Stephen Colbert Highlights DeSmog's Exxon Arkansas Tar Sands Spill No Fly Zone Investigation

onApr 10, 2013 @ 13:23 PDT

The Colbert Report last night featured DeSmogBlog‘s investigative findings on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) delegating authority over its “no-fly zone” above the Mayflower tar sands spill site to ExxonMobil “aviation advisor,” Tom Suhrhoff.

Stephen parodied Exxon’s secrecy at the site of ExxonMobil’s Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill, honing in on the fact that the “private empire” threatened a reporter at Inside Climate News with arrest when she sought to ask a spokesperson questions at the spill relief command center headed by Exxon.

On March 29, Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline spilled up to an estimated 7,000 barrels of tar sands diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) into Mayflower’s neighborhoods and surrounding wetlands, causing the evacuation of 22 homes. Exxon’s poor handling of the spill clean-up was also featured in the April 8 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

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By Steve Horn

Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

Pennsylvania Town Votes Buzzer-Beater ‘No’ on Data Center Mega-Project

ByEdward Donnelly

onMar 31, 2026 @ 08:36 PDT

After months of protests — and a rushed legal deadline — officials deny Texas developer’s project after residents warn of pollution and impacts on wildlife, water, and power.