Oxy: The Astros Controversial Jersey Partner
What's going on with the Astros new jersey patch?
With climate change encroaching further into Americans’ lives than ever, baseball fans may be concerned about an oil company entering into America’s Pastime. Tonight, the Houston Astros will debut Occidental Petroleum’s uniform advertisement in Houston against the Chicago White Sox. While seven other teams will join them in debuting a uniform advertisement for Opening Day 2023, the Astros’ partnership stands out as Major League Baseball’s first uniform advertising partnership with an oil company.
While Occidental’s uniform patch may be new, the company’s relationship with the Astros first began in 2013 on “Community Leader Occidental Night.” Since then, the company that commonly goes by Oxy has been a large donor to the Astros Foundation, pledging more than $1 million annually. The beginning of this relationship coincided closely with Oxy’s corporate headquarters moving to Houston in 2014 after a century in Los Angeles.
Since 2013, the relationship has grown, with an Oxy billboard going up at Minute Maid Park in 2016 and the seven-year uniform agreement signed this year. Days after the uniform agreement became public, Oxy and the Astros announced the team would purchase Direct Air Carbon Capture Removal Credits from a subsidiary of Oxy for the next three years “as they work towards a carbon neutral footprint,” although just last week the New York Times published an article largely dismissing Direct Air Carbon Capture as a viable tool for carbon neutrality.
As the Astros appear to be deepening their ties with Oxy, both Astros fans and baseball fans across the country may want to know more about the history of the company behind Houston’s new sleeve patches.
Occidental Petroleum was founded in 1920 in California and rose to international prominence in the 1960s. During the 1980s, Oxy expanded its footprint in Colombia after it discovered and developed the Caño Limón oil field with Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol. The creation and operation of the Caño Limón pipeline turned the area into a hotbed of sabotage and conflict, resulting in a 1998 incident where an Oxy-backed defense contractor called AirScan allegedly assisted the Colombian military in the bombing of a civilian encampment near the pipeline. The bombing took the lives of 17 Colombians, including 6 children. Oxy is also known for repeatedly attempting to drill on U’wa homeland in Colombia, eventually giving into local and international pressure to pull out of the area.
This doesn’t take into account the incredibly devastating consequences of fossil fuel combustion. During the fourth quarter of 2022, Oxy was producing 1.2 million barrels of oil per day, putting it among the largest producers of oil in the United States. Fossil fuel combustion is causing myriad problems across the world, including and especially in Texas, with the notable example of Hurricane Harvey flooding being significantly worsened by climate change.
While business decisions like the selling of advertisements are often made mostly with profits in mind, the Astros made sure to highlight just how much the two organizations’ values lined up when announcing the new uniform ad. In a quote from Matt Young’s piece in the Houston Chronicle, Astros VP of Marketing Communications Anita Sehgal said this about Oxy: “They have a shared value of giving back to the community… We felt like it was the right fit, and they felt it was the right fit.” Astros VP of Corporate Partnerships Jeff Stewart goes a step further and says the Astros are “proud of our longstanding relationship with Oxy.”
If the Astros leadership is indeed proud of this agreement, baseball fans should understand the implications of supporting such an organization. Oxy has a long and troubled history when it comes to human rights, environmental degradation, and carbon emissions. In the words of an Astros exec, partnering with this company is the “right fit.” But will Oxy be the “right fit” for the fans?