Column: Don’t listen to the Dodgers Foundation. Big Oil is no All-Star

Dodgers left fielder Trayce Thompson slumps against the outfield wall at Dodger Stadium, with 76 gasoline ads behind him, after a home run by the Padres in 2022. When I asked him about the Dodgers Foundation and Phillips 66 launching a science, technology, engineering and math education program for 5,000 local kids in 2022, Reynolds acknowledged that “joint promotions with and Phillips 66 are antithetical to the overwhelming scientific evidence of the causal connection between fossil fuels and climate change.” For those of you keeping score at home, climate change is responsible for increasingly deadly heat waves — like the one that plagued the Western U.S. this month — as well as ever-more-dangerous fires, floods, storms, droughts and other weather extremes. In addition to advertising at the stadium, Arco — a subsidiary of Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum — is this year’s lead sponsor for “Dodger Days,” a series of foundation events that offer youth baseball players and their families “access to health screenings, education programs, and basic essentials,” according to a foundation news release. Aronczyk — who co-wrote a book on public relations and environmental destruction and has testified to Congress on fossil fuel industry disinformation — said there’s rampant “greenwashing” in sports. When the charity announced its education initiative with Phillips 66, Whiteman, the foundation’s CEO, was quoted as saying that “teaming up with affords us the opportunity to further our mission of providing STEM curriculum to youth.” The charity added that fans who donated $76 or more might receive swag, including a limited edition pin featuring Smilin’ Jack — a giant jack-o’-lantern face on a storage tank at the Phillips 66 refinery that, in a brilliant public relations trick, has become a local cultural touchstone since it was first painted in the 1950s.