Posts Tagged by Ecuador
Video on Chevron’s Appalling Behavior in Ecuador
| February 20, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
Every few months, I try to remind myself to write something on Chevron and its overtly criminal behavior in Ecuador. Those who are keeping track here will recall that, for a period of 26 years, Chevron (then Texaco) deliberately dumped tens of billions of gallons of toxic byproducts of their oil extraction processes directly into Ecuadorian rivers and streams, simply because they thought they would never get caught. Read More
Ecuador — Achieving Justice in the Chevron Case?
| January 6, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Fossil Fuels |
30,000 people in Ecuador are one step closer to achieving justice in their case against Chevron. On Wednesday, an appellate court upheld the $9.5 billion judgement that would force the oil giant to pay for the clean up of a huge tract of land, damaged by Texaco, before its acquisition by Chevron. If you have a strong stomach, the talking points of the Chevron C-suite and PR team are at ChevronThinksWe’reStupid.org. And here’s a video made by Amazon Watch, a small but fierce non-profit that’s been working hard to focus world attention — and bring justice — to this horrific matter.
But how close are we to a resolution? Don’t hold your breath. As I’ve mentioned, Chevron’s team of attorneys is among the largest and most talented bunch of people on Earth. They’re playing for blood, and they’re licking their chops over the success that ExxonMobil enjoyed in dragging out its payment on the Valdez oil spill in Alaska for more than 25 years before agreeing to pay a small portion — over a quarter of a century later. No fewer than 8000 beneficiaries of the ExxonMobil restitution died while they were waiting for their money to come in.
This looks like a long, hard slog.
Chevron’s Situation in Ecuador Won’t Be Easily Dismissed
| May 13, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
It looks like Chevron’s situation in Ecuador is coming to a head. In a couple of weeks, the oil giant will face a watershed event in the court case in which it’s been ordered to pay $9.5 billion to repair the damage it did (operating as Texaco) to the people and environment of this formerly pristine part of the Amazon jungle. Here’s a video made by Amazon Watch, a small but fierce non-profit that’s been working hard to focus world attention — and bring justice — to this horrific matter.
In my mind, what makes this all the more disgusting is where it happened, and why it happened there. We’re talking about a company whose leaders premeditated to commit an atrocity in a part of the world populated with men, women and children in whom “civilization” simply has no interest. The people of the entire region are invisible; they hold no currency; they do not matter. If they had perpetrated the same thing in the US, the executives responsible would have been making license plates for the next 15 – 20 years — and they knew it. We have clear laws in place — and a judicial system that does manage to lock up an occasional CEO or two for gross violations. So the folks in charge thought they would make some money by destroying a remote part of the world, and its forgotten people — all with total impunity.
And even though decades of jurisprudence finally produced a crystal-clear guilty verdict, they just might pull it off. Chevron has deployed many hundreds of the world’s finest and best-paid litigators to the case, and have vowed to fight this to the bitter end. Besides, they must be heartened by the success that ExxonMobil enjoyed in dragging out its payments on the Valdez oil spill in Alaska for more than 25 years before agreeing to pay a small portion — over a quarter of a century later. No fewer than 8000 beneficiaries of the ExxonMobil restitution died while they were waiting for their money to come in. I have to imagine that Chevron finds this travesty most encouraging.
Sorry to have to bring you news like this. And it’s not all that good for me either, as I routinely take considerable flack when I present stuff of this kind.
But I do it anyway.
Chevron Ordered to Pay Ecuador $8.6 Billion for Environmental Damages
| February 15, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
Those of us who have seen the film documentary “Crude” — as well as millions of others following the story — were heartened today as a court in Ecuador has ordered the oil giant Chevron to pay $8.6 billion for dumping billions of gallons of toxic oil waste into Ecuador’s rain forest. The judgement is one of the largest ever imposed for environmental contamination in any court.
However, we were not at all surprised to hear that Chevron said it would appeal the ruling. Hell, ExxonMobil robo-appealed the Valdez judgement, consistently postponing the payment of damages. Read More
Crude – The Movie
| September 18, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Politics |
I was fortunate enough to have been invited to the Los Angeles premier screening of the movie “Crude” by filmmaker Joe Berlinger (pictured at left with Miss California) last night in Hollywood. It was a great honor being part of a cause so honest, and to be given the opportunity to meet people like Amazon Watch’s Atossa Soltani (below) – a fierce but kind fireball of passion and energy for the cause of the Ecuadorian people.
For those who may not know the story, Crude is a documentary – quite fair-minded in comparison to most – covering the history of one of the world’s most terrible tragedies – tragic mostly insofar as it did not have to happen. In brief, Texaco began its exploration for oil in Ecuador in 1964 and pursued that effort for decades, with processes so impure that they would have landed anyone associated with them in jail had they been performed in the US. The company knowingly ravaged the rainforest, and caused the sickness and death of tens of thousands innocent people living in the area. Now, Chevron, who acquired Texaco in 2001, is working hard to evade responsibility for the crimes of the company it owns. Those wishing to learn more can do so at Amazon Watch.
In any case, this film is truly a story of power, mystery, beauty, and evil – all presented in a straightforward manner that respects the intelligence of its audience.
I won’t give away the ending – in fact, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. There is no reason to believe that this litigation will ever end, as Chevron continues to astound the world, finding inventive new ways to postpone justice and fairness. If you think I’m exaggerating, I urge you to consider the case of the Exxon Valdez. No one at ExxonMobil disputes sole resonsibility for the disaster, yet they were successful in delaying paying off the damages until just this year — more than 20 years after the incident (and at the last minute prevailed upon a judge to reduce those damages by 80%). To me, it’s hard to guess when we could reach a conclusion in the case of Chevron.
But speaking of conclusions, one that I personally find obvious is that white people have treated people of color very badly all around the globe for many hundreds of years. This fine film is a reminder that there is precious little evidence that this pathology has slowed – or that it ever will.
