Archive for October, 2010

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Does Chevron Think We’re All Stupid?

By Mike G.
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

This post is by RAN’s executive director, Becky Tarbotton. It was written for the launch of our new website, ChevronThinksWereStupid.org, where you can get materials to remix Chevron’s “We Agree” ad campaign and enter our contest for the best spoof ad.

Have you seen the way big oil has tried to rebrand itself since the BP oil disaster started six months ago? Each company wants us to believe it is the good oil company, the exception to the rule — not at all like BP. A few months ago, Shell launched its “Let’s Go” campaign, where it touts itself as providing cleaner energy for the next generation. And last week Chevron pulled out all the stops with its multi-million dollar “We Agree” ad campaign.

Chevron’s ads seek to address the current critiques of oil companies with affirming statements like “Oil companies should support the communities they’re part of” and “Oil companies should put their profits to good use.” All the ads feature “real people” saying what they think about oil companies while Chevron employees earnestly state, “We agree.”

Excuse my language, but what a bunch of hogwash. Chevron’s new ad campaign is an appalling display of hubris and greenwashing. It’s also ripe for the hoaxing. And that is exactly what’s happening. Chevron’s “We Agree” ad campaign is so rife with bitter but mock-worthy irony, in fact, that the comedic geniuses at Funny Or Die spoofed it today:

Chevron’s advertising scheme to win over its critics backfired when it was launched. But the campaign actually started going south from the moment of production.

The oil company initially attempted to hire green bloggers, political street artists and activists for its ad campaign — presumably thinking these folks would somehow forget that the company pulls in around $167 billion a year in revenues by drilling for, refining and selling one of the dirtiest fossil fuel sources around.

Apparently Chevron thought it could throw some money at environmentalists and get them to help clean up the company’s image. Instead, those environmentalists had another idea — they would tip-off some of their close friends and launch Chevron’s campaign for them.

The fun started last week when, as the New York Times put it, “pranksters” lampooned Chevron’s ad campaign. Or, to put it another way, the fun started when the advertising strategy for one of the biggest oil companies in the world was officially punk’d.

Hours before Chevron went live with its $90 million dollar “We Agree” ad campaign, Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch partnered with famous corporate pranksters The Yes Men and came out with our own version. We altered Chevron’s “We Agree” ads ever-so-slightly to highlight the company’s greenwashing efforts as well as its role in dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic oil pollution in the Ecuadorean Amazon. For the first few days of the company’s ad launch, our fake press release, ads and website dominated the news and drowned out Chevron’s corporate greenwashing.

Mock chevron ads also started showing up in the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. And a contest was launched to see who could create the best-spoofed Chevron ad. My personal favorite has a sneering picture of Jack Nicholson with the tagline, “We lie because you can’t handle the truth.”

Our intention is not to trick reporters or play a practical joke on Chevron. Our intention is to highlight the egregious distance between Chevron’s rhetoric and reality. A company that wreaks havoc in communities across the globe has a lot of nerve coming out with ads featuring actors saying, “Oil companies should support the communities they’re part of.” It is hubris incarnate.

The question is, did Chevron think these ads would actually be compelling to critics? Do they really think we’re that stupid?

I think the answer may have been, yes. Instead of trying to clean up its mess, the company thought it could run a $90 million dollar ad campaign cleaning up its image.

Message to Chevron: We’re not that stupid.

This post originally appeared on Huffington Post.

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Solar Good, Chevron’s Business Bad

By Mike G.
Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Change Chevron: Oil-covered hand in Ecuador
A hand covered in crude contaminates from an open toxic pool in the the Ecuadorean Amazon rainforest near Lago Agrio. It was abandoned by Texaco (now Chevron) after oil drilling operations ended in 1990 and was never remediated. View more pics of Chevron’s toxic legacy in the Ecuadorean Amazon.

A few weeks ago, the British government granted Chevron the first deepwater drilling permit it has approved since the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began back in April.

At virtually the same time — and with little to no fanfare — Chevron finished drilling the first deepwater oil well to be completed in North America since the tragedy in the Gulf started. Some 260 miles northeast of Newfoundland, Chevron’s well is the deepest ever drilled off of Canada’s coasts.

