Thursday, July 30th 2009
FICTION:
“Chevron abandoned roughly 1,000 open-air waste pits…filled with life-threatening toxins such as chromium VI…”
FACT:
These pits were not filled with “life-threatening toxins” as alleged. Chevron has analyzed 306 soil samples for hexavalent chromium and 96% of them did not contain any chromium VI. The highest concentration found in any soils sample was 0.13 mg/kg which is more than a thousand times lower than typical cleanup levels in the U.S. Furthermore, Texaco Petroleum did not use Chromium VI (as an “anticorrosive when perforating wells”) as is alleged. Rather, Texaco Petroleum used a dispersant in some drilling muds called “Spersene” which contained 4-5% chrome lignosulfonate or chromium III. Chromium III is considered an essential nutrient and it is not a carcinogen.
Wednesday, July 29th 2009
“However, closer scrutiny of the lawsuit, including an evaluation of an allegedly independent investigation and the tendentious posture of the Ecuadoran court and president reveals a well-orchestrated smear campaign with false and misleading evidence and corruption at the highest levels of government in an attempt to pry money from an American oil company with deep pockets. … It is clear that Chevron, after a 19-year absence from the area following a certified remediation process, is being held hostage to a despotic government under the guise of environmental concerns.”
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Friday, July 24th 2009
“Several recent developments make it imperative for the United States to end the trade preferences it gives to the leftist government of Ecuador. On July 15, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said that in his new role as president of the Union of South American Nations, he will try to create a regional organization to shut down critics in the media. This frightening move against a free press came two weeks after Mr. Correa began efforts to shut down Ecuador’s Teleamazonas television network. On July 16, Ecuador’s state-owned Petroecuador oil company seized the oil fields of the Anglo-French Perenco Corp. This was despite a demand in May from an official arbitration body of the World Bank that the Ecuadorean government stop seizing oil. The expropriation of oil is nothing new. In 2006, Ecuador did the same thing to the American Occidental Petroleum Corp.”
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Friday, July 24th 2009
“For starters, it [Chevron] wants the world to understand that the case was initiated by and is being led by a U.S. lawyer, Steven Donziger, with money coming from a Philadelphia law firm, Kohn Swift and Graf, on behalf of the plaintiff, a non-governmental organization called the Amazon Defense Coalition. Lawsuits like this can be securitized with investors anteing up in the hopes of striking it rich…”
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Friday, July 24th 2009
“A legal process involving a massive judgment in an Ecuadorean court and attempting to have it enforced in the U.S. would, at the least, take years. The Exxon Valdez saga dragged on for two decades, and the final settlement, after appeals, was about one-tenth the original.”
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Wednesday, July 22nd 2009
“Chevron denies the allegations in the lawsuit, claiming Texaco performed a $40 million clean up of its operational sites in the 1990s, before it left Ecuador and that the government signed off on the cleanup efforts, releasing Texaco from any further liability. Any residual oil spills and pollution were caused by Petroecuador, the state-run oil company claims Chevron.”
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Tuesday, July 21st 2009
“But where were the Ecuadorian government and Petroecuador all these years when remediation at Lago Agrio was badly needed? During the 1970s and 1980s, when the pollution allegedly occurred, Petroecuador did nothing to provide suitable cleanup or social assistance for the Amazonian people. Between 2000 and 2008, 1,415 oil spills occurred in Ecuador under the sole authority of Petroecuador. Chevron-Texaco ceased operations in Ecuador in 1990, and today has no operations or assets in the Andean nation.”
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Tuesday, July 21st 2009
FICTION:
“Well, our clients never released Texaco.” – Steven Donziger, 60 Minutes, May 3, 2009
FACT:
The U.S.-based trial lawyers in the lawsuit against Chevron claim their clients never signed-off on Texaco Petroleum’s remediation, giving them standing to sue the company.
Mr. Donziger fails to mention, however, that this could have never been the case, because the remediation work was conducted on State-owned lands and was reviewed and approved on behalf of the plaintiffs, and every other Ecuadorian citizen, by Ecuadorian officials. According to the law, Ecuadorian officials represent all Ecuadorian citizens. Otherwise any release would have required the individual consent of every Ecuadorian. Mr. Donziger also fails to mention that none of his 48 clients have filed claims for personal injury or property damage.
When the oil production concession between Texaco Petroleum and Petroecuador ended in 1992, Texaco Petroleum agreed to perform a $40 million remediation program to remediate sites mutually agreed to by both parties and the Government of Ecuador.
During the remediation, dozens of government inspectors, laboratory personnel, and State representatives reviewed the remediation and granted Texaco Petroleum, and all its respective principals and subsidiaries, a full and complete release from any remaining environmental liability.
In addition, four different lawsuits for environmental harm that were filed in 1994 by the municipalities of la Joya de los Sachas, Shushufindi, Lago Agrio and Orellana were settled in 1996. The jurisdictions of these municipalities cover the entire area of the former concession. All four settlements were approved by Ecuadorian courts therefore putting an end to any future environmental claim on those territories under the jurisdiction of such municipalities.
Click on map for larger image:
At the time, under Ecuadorian law, only the government had the right to bring claims for environmental impacts to the state-owned land where the oil operations took place. Another problem for Mr. Donziger and his colleagues was that they could not file an American styled class action as they do not exist under the Ecuadorian law system. So, according to press reports, they lobbied Ecuador’s legislature and convinced officials to write a new law to allow collective lawsuits for damages by private citizens when environmental harm had been caused. In 1999, a year after Texaco Petroleum completed its remediation and was granted a full release by the government, the Environmental Management Act (EMA) was passed.
