San Francisco -- That's the thought that comes to mind this week, watching the behavior of Big Oil. In Ecuador, a Court found that Chevron owes local communities $8 billion for damages left behind from an oil drilling business Chevron inherited when it took over Texaco. Chevron's response was not that the damages hadn't been done, but that the Ecuadoran decision was "illegitimate" and that the company simply wouldn't pay its debts. (Does this remind you of Exxon-Mobile around the Valdez decisions? It would be nice if the oil industry was satisfied to be the world's richest, but at least paid its bills.)
Of course, Chevron's Ecuadoran bill is more than matched by the amount of direct subsidies Big Oil draws from American taxpayers. The Obama Administration, in its proposed new budget, thinks that there are probably better ways to spend taxpayer dollars, and has proposed eliminating $54 billion of these subsidies, including $10 billion that flows from the U.S. Treasury to such governments as Saudi Arabia. (You might not have known that oil producers are, in fact, one of the major recipients of this form of foreign aid. Big Oil pays the Saudis, and the Treasury reimburses Big Oil.) The new Tea Party-influenced Republican leadership in Congress doesn't seem to agree: the Defense Department, the nuclear industry, and Big Oil are virtually the only items in the federal budget protected from proposed slash-and-burn budget cuts.
If you are running this kind of racket, it is always good to have friends in high places, and the oil industry is making sure that politicians remain in its hock. The billionaire Koch Brothers announced that in 2012 they plan to raise $88 million to purchase influence in Washington. When Common Cause organized a protest at the secret Palm Springs gathering the brothers host, conservatives yelled "foul" and began organizing dirty tricks against Common Cause. This is classic Koch style; they've also brought a lawsuit against pranksters who sent out a press release last December saying the brothers had seen the light and would no longer fund global warming denial groups. The lawsuit claimed that the spoof press release's authors were "guilty of trademark infringement, cybersquatting, unfair competition, and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act," a criminal statute that penalizes those who hack into protected governmental and private computer systems.
It's hard to take such a lawsuit seriously. But the Koch Brothers are serious. Anyone who shines a light on their secretive effort to take over the U.S. government can expect this kind of bullying. And while Big Oil is too restrained to carry on these kinds of shenanigans here in the U.S., the Chevron response in Ecuador shows their true face.
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significant fraud and misconduct that has been uncovered in recent months, which
renders this week’s judgment in Ecuador as illegitimate and unenforceable.
In the U.S. alone, 19 rulings pertaining to this case have been issued in Chevron’s favor,
after the evidence of fraud has been reviewed in court. Moreover, a U.S. federal court
judge and an international Bilateral Investment Treaty tribunal have already temporarily
stayed enforcement of the verdict.
The facts are clear and will eventually vindicate Chevron. Texaco remediated the sites
the company was responsible for prior to leaving Ecuador, and received a full release
of any further liability from the government of Ecuador and several municipalities in 1998.
Chevron is not responsible for the current conditions in the Oriente. That responsibility
lies squarely with the government of Ecuador and its state owned oil company Petroecuador.
Despite Mr. Pope’s clear distain for oil companies, we hope that even he respects the rule
of law and the right to due process, something that Chevron has not received in Ecuador.
For those interested in learning more about Chevron’s perspective on this matter, and the
fraud that has been uncovered in this case, please take a moment to visit: http://www.chevron.com/ecuador/patternoffraud/
Joseph Kohn, who financed much of Mr. Donziger‘s case, admitted, “Increasingly, I have come to realize that my firm and I were deceived, in part apparently driven by a combination of Donziger‘s conceit and naivete, a dangerous combination which is leading the case rapidly toward disaster.” Mr. Kohn added that Mr. Donziger‘s actions “may have been outrageously improper conduct.”