Now we’ve got news that Chevron will spend $7.5 billion on one of the largest deepwater drilling projects in US history. The Houston Chronicle describes it as “a massive floating city about 280 miles southwest of New Orleans.”

Chevron is leading the charge to recklessly exploit the world’s dwindling oil supplies in the post-Gulf oil spill world, but the company prefers to keep that fact quiet. Why? It’s one of those pesky facts that would spoil Chevron’s efforts to recast itself as a responsible, environmentally conscious oil company (despite the obvious fact that “environmentally conscious oil company” is an oxymoron that would require mass-cognitive dissonance to take hold in the public consciousness).

As part of its easy-to-spoof PR efforts, Chevron likes to highlight its projects that don’t actually involve enormous risks to sensitive ecosystems or contribute to global warming. One of those is the Chevron Lucerne Valley Solar Project, which will produce up to 45 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 13,500 – 33,750 homes. There’s definitely a certain poetic justice in Chevron’s dirty oil money being used to help bring more clean, green solar energy into the mix. But don’t go changing your opinion of the company just yet.

Chevron has no intention of changing its core business from dirty fossil fuels to clean renewable energy. That’s just window dressing, meant to mask the supremely dirty business going on inside the shop. In fact, between January 2009 and June 2010, Chevron spent over $28 million on lobbying and PAC contributions to federal candidates in order to protect its oil business, according to the Center for American Progress. The positive benefits of the Chevron Lucerne Valley Solar Project will easily be negated by Chevron continuing its dirty business as usual.

This isn’t the first time Chevron used a solar project as a means of greenwashing its otherwise dirty oil business. We posted about Chevron’s Project Brightfield earlier this year, a solar project the company will use to power its Kern River Heavy Oil Extraction Facility, once again defeating the purpose of green energy by charging full steam ahead with its dirty oil business. See a pattern here?

While all new solar capacity added to the national mix is undoubtedly a good thing, Chevron is plowing millions of dollars into efforts to protect its fossil fuels business, and the company’s own CEO has admitted that he hopes it will take generations to phase fossil fuels out altogether. Meanwhile, the company is aggressively pursuing unprecedented deepwater drilling operations that imperil precious ecosystems and wildlife.

Until Chevron stops working to keep us hooked on the dirty stuff for as long as possible in its blind quest for profits, it cannot credibly claim to be responsible or environmentally conscious. In other words, the company will continue to be ripe for the punking. Download our spoof Chevron ads and get to punking today by putting them up in your town!

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Get in on the action: We need you to punk Chevron!

By Mike G.
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Are you offended and/or frustrated that companies like Chevron think we’re stupid enough to fall for their blatant greenwash? We agree.

That’s why we just had to punk Chevron’s new ad campaign. And we’ve had so much fun doing it that we just have to share.

Rainforest Action Network - Change Chevron - spoof ad

We’ve posted high-res PDFs of our posters spoofing Chevron’s new ad campaign on our fake Chevron marketing site. If you want to help us punk Chevron, download the posters now and put them up all over your township, city, municipality, community, or wherever-the-heck-you-live.

Then, just as importantly, post your handiwork for the world to see. Post it on Change Chevron’s Facebook wall, twitpic it with the hashtag #weagree, upload to Flickr with the tag “weagree,” or email/YouSendIt to us at changechevron@ran.org and we’ll get it out there.

If your punking juices are really flowing, though, perhaps you want to design your own spoof poster. If so, you’re in luck! We’re having a bit of a contest, along with the Yes Men and Amazon Watch, to see who can come up with the best punked Chevron ad. Pick a photo, write your own slogan, and send it along. The Yes Men have all the details about how to enter the contest on their blog: “Help us keep Chevron’s campaign on the skids!”

So far, activists in Washington, DC, LA, and San Francisco have wheatpasted spoof Chevron posters around their cities and sent us pics:

Get us yours so we can include it in this slideshow!

Happy punkin’!

