More Lipstick On Chevron's Pig

(Originally posted at Chevron in Ecuador)

Sooner of later, no matter how much you try to pretty it up, the neighbors are going to smell that tremendous mountain of decaying garbage you've been hiding in the backyard for more than three decades. Nowadays everyone seems to be smelling Chevron's trash, as more criticism surfaces about their attempts to mislead the public with fake "reports". This time it's the Columbia Journalism Review calling out former CNN correspondent Gene Randall for shilling for Chevron (as did the National Journal Online).

The New York Times published an article in May exposing Chevron's attempt to pass off its corporate propaganda as legitimate news and using YouTube to spread it - an attempt which is failing miserably, as the video has been viewed fewer than 6,000 times in several weeks (follow this link to watch it if you like, but be warned, Chevron won't let you comment on it there). Perhaps Chevron should have considered hiring one of Jon Stewart's "correspondents" instead; the news would be just as fake, but they would have gotten more hits.

One expects more savvy from the company that produced the overly-slick Will You Join Us? commercials. However those ads seem to have more people joining the communities fighting Chevron's toxic operations than joining in Chevron's greenwashing efforts. In fact, Chevron's PR efforts seem to backfire every time. Another apparent Chevron tactic: shower sponsorship money on PBS' Newshour and see what coverage surfaces with Chevron's spin in it (or settle for no coverage on the issue at all).

In 2008, Chevron took out a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle attacking Goldman Environmental Prize winners Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza. The result: Every news station in the Bay Area and many national outlets ran stories about the Ecuador disaster and Chevron was doing damage control once again. The New York Times, Washington Post, CBS News, Bloomberg, and many other mainstream news outlets have since reported on the case, but never in the way Chevron wants you to hear it (as if they bore no responsibility in the disaster).

We know a sure-fire way for Chevron to finally get some good press: Do the right thing and clean up their toxic mess and restore a clean and healthy environment to the 30,000 Ecuadorians suffering from their irresponsible actions.

Comments

[TxAggie]

This is nothing more than an attempt to screw the big Gringo Oil Company. The liability is all on Petroecuador, the un filled pits are Petrecuador and the $$ amount of the damages are based on nothing. It is a sham.

[MissyPat]

TxAggie, your name says it all! No one in their right mind would believe anyone from Texas that tries to protect American Oil Companies. Shame on you. You are the SHAM!

[mamacat]

Exxon/Chevron, aka Standard Oil, has been damaging our way of life for over 100 years. This is nothing new. They have some good people working for them, but one of the requirements for getting into top management is that one be able to plug one's nose, and pretend that Chevron's behaviour doesn't stink.

Just recently, Chevron spent more to defeat a ballot proposition than has ever been spent before on any statewide proposition. The prop would have instituted a tax on Chevron and other oil companies in the State to speed up funding for and the building of alternative energy sources in the State. Chevron pretended that they were only opposed to the amount of the tax, which they could easily have paid, but what they really objected to was the building of an energy infrastructure to reduce the need for their products. Everything with them is about increasing quarterly profits, morality be damned.

[MissyPat]

If the American Oil Companies don't start looking toward the future and become more proactive they will find themselves in the same spot the American car manufacturers are in. GM, Chrysler & Ford were given many opportunities over the past 40 years to produce fuel efficient vehicles but instead thumbed their nose's and continued to produce the same old crap including the Hummers. I, for one will not feel sorry for them when they have to pay billions of dollars in clean-up costs and lose billions more because they chose to continue doing business as usual.

I worked for Chevron for 12 years, I'm ashamed to say, and I can tell you that nothing has changed. They were spewing garbage from their mouth and from their plants then, too. Just like Wal-Mart, you can pay all the money you want to clean up your image but actions are what counts. In this case, money can't buy everything.

Our governments, state and federal, are responsible for not making all the industries be better stewards of the environment. The Bush years set us back 50 years. Thanks Dubya!

[TxAggie]

Missy Pat-the odds are the moderator will block this post but here goes- Texaco (with 40%) and Petroecuador (with 60%) were partners. Pursuant to an Operating Agreement, liabilities are joint and several, i.e each party is responsible for its share and can be responsibile for the interest of its partners. Texaco withdrew from the license in 1992 under agreement with Petroecuador (who assumed 100% of the liability). Ten years later, Chevron buys Texaco. During that time period Petroecuador drilled wells on the cheap and polluted its own country. Now here is Chevron with deep pockets being sued for something it had nothing to do with when all of the culpability lies with the Petroecuador and the Ecuadoran government. The 60 minutes piece and everything else you have seen, is the responsibility (and fault) of Petrecuador. Its is simly a case of a bunch of lawyers going after the deep poackets. Have you heard or seen one word regarding the Ecuadoran gov't role in this?

[AnnaKay1979]

Great article! All the manipulation, deceit and spin cannot erase the simple but powerful fact that the scientific evidence has proven the case against Chevron. Chevron should just clean up this mess and help out those poor Ecuadorians suffering from the contamination.
To see some pictures and find out more, read this blog:
http://www.thechevronpit.blogspot.com

[ForVivi]

All the glossy annual reports and beautiful ads cannot hide the ugliness behind the make-up. My faith in this world is restored each time another fellow human being has the courage to say the truth: "Look, the emperor has no clothes!"

[BannedNBoston]

Good headline Chevron should clean the mess up oil prices are going up they can easily afford it.

[govind]

Did you come up with the headline to this article yourself?

[MissyPat]

What do you think? Lipstick on a PIG????? LOL!