Exxon TV Ad Riles Environmentalists : Energy: The commercial features the mayor of Valdez, Alaska, saying the area has nearly recovered from the giant oil spill.

In a yet-to-be-aired Exxon commercial that has raised the wrath of environmentalists, the mayor of Valdez proclaims that Alaska’s Prince William Sound is nearly recovered from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

“I’m not saying buy Exxon gasoline, I’m saying that Alaska has recovered,” Mayor Lynn Chrystal said in a telephone interview late Monday. “If appearing in this ad makes me appear like an Exxon patsy, so be it. I’m not a patsy. I have nothing to gain, although I suppose I have a lot to lose politically.”

Chrystal said he was not paid for appearing in the TV ad, which was filmed in Valdez in March. But he said he wants the world to have a correct impression of the area. “If you can’t get a message out any other way, sometimes you have to do what you can,” he said. Chrystal said he has final approval of the spot, and if he doesn’t like it, it won’t be aired.

But environmental groups are already up in arms over the commercial.

“Exxon has absolutely no conscience,” said Michael Fischer, executive director of the San Francisco-based Sierra Club. “Does their cynicism know no bounds? They’re just reaching out for some person to whom the American public can relate. They’re only doing this for their own behalf. People will be led to believe that Prince William Sound is OK now. That is false.”

“There are numerous people who would take issue with the mayor of Valdez,” said Randall Weiner, executive director of Trustees for Alaska, a Washington-based environmental law firm that is representing several environmental groups suing Exxon. “There are numerous miles of coastline yet to be cleaned. Much of the oil has seeped into sediments and it is unclear how that will affect animals further down on the food chain.”

Exxon officials declined to comment on the ad. In an unrelated development on Monday, U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin allowed attorneys for Alaska villages affected by the Valdez oil spill to take depositions from top Exxon Corp. executives. The group of villages say a proposed $1.1-billion out-of-court settlement will not compensate them fairly for their losses from the 11-million-gallon oil spill, which took place March 24, 1989.

Although none of the spilled oil ever reached the coastline of Valdez, the accident badly hurt the city, whose 4,000 residents depend on oil and gas drilling for their livelihoods.

“We can have oil and gas development and still have a clean environment,” Chrystal said. “And to the person in, say, Missouri, who is thinking about visiting Prince William Sound, I want to tell them Prince William Sound is not covered in oil and our fisheries are not dead.”