Chevron Must Pay!

In an article published by the New York Times it state that the huge oil conglomerate Chevron was found to be responsible for polluting remote tracts of Ecuadorean jungle by Judge Nicolas Zambrano in Lago Agrio. Lago Agrio was a town founded as an oil camp in the 1960s. The judge ordered the company to pay more than $9 billion in damages. This is one of the largest environmental awards ever. The legal battle of forest tribes and villagers against one of the largest American corporation has dragged out in courts in Ecuador and the United States for 17 years. Chevron may have to pay double the amount of $8.6 billion if it fails to publicly apologize for its actions within 15 days of the ruling. The corporation must also pay $860 million, or 10 percent, to the Amazon Defense Coalition, that group that represented the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers want to appeal the case because they think that the damages awarded are “not enough”. They are seeking to increase the damages from $8.6 billion to $113 billion. Chevron is currently refusing to pay for the damages, calling the decision “illegitimate and unenforceable” and seek to appeal the case. Chevron reported to have made a net profit of $19 billion dollars last year.

The origins of the case date back to the 1970s, before Texaco was bought out by Chevron in 2001. Villagers sued in 1993 for the fact, as they claimed that Texaco had left an environmental mess that was causing illnesses. Chevron later filed suit against dozens of representatives of the plaintiffs, charging they were trying to extort $113 billion by making up evidence and trying to manipulate the Ecuadorean legal system.

 This incident connects to the "Environmental Justice" them that we have discussed in class. In what we saw "The Corporation", we know that corporations consider themselves to have the same rights as people. As this was argued after the passage of the 14th amendment in 1864 which gave African Americans equal protection under the law and citizenship. Since they have these rights they are treated like an individual in court and must pay the damages they caused to the indigenous people's land and waters. Chevron does not accept these responsibilities. As noted int he article this is the largest "environmental award" in history. If Chevron's appeal does not go through then this will be the biggest win and a huge step forward in the justice for environmental equality. It has been too long that the "rights of businesses", as Hawken acknowledged, have taken precedent over the rights of humans.

This story is personally encouraging to me. It gives me hope that corporations will start to take responsibility for their action. Corporations have been getting small slaps on the wrist in the United States for too long. Hypothetical situation: If Chevron were a child his name would be Chevrono Profiticus. His parents would be the United State's government named  Bob and Shirley (I couldn't think of anything creative for their names. Bob and Shirley will have to do). Chevrono gets caught smoking cigarettes inside the house. He gets a slap on the wrist by Bob and Shirley and they tell him, "don't do it in the house again." This does not encourage Chevrono to quit smoking but to not smoke inside the house. He continues to participate in the disgusting act with his parents looking away. Apply this to Chevron in real life, Chevron does not pollute its own country (Chevrono's house) and the United States just looks away as long as Chevron is bringing in oil and money to stimulate the economy. 

I did not find any biases in this article. The information presented was very informative and offered both sides of the story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/world/americas/15ecuador.html