Still, the 1999 EMA cannot be applied retroactively to a matter already fully settled with the Government of Ecuador. Moreover, the EMA does not grant the clients of Mr. Donziger or any individual “the right” to unrestrictedly sue for environmental harm. This “right” can only be exercised to the extent that plaintiffs have sustained a direct harm (no such claim has been made or proven by any of the 48 plaintiffs). Thus, the plaintiffs are trying to improperly apply the 1999 EMA law in an attempt to extort a settlement from Chevron.
Tuesday, July 21st 2009
“A shakedown is still a shakedown – even when every side of a ‘complicated’ story is shown…But ‘Crude,’ Joe Berlinger’s documentary about the Amazon Defense Front’s $27-billion lawsuit against Chevron for allegedly not cleaning up abandoned Ecuadorian oil wells, doesn’t quite see it as a shakedown…Berlinger did viewers of the film a disservice by not examining the poor track record of PetroEcuador, the state-owned oil company. PetroEcuador has a horrendous environmental record with more than 1,000 oil spills since 2000. In 2006, BusinessWeek said the company had ’suffered an oil spill every two days this year.’ That in itself is something Berlinger should have noted in his reporting. But Berlinger had another agenda.”
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Monday, July 20th 2009
“Chevron, which expects to lose the case in Ecuador, has been telling its shareholders it doesn’t expect to be forced to pay any judgment. “We’re not paying and we’re going to fight this for years if not decades into the future,” the company told WSJ.”
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Monday, July 20th 2009
“Chevron denies the allegations, arguing that Texaco’s operations in Ecuador met local and international standards, that a $40 million cleanup effort in the 1990s resolved any environmental liability the company had there, and that any remaining problems are the responsibility of Petroecuador, the state-run oil company that took over Texaco’s operations.”
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Saturday, July 18th 2009
“Ecuador’s seizure of two oil concessions operated by Perenco exposes the state to ‘billions’ of dollars in compensation claims, Rodrigo Marquez, head of the group’s Latin American division, said yesterday. … ‘We’ve been expelled and our assets have been taken over,’ Mr Marquez told the Financial Times. ‘They are trying to say they did not really take over the facilities because they did not send the army in, but before we were due to start the suspension of activities government officials went in . . . and started to persuade the employees not to carry out their instructions. You would appreciate that an employee caught in that situation would feel intimidated,’ he said.”
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Wednesday, July 15th 2009
“Can plaintiffs in a lawsuit generate infinite favorable publicity, yet have virtually no substance to back up their claims? The Amazon Defense Coalition (ADC) has found a way to play into many peoples’ concerns about oil companies—but with very little substance behind their accusations. ADC is shaking down Chevron for $27.3 billion, with essentially nothing to back it up.”
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Tuesday, July 14th 2009
“The shenanigans cited by Judge Chaney are typical of cases where U.S. “multinationals” are shaken down by trial lawyers supported by populist, politicized foreign courts. Another example is the ongoing case in Ecuador, where indigenous groups supported by the government are suing Chevron-Texaco for $16 billion in environmental and health damages; the U.S. firm questions the evidence and contends that any blame rests with the prime operator, the inept Petroecuador. The lack of impartial justice thwarts progress in the developing world, starting with national governments that are either too ineffective, corrupt, or both to protect their own people. Because of dysfunctional judicial systems, genuine victims—and even responsible companies looking to defend themselves from unfounded claims—are denied justice in local courts.”
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Tuesday, July 14th 2009
“President Obama also criticized Ecuadorian government meddling in the environmental trial against Chevron. ‘The U.S. government has encouraged Ecuadorian government officials to refrain from commenting on ongoing judicial cases,’ Obama wrote, referring to the Chevron case.”
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Tuesday, July 7th 2009
“U.S. trial lawyers are pursuing this baseless lawsuit and an aggressive media campaign of lies and distortions aimed at damaging the company’s reputation to pressure Chevron into writing them a huge check. That is called extortion.”
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Monday, July 6th 2009
“In general, the populists have brooked little opposition while bashing capitalism, knocking the press, denouncing the United States and dividing the public by viciously attacking real and imagined enemies. … Like Chavez, Ecuador’s Correa and Bolivia’s Morales got voters to approve new constitutions that dropped re-election bans. Correa won re-election in April, while Morales is favored to win another term in December.”
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Thursday, July 2nd 2009
On Friday, June 26, 2009 Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s website “The Digital Newspaper of the Citizens’ Revolution” ran an article (click image above for larger version) that accuses Chevron’s lawyers of committing fraud, mocks Texaco’s $40 million remediation, and says that it is Chevron’s responsibility to pay $27 billion in damages.
Three days later, on June 29, 2009 in an interview with Democracy Now, President Correa says, in regards to the lawsuit against Chevron, “I reiterate, as the executive branch, we are not a party, and we cannot meddle in judicial matters.”
While claiming that the judiciary is independent, the executive branch continues to politicize this case by making comments that side with the plaintiffs and assign guilt to Chevron. Interference on the part of the Ecuadorian state has been undeniable. In a March 20, 2007 press release, President Correa stated, “The support from the government will translate into help in gathering proof and support for the population directly affected by the contamination Texaco produced.” In Ecuador, where the International Bar Association has concluded that “there is a serious politicization of the judiciary” and “that in many cases no effective independence exists,” such pronouncements have created an environment that makes it impossible for Chevron to get a fair trial in Ecuador.
