Chevron's Inhumane Energy Exposed to Light of Day but Oil Giant Keeps on Spinning

By Ben Terrall, AlterNet. Posted June 5, 2009.

Hayes’s new employer has systematically poised itself to profit from the Iraq war.  Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Chevron has worked to transform the country’s nationalized oil system into a largely privatized modelopen to U.S. oil company access and control. 

In a November, 2008 letter to President elect Obama, Chevron recommended a new “Strategic Energy Partnership,” writing that as “the Iraqi government opens its energy resources for foreign investment, the U.S. government should highlight the strong value proposition of U.S. company investment.”

At the May 27 demonstration in San Ramon, Jordan Towers, a U.S. marine who served in Iraq, said,  “Chevron supported the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein through oil marketing contracts for years.” Towers, who is now a member of Bay Area Iraq Veterans Against the War, continued, “Chevron is now trying to profit off the invasion by signing long term production contracts. As veterans of the global war on terror, my fellow service members and I are here today to oppose Chevron’s attempts to benefit from a war in which so many of our fellow service members have lost there lives. We oppose Chevron’s attempts to acquire the resources of the Iraqi people.”

The Alternative Report describes the court case against Chevron over its role in collaborating with the Nigerian military to violently suppress a nonviolent demonstration.  That 1998 crackdown killed two men, and others were injured and tortured.  Though Chevron was found not liable for the military’s actions, the company did not deny paying the soldiers, and transporting and directing them on the day of the attacks.  The decision will be appealed.

A case alleging mass environmental destruction in Ecuador is still pending.  Plantiff’s argue that Texaco’s (bought by Chevron) production from 1964 to 1990 resulted in catastrophic damage, with 18 billion gallons of toxic waste dumped in rainforest soil, rivers, and groundwater.  The suit links this dumping to a wave of cancers, birth defects and miscarriages which has affected 30,000 Ecuadorans.

The report also points to Chevron helping  provide Burma’s military dictators with their main source of income.

Most American companies are forbidden by U.S. law from doing business in Burma, but Chevron owns a company that was grandfathered in under the sanctions, so it can cash in on partnering with Burma’s brutal regime.

Closer to its Chevron’s headquarters, in the poor community of Richmond, California, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists the company’s refinery as being in “significant noncompliance” with U.S. air pollution standards.  The Richmond facility is ranked as one of “dirtiest/worst” facilities in the nation by “Scorecard,”  which compares EPA data across U.S. facilities.  The EPA reported nearly 100,000 pounds of toxic waste from the site in 2007, including at least 38 different toxic substances.  These included nearly 4,000 pounds of benzine, a known carcinogen, and 455,000 pounds of amonia, exposure to which can cause asthma-like symptoms and lead to lung damage.

The alternative report takes issue with Chevron’s claim that “meeting future demand will be one of the world’s great challenges – but one that Chevron is convinced can be met in an environmentally responsible way.”  The activists respond: “Nothing in this report suggests such a contention.  Nor does it indicate that Chevron will be able to do so (or seek) to do so in a manner that protects social, political, or human rights.”

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Ben Terrall is a freelance writer who lives in San Francisco.

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