‘Have you sold out to the greenies?’

In the week following the first press release about the launch of Greening of Oil, sister publication to Anchorage-based Petroleum News, Kay Cashman has received almost 400 reactions to the online magazine, including, “It’s an oxymoron; oil can’t be green!” and “Have you sold out to the greenies?”

Greening of Oil’s slogan, “Tracking energy’s environmental footprint,” might explain the latter comment, Cashman said, since the magazine’s primary mission is to “track” the impact of oil and natural gas.

Readers of Petroleum News had a different reaction, said Cashman, publisher and executive editor of both publications.

“They were familiar with our reporting style, which is impartial, objective. They said everything from ‘great job’ and ‘impressive Web site’ to ‘good to see journalists who understand the oil industry write about its environmental impact’; the last is an exact quote from a strong environmentalist, although there were others like it,” she said.

“I think he was hoping Greening would act as an industry watchdog. But we purposefully stayed away from the word ‘watchdog’ because of its negative implications. We’re not taking a position, although Greening of Oil does communicate what we have observed covering Alaska’s oil and gas industry, and that is the gradual reduction of its environmental impact.”

“But, as Greening’s Editor-in-Chief Allen Baker says, we will ‘stick to the facts and let the science speak for itself,’” Cashman said.

To read what Mother Nature Network, the Houston Chronicle and others have said about Greening of Oil, visit the Buzz page at http://www.greeningofoil.com/buzz.aspx.

—Petroleum News