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Okay, we admit it: We punked Chevron

By Mike G.
Monday, October 18th, 2010

Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network activists punk Chevron in DC
Activists in Washington, DC put these posters up around town to call attention to Chevron’s attempts to greenwash its image even while ignoring its toxic legacy in Ecuador.

Chevron rolled out a fancy new ad campaign yesterday, and we were ready for them. We had only a fraction of Chevron’s budget — the company won’t say how much it spent this time around, but typically spends as much as $90 million on an ad campaign like this — but we had the element of surprise, and we were determined to press our advantage.

So before Chevron’s press release announcing its “We Agree” campaign could hit reporters’ inboxes, we sent out a press release of our own on their behalf. The company’s own press release was guaranteed to be full of greenwash. We wanted ours to be a bit more truthful. It featured quotes from real employees, but in this case they were describing the “We Agree” campaign we’d like to see:

“Chevron is making a clean break from the past by taking direct responsibility for our own actions,” said Rhonda Zygocki, Chevron vice president of Policy, Government and Public Affairs.

“Oil Companies Should Clean Up Their Messes,” reads one ad; the small print refers candidly to the damage done by oil companies around the world. “For decades, oil companies like ours have worked in disadvantaged areas, influencing policy in order to do there what we can’t do at home. It’s time this changed.”

Another ad, “Oil Companies Should Fix The Problems They Create,” is just as topical. “Extracting oil from the Earth is a risky process, and mistakes do happen. It’s easy to pass the blame or ignore the mistakes we’ve made. Instead, we need to face them head on, accept our financial and environmental responsibilities, and fund new technologies to avoid these mistakes in the future.”

Of course, before we sent out our press release, we put together a spoof website and a fake press page.

Some reporters got fooled by our spoof. Others managed to figure out it was a parody before they published their piece, but even still, we’d managed to derail much of the press about Chevron’s pricey new PR effort. Several pieces highlighted our spoof campaign instead of the real Chevron campaign. Here’s a couple examples:

What do you think about Chevron’s latest attempt to clean up its image even while it refuses to clean the 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste it left in Ecuador’s rainforests? The company proudly announced its new greenwash ad campaign on its Facebook page — why don’t you drop by and let them know what you think?

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We “Believe in Blue” Not Chevron’s Greenwash.

By Nick
Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Yesterday, with little fanfare the United State’s offshore drilling moratorium was quietly lifted by Secretary Ken Salazar. Six months after the worst oil spill in US history oil companies will return to drilling in what was referred to as the “wild west” of oil exploration. No company has more interest in Gulf drilling than Chevron. Chevron is owner of nearly half of all drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico, and has surely played a large behind the scenes roll in the lifting of the drilling moratorium. While Chevron has been working back room deals in the Gulf they have also been putting the spotlight on their public face as well.

Major concerns where exposed around Chevron’s newest Gulf Coast public facing campaign.  Chevron’s campaign is a partnership with the NBA team New Orleans Hornets called “Believe in Blue”. The campaign said to raise funds for Gulf coast restoration and communities will be selling blue livestrong-like blue bracelets at their gas stations.

“By selling these $2 wristbands under the guise of wetland conservation, Chevron is essentially charging the public for the perpetuation of its own greenwashing efforts,” said Maria Ramos of Rainforest Action Network, a group opposing Chevron’s efforts.  “Chevron is manipulating the public’s concern about BP oil spill impacts to conceal the impacts of its own destruction.”

The most shocking part of Chevron’s campaign is the where the funds are going. One recipient, The America’s WETLAND Foundation, was formed by Shell Oil in 2002 with support from ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhilips, and the American Petroleum Institute. Most all partners of this foundation have launched major PR campaigns advocating for offshore oil drilling, deregulation of the oil industry, and has even called on tax payers to foot the bill for the BP oil spill.

The Hornets who have often played a vital role in community spirit and resolve in this unprecedented oil spill, and no doubt have good intentions of rebuilding gulf economies to be better than they were before. However most people supporting the campaign by buying braclets have no idea were their donations were going. That why the Change Chevron Team showed up At yesterdays Hornets game – game sponsored by Chevron – to highlight Chevron disingenuous greenwash.

