Energy companies continue to rake in massive profits. They use this wealth to leverage elections, write legislation, scale back regulations and escape accountability.
"We are the human face of Chevron's operations, armed with the memories of our dead relatives, our neighbors, our sick children," said one woman who traveled from Ecuador.
Chevron funds groups empowered by the Citizens United decision to spend unlimited amounts of money on federal elections, and paid the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $500k in 2010.
The companies get to skirt the full environmental review Obama promised offshore drilling projects would have to face, and mostly due to political reasons.
One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups.
'If I went to Lago Agrio as myself and pretended to write a story, no one would suspect that the starry-eyed young American poking around was actually shilling for Chevron.'
A handful of companies are at a financial disadvantage because of their exposure to waste water remediation liabilities. Others, like Chevron, will remain relatively unaffected.
Should we focus on industries paying to preserve distant trees rather than reducing emissions closer to home? It's the question of the day in Washington and Copenhagen.
It appears that American oil giant Chevron is employing methods -- and people -- that are as dirty as the toxic waste pits it left scattered across the rainforest floor.
