“Chevron upped the ante Wednesday in its 16-year legal battle over allegations of environmental pollution in Ecuador and filed a claim against the government there for violating international trade law.”
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“Chevron Corp. is stepping up its offensive in its long-running legal battle in Ecuador, suing Ecuador’s government under international trade law.
Chevron is the defendant in a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit that seeks to hold the company responsible for environmental damage allegedly caused by Texaco Inc., which Chevron bought in 2001. Chevron has denied the allegations.
Seeking to protect itself from what it says is likely to be an adverse ruling in Ecuador, the California-based oil giant said Wednesday it had filed suit under the terms of a 1997 trade pact between the U.S. and Ecuador. The suit amounts to a request for arbitration through a process set up by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to adjudicate disagreements.”
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“Chevron Corp said it had filed an international arbitration claim against Ecuador, opening a new front in its defense against a $27 billion environmental damage lawsuit in Ecuadorean court.”
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“Chevron Corp. on Wednesday filed suit against the government of Ecuador for trade violations, an effort to protect against a potentially negative ruling in a separate $27 billion suit over environmental damage. Chevron accuses Ecuador of “exploitation” for its pursuit of an ongoing lawsuit over environmental damage the plaintiffs allege Texaco caused in the Amazon rain forest between 1972 and 1990. Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, acquired Texaco in 2001.”
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“The Ecuadorean judge who stepped down from a $27 billion environmental lawsuit against Chevron Corp. after the company accused him of bias should remain in charge of the case, a court in Ecuador ruled.
A request by Judge Juan Nunez to recuse himself from the Chevron lawsuit was “unfounded,” Judge Nicolas Zambrano said in a ruling yesterday. Like Nunez, Zambrano sits on the Nueva Loja Superior Court in Ecuador’s northeastern Sucumbios province.”
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Amazon Defense Coalition spokesperson Karen Hinton has admitted that several accusations made in a recent press release are false.
On Sept. 9, Hinton issued a press release on behalf of the Amazon Defense Coalition accusing Wayne Hansen, one of the individuals who videotaped meetings in Ecuador between himself, Judge Juan Nunez and other purported political operatives discussing how Chevron will lose the trial and any subsequent appeals, of having a past relationship with Chevron. Chevron had previously stated that Hansen had no ties to the company.
Despite that, the press release headline stated, “American Businessman Wayne Hansen Has Ties to Chevron in Bribery Scheme, Investigation Finds.” The release claimed the Amazon Defense Coalition had found several pieces of “evidence,” gathered in an “investigation” that proved a link between Chevron and Hansen.
Hinton has since admitted that her “investigation” was little more than an internet search, which turned up information that was completely wrong. She confirmed the errors in a recent interview with Upstream, an energy industry publication:
“Apparently that’s not him,” Hinton admitted to the reporter
The Upstream article continued: “When asked if she (Hinton) had any proof of a link she replied: ‘No, not at this point.’”
The story also said, “Karen Hinton said she had found information about a Wayne Hansen on the internet and had not independently verified it before making the claim.”
Several Amazon Defense Coalition claims made by Hinton in the September 9th release have been debunked by independent news outlets. These claims include:
• Hansen is “connected to a consulting firm that lists Chevron as a client”
• “Chevron’s ties to Hansen directly contradict repeated assertions by Chevron lawyers and spokespersons that the company has no relationship to the American businessman,” said Karen Hinton — A statement known to be false.
• “Hansen’s biography obtained on the Internet identifies him as the former Chief Mechanical Engineer and Director of Energy Engineering at RJM Associates, which lists Chevron as a client.” — Another error. Hinton had the wrong person.
In a September 10 piece by San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer David Baker, the journalist once again disproves Hinton’s accusations. An excerpt from the story is found below:
“The coalition said Hansen used to work for Richard J. Miller & Associates, a California oil-field appraisal firm that lists Chevron as one of its clients. But the firm’s owner, Richard Miller, said no one named Wayne Hansen had worked there. ‘We’ve been a one-man shop since 1990,’ he said.”
Numerous other claims levied by Hinton and the Amazon Defense Coalition against Chevron have also been proven to be false. The Amazon Defense Coalition’s bungled “investigation” once again calls into question their credibility.
Petroecuador, Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, which has a record of environmental mismanagement, continues to drill wells and dig new waste oil pits in the concession area developed in a consortium with Texaco Petroleum.
New information reveals that Petroecuador has drilled more than 400 new wells in the concession area since it took over operations in 1990 – more wells than it drilled in the consortium with Texaco Petroleum between 1972 and 1990. Petroecuador has also dug more than 270 pits in the last 3 years alone.
While activist groups and the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the lawsuit against Chevron claim their desire is to have environmental damage in the Amazon remediated, they have failed to pursue Petroecuador for its responsibilities. They have even opposed Petroecuador’s efforts to remediate pits, fearing such actions might compromise their lawsuit. In fact, the plaintiffs’ local attorney, Pablo Fajardo, was quoted in an interview with La Hora on October 20, 2006 demanding that Petroecuador stop its remediation claiming it was altering his case.
Petroecuador has realized more than $70 billion in revenues over the course of its operations. Very little of those funds have been reinvested to maintain their equipment to prevent spills and remediate pits, or to help the local communities. Instead most of the profits went to the government and toward drilling new wells.
Since it took over operations in 1990, Petroecuador has:
• Been responsible for more than 1,400 spills between 2000 and 2008
• Spilled over 4.4 million gallons of oil
• Admitted it needs to clean up 370 consortia era pits in the concession
View a photo gallery or watch a video of Petroecuador’s environmental mismanagement.
“San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron released the e-mails earlier this month, saying that they outlined instructions to two businessmen – one from Ecuador and one from the U.S. – for the payment of a $3 million bribe to ruling party officials in exchange for a government contract to do clean-up in Ecuador’s Lago Agrio region. Such a contract would only be needed if the court rules against Chevron in the decades-long, multibillion-dollar litigation over contamination from oil production in the Amazon.”
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