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San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Announces Resolution

27 September 1999

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano Announces Resolution To Review City Contracts

Announcement Made As Environmentalists Launch "Don't Buy It" Campaign To Stop
      Mitsubishi From Destroying Critical California Gray Whale Habitat

    SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 27 -- Environmentalists today launched a
statewide consumer action campaign against multi-national corporate giant
Mitsubishi, at a press conference held at noon on the steps of San Francisco's
famed, domed City Hall.  The campaign urges consumers not to do business with
Mitsubishi unless the company abandons its plans to build the world's largest
salt plant on the shores of pristine Laguna San Ignacio, in Baja California
Sur, Mexico -- where California Gray Whales go to mate, give birth, and nurse
their young.
    At the press conference, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Tom
Ammiano introduced legislation urging the Mitsubishi Corporation to,
"immediately and permanently withdraw its plans to construct a salt works
plant at Laguna San Ignacio, in order to preserve the last remaining breeding
ground in the world for California gray whales."  He furthered requested that
the city attorney investigate the number and type of contracts between the
City and County of San Francisco and the Mitsubishi Corporation and any of its
subsidiaries and the fiscal impact of divesting from those companies.
    "I believe Californians, who see these whales migrate along our coast
twice each year, will demand environmental responsibility from Mitsubishi.
They need to know that we oppose their plans, and we will be heard," said
Ammiano.
    "This campaign, being launched in San Francisco, will be carried on
throughout the state, with numerous events, grassroots activities, advertising
and other actions to let Mitsubishi know that Californians who care about the
environment will speak with their purchasing power," announced Jared
Blumenfeld, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Director of Animal
Habitat.  At the press conference, Mr. Blumenfeld unveiled powerful ads
prepared for the campaign to be seen on television and in newspapers
statewide.
    Additional speakers who attended to lend support to the campaign included
Dr. Roger Payne, a noted whale scientist who co-discovered that whales sing;
Ambassador Alberto Szekely, a leading environmental attorney in Mexico; Joel
Reynolds, Director of the Marine Mammals Protection Project of the Natural
Resources Defense Council, NRDC; and Mark Spalding, International
Environmental Policy and Law Lecturer at the University of California, San
Diego.
    The "Don't Buy It" campaign against Mitsubishi is being led by the
International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, in partnership with NRDC and more
than 50 Mexican environmental organizations.  For more information, visit our
website at http://www.savebajawhales.com.