As fans lined the arena to enter the arena a banner was unfurled above reading “don’t believe Chevron’s greenwash”, having just listened to a Hornets representative explain Chevron’s role in the campaign from a stage the message was lost on no one who saw the banner. I addition to the banner hundreds of “don’t believe Chevron’s greenwash” green bracelets were passed out with information on the company the Hornets were partnering with.

It didn’t take long for the Hornets organization to escort the bracelets off the property, but after purchasing a ticket to the game the bracelets ended up showing up all over the inside of the arena. The overall tone of the folks receiving the braclets was positive it seemed clear that Hornets fans wanted more from their team nad most all thought they could do better in a partnership than teaming with Chevron. We’ll have to see if the Hornets listen to their fans.

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Activists Derail Business School Q&A With Chevron CEO John Watson

By Mike G.
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Rainforest Action Network photo: Change Chevron activists confront John Watson at his alma mater, University of Chicago
Change Chevron activist Josh Kahn Russell holds a banner reading “Energy shouldn’t cost lives” while Chevron CEO John Watson flees up a staircase (Watson is on the top left).

Chevron CEO John Watson was invited to speak about “The Energy Economy” at the University of Chicago, his alma mater, this morning. The event provided audience members a chance to ask Watson questions, and as it just so happens, we have a few we’ve been meaning to ask him. So we sent some activists to the event.

Here’s how it went down, as told by Josh Kahn Russell, who led our team on the ground in Chicago and chased John Watson right out of his own event:

Today Chevron CEO John Watson spoke about the new era of energy at the University of Chicago’s business school, Chicago Booth. Some friends and I were concerned about Chevron’s attempts to evade both the law and the company’s moral responsibility to clean up the 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste it deliberately dumped in the Amazon, killing 1,400 people and poisoning thousands of others. So we paid him a visit.

Dressed business casual, we came in early and each took seats in different parts of the room. We listened to John Watson distance Chevron from the BP oil disaster. He reassured us all that Chevron is a thoughtful oil company. He went on to say that, above all other objectives, “No goal is more important than operating in a safe and responsible manner.”

On that note, Debra Michaud, an alumna of the University of Chicago, jumped up to express her dismay that a fellow graduate would be involved in poisoning the communities of 30,000 people. She asked Watson to speak to Chevron’s toxic legacy in Ecuador.

Watson was quick to evade the question, claiming that the damage was not Chevron’s responsibility. He seemed relieved at the end, as if he was thinking, “Phew, glad that’s over.” But it wasn’t.

A couple minutes later I took the mic and pointed out the irony in Watson’s allegations of “deception and conspiracy” on the part of the Indigenous plaintiffs in the court case, as his comments themselves were the real deception. After pointing out his false claims of remediation, he asked that we all just wait and “see how it all plays out.” After waiting through 17 years of Chevron’s delay-deceive-and-distort tactics, I kept pushing and went on to challenge his arguments.

The students in the room were engaged. Our respectful tone and figures presented from scientific case studies played well with the Business School crowd. One person near me glanced to the podium and murmured to her neighbor, “Why isn’t he answering the question?” Watson’s eyes darted around nervously as he realized that his presentation was being hijacked.

Watson’s entourage from the Business school looked panicked. The moderator escorted me off the microphone. A few minutes later, Abigail Singer went up to the mic to speak, and the alarmed moderator declared the Q&A over, after seeing Abigail’s paper, fearing she too would ask about Ecuador. She was escorted to her seat, and the event was declared over.

Rainforest Action Network photo: Change Chevron activists confront Chevron CEO John Watson at University of Chicago
Watson, who can be seen from behind just over the right side of the banner, is ushered away by security guards after the event is declared over by organizers.

It was clear that the one thing people would remember from the event was the controversy about Chevron’s role in poisoning Ecuadorean Amazon communities.

