Archive for April, 2010

Yesterday we launched our newest action alert. We are communication directly to Chevron’s Board Members. In CEO John Watson’s first 5 months he as refused to do what is right and clean up Chevron’s mess in Ecuador. It’s now time for Chevron’s Board of Directors to take up their responsibility and address their corporation’s lack of accountability and action in Ecuador.

1) Linnet F. Deily, 2) Robert E. Denham, 3) Robert J. Eaton, 4) Sam A. Nunn, 5) Ronald D. Sugar, 6) Kevin W. Sharer, 7) Samuel H. Armacost, 8)Charles R. Shoemate, 9 ) John G. Stumpf, 10) Enrique Hernandez Jr., 11) Carl Ware, 12) Donald B. Rice, 13) Chuck Hagel, 14) Franklyn G. Jenifer

On May 26^th Chevron will be holding their annual shareholder meeting, and bringing their entire board together. Some board members have served on Chevron’s board for many years and are likely very familiar with Chevron’s talking points. While others like former US Senator Chuck Hagel (#13) , and Wells Fargo CEO John G. Stumpf (#9) have just been named to the board and likely have very little if any familiarity with the pollution in Ecuador left behind by Chevron. You can help and make sure that Ecuador is on all of their minds and front and center at this years shareholder meeting.

Please take action and lend your voice in asking Chevron’s Board of Directors to respect human rights and tell CEO John Watson to do the right thing and resolve the ongoing human rights and environmental tragedy in the Amazon.

Dear Board Member,

As a Chevron board member, it is critical for you to understand a serious challenge facing your company: the environmental disaster in the Ecuadorean Amazon. You have a responsibility, as well as a powerful opportunity, to address this issue during the upcoming shareholder meeting in Houston.

You may have heard about the tragedy in Ecuador, recently the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary CRUDE. Over the course of twenty-six years of oil drilling in Ecuador’s Amazon, more than 18 billion gallons of toxic sludge were deliberately dumped into the rainforest, leaving local people a legacy of cancers, miscarriages and birth defects that continues today.

Since John Watson took helm at Chevron on January 1st, more than 325,000 people from 150 countries have signed a petition calling on Chevron to resolve the massive environmental and public health crisis in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador. I trust and hope that you are aware of the demands of this growing global movement. Environmental and social responsibility is becoming a core element of corporate viability.

You are in an influential position to move this issue forward and I hope you will do so in the coming months. When you see Chevron CEO John Watson on May 26th tell him to do the right thing and resolve the ongoing human rights and environmental tragedy in the Amazon.

Thank you,

A man checks a waste pit filled with crude oil left by Texaco (now Chevron) drilling operations years earlier lies in a jungle clearing near the Amazonian town of Shushufindi, Ecuador 2003. Photo by Lou Dematteis

In light of shocking revelations about longtime Chevron contractor Diego Borja, we are launching a confidential hotline for Chevron employees to report ‘suspect’ activities by the oil giant.

This Chevron whistleblower hotline is toll-free and confidential. 1-877-844-4114

As the blog “Chevron in Ecuador” reports:

Today, it was revealed that threatened to reveal damaging evidence “cooked” by Chevron in the environmental trial in Ecuador unless he received enough money for turning over secret videotapes to high-ranking Chevron executives. The revelations are contained in a report authored by San Francisco Bay Area-based attorney and Private Investigator Grant Fine.

On the audiotapes, Borja said he has enough evidence to ensure a victory by the Amazon communities if Chevron failed to pay him what he was promised. Before turning over the videotapes to Chevron, Borja said he made sure Chevron “completely understood” he wanted payment for them.

Borja says Chevron hired him to create four companies so his work for the oil company would appear “independent.” He suggests that the companies were connected to a laboratory to test contamination samples. Borja says the laboratory was not independent, but rather “belonged” to Chevron.

Today’s revelations are only the latest example of Chevron using dirty tricks to muddy and delay justice for the people of Ecuador who have been waiting for decades for the oil giant to clean up their toxic mess.

Chevron has delayed the legal case against them for over 17 years now and have recently hired big gun law firm Gibson and Dunn to further deny justice to families who are suffering in Ecuador,

The 30,000 Ecuadorean people who continue to drink poisoned water because of Chevron, need Chevron employees and contractors with a conscience to come forward. Today, we sent a letter to Chevron employees asking for their help.

We know that good people work within the company that know damaging details about their employer’s corrupt activities. It can be frightening to come forward, but if there was ever a moment to find that courage, it is now. Every day that a Chevron employee conceals critical information, more people in Ecuador get sick and die.

If Chevron whistleblowers don’t want to use our confidential hotline, they can also contact wikileaks.org or whistleblower.org.

Chevron likes to sponsor a lot of things, hoping we’ll forget how irresponsible and polluting their operations are. Turn on the TV and there’s Chevron. Go to a San Francisco Giants game and the outfield wall is decked out in Chevron. I can’t even get up in the morning without having to listen to Chevron ad’s on NPR.

