural gas precinct in whale and turtle habitat in the Kimberley at James Price Point. It explains that the Kimberley coast is near-pristine and important to traditional owners.

It also describes the building of the massive Gorgon natural gas facility on top of a nesting beach for the flatback sea turtle on Barrow Island..

More than 1,000 threatened nesting turtles will be permanently displaced and the destruction of pristine marine habitat will threaten thousands more.

For More Info, see:
Turtle Island Restoration Network, www.seaturtles.org
True Cost of Chevron, www.truecostofchevron.com
Global Exchange, www.GlobalExchange.org/chevron
Wilderness Society, www.wilderness.org.au/kimberley
Save the Kimberley, www.sav