So we at the Change Chevron Campaign thought we’d start up our own sponsorship run. We are pleased to bring you “Greenwash of the Week”!

Every week, RAN hosts Brianna and Nick investigate cases of corporate and political greenwash, designed to deceive the public into believing that something is “green” when it’s not.

This week’s episode explores Chevron’s recent solar announcement. Chevron, the 4th largest oil corporation on the planet, announced “Project Brightfield”, a solar panel beauty pageant in California’s central valley.

Why has Greenwash of the Week nicknamed ‘Project Brightfield’ Project Bull$#!^?

The energy produced from ‘Project Brightfield’ goes directly to power Chevron’s Kern River Heavy Oil Extraction Facility. Meaning it is one of the most expensive, polluting, and energy intensive type of oil extraction out there.

And, Chevron’s operations there have gifted the residents of Bakersfield with some of the highest air pollution rates in the country.

Powering one of the dirtiest oil facilities with solar DOES NOT make it clean.

And there’s more!

To put Chevrons project into context. “Clean energy” accounts for less than 2% of the multi-billion dollar oil giant’s budget. And that figure is dropping every year.

So, Chevron invests over 98% in oil, coal, tar sands, offshore drilling. Yet, we don’t see big PR blitzes about those dirty projects. Chevron uses small efforts like Project Brightfield to deceive the public into believing they are a different kind of “human energy” company, when in fact they are the same old dirty oil company they’ve always been.

If you see an example of corporate green washing this week send it: Via Twitter @ChangeChevron or email greewash@ran.org

Crude screening report-backs are rolling in from all over the US. When it’s all said and done we will have had over 340 Crude screenings! With this many screenings it’s safe to say that 1000’s of people are learning about Chevron’s toxic legacy in Ecuador, and the communities fighting to hold them accountable. Even more exciting is knowing that all of people will be taking this story of Chevron’s pollution in Ecuador back to their neighbors, classmates, and co-workers. I’ve enjoyed going to a couple screenings and talking to folks about the current news around the $27 billion court case, and giving updates around our campaign. One of my favorite events was in Mill Valley CA last week.

I went up to Mill Valley CA, a small town just north of San Francisco to a retirement village that had asked me to come and answer questions after their Crude event. Warren, the event’s organizer, had called me and said that “usually we watch Bill Moyers on Wednesday nights, but this film is too important to miss”. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I had never spoken at a retirement home, so I was thrilled to walk into a ballroom filled with nearly 50 “Seniors for Peace”.

The film started around 7:00 so by the end around 9:00 people were pretty tired, and not surprisingly a more than a few folks were ready for bed. However most everyone stayed and asked a few questions that the movie brought up. Some questions were very pragmatic: “who’s going to clean it up? I wouldn’t want Chevron to be in charge again”.  However, the one that stuck was “Can I show Crude to my grandkids? I want them to know what Chevron did”. This question cuts to the heart of these screenings and this story. One of the most important things we must do is share this story and educate each other of what Chevron has done as a company and what we must do to hold them accountable.

This event was one that has stuck with me because it embodies not only people from all corners of live taking action to support the communities in Ecuador, but it illustrates the intergenerational outrage against Chevron and it’s continued human rights abuses. Hopefully we are at the last generation that has to live with Chevron’s pollution and disregard for human and environmental rights.

It’s obvious that people are ready to hold them accountable and spread the story of Chevron’s destructive operations. 340 Crude screenings and counting…

Here are a few of the report-backs rolling in to us…

David in Leeds UK had over 45 people at his home screening: “Some people were already  planning ways to keep this issue in the minds of people in Leeds, such as holding an open-mic fundraiser, which we now hope to put on in a few weeks time.”

People enjoyed a “Crude cake” in Forestville, CA.

Bob from the Delco Greens in PA held a screening for nearly 40 people and facilitated a 1 hour discussion on the film.

In Graffton, OH over a dozen high school students screened the film and are now taking it to their school.

In Palo Alto, the screening of Crude at World Centric was a big success.  They had 30 people in attendance; collected funds for community travel a long list of signatures.  The film was very well received and there was a prolonged discussion afterwards that went on for well over one hour.

Denise and Shawn just completed a screening to 15 friends and family in St. Peter, MN.

At the Crude Screening in Ashland OR over 40 people showed up and also raised funds to bring community members impacted by Chevron to the annual shareholders meeting.

Katalina reported back that she crammed over 10 friends into our tiny apartment to screen the film to as many people as her home would fit.

LPSG South Bay had a successful screening of Crude with more than 13 people attended the screening. “Everybody stayed after the film to participate in the discussion, which lasted for over an hour. Many people want their family and friends to see the film. Most, if not all the people who attended signed the petition to the new CEO of Chevron.”