I went up to shake Watson’s hand, and was immediately blocked by security guards who ushered him away. We persistently followed him out, holding up a banner reading “Energy shouldn’t cost lives” all the way out of the building. Two people from the crowd cheered us on, saying “Way to stand up!” and “Keep going!” We did, until the moderator, furious, saw to it that we were escorted from the building.

John Watson needs to know that this issue won’t simply go away. It is going to stay in his face until he addresses it head on — even on his home turf and alma mater.

Check out the video:

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Breaking news: “Toxic sludge boss” brought to justice

By Mike G.
Monday, October 11th, 2010

Rainforest Action Network - Flickr photo set: Chevron's Toxic Legacy in Ecuador's Amazon
A pipe to drain crude contamination from open toxic pools into waterways near Lago Agrio, Ecuador. The toxic pools in the Ecuadorean Amazon rainforest were abandoned by Texaco (now Chevron) after oil drilling operations ended in 1990 and were never remediated. Photo by Caroline Bennett / Rainforest Action Network

It seems, at times, as if corporate executives operate with near-impunity, rarely being held accountable for polluting the planet in their quest for profits. But today, at least one exec is behind bars for contributing to the deaths of several people who were inundated by millions of gallons of toxic sludge that his company had failed to dispose of properly.

No, I’m not talking about Chevron CEO John Watson, though I certainly could (and probably should) be. Watson is still at large, enjoying his impunity while 30,000 Ecuadoreans continue to suffer the effects of the 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste his company refuses to clean up in the rainforests of Ecuador.

I’m actually talking about Zoltan Bakonyi, the managing director of MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, which was responsible for a flood of toxic sludge that killed eight people in Hungary last week.

The similarities between what happened in Hungary and the ongoing catastrophe in Ecuador are striking. Both are entirely man-made disasters that should never have happened, both are the result of corporate negligence, and both point out how environmentally unsustainable industries externalize the costs of their dirty businesses onto those communities unfortunate
enough to be adjacent to their polluting operations.

There are plenty of differences between the two cases, as well. For one thing, the toxic sludge from MAL Rt.’s aluminum plant only claimed eight lives and seems to be mostly contained at this point, whereas Chevron’s toxic oil waste has so far led to some 1,400 deaths, and could lead to 10,000 more by 2080 even if Chevron cleans up its mess immediately — which of course the company still refuses to do altogether.

The biggest difference is the fact that MAL Rt. managing director Zoltan Bakonyi has been detained by Hungarian authorities and is being held responsible, while John Watson is still free, still polluting, and still not taking responsibility for the damage his company’s pollution has caused.

The Change Chevron team leaves their cleaning supplies at John Watson's house

Yesterday, as part of 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party, we got to work cleaning up Chevron stations in an attempt to urge the company to do the same in Ecuador. At the end of the day, we dropped off our cleaning supplies at Watson’s home in Lafayette, CA (as you can see in the photo above) in the hopes that he might put them to use some time soon. If you want to help, you can go to Chevron’s Facebook page and tell Watson and Chevron to get to work cleaning up Ecuador right now.

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Chevron needs to get to work

By Mike G.
Sunday, October 10th, 2010

Why did we get to work to clean up Chevron stations today as part of the 10/10/10 Global Work Party? The answer is pretty simple: Chevron refuses to clean up its own messes, so we wanted to set a good example for the company to follow.

According to a new scientific analysis released last month, the 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste polluting Ecuador’s rainforest could lead to as many as 10,000 Ecuadoreans dying of cancer by 2080 — and that’s even if Chevron cleans up its mess in Ecuador immediately. That number could rise exponentially if Chevron doesn’t take action. But so far the company has refused to get to work.

That’s why we sent teams to temporarily shut down all 10 San Francisco Chevron gas stations for “cleaning” of oil spills. Check out the pics:

Our activists were at the Chevron stations to confront the company on its pollution in Ecuador, and on its pollution in communities around the world, from California to Ecuador to Nigeria. While Chevron refuses to take responsibility for this pollution, the company is actively working to stall climate and clean energy policies that would get us off of dirty fossil fuels once and for all. Chevron needs to clean up its own mess, and to stop standing in the way of those of us who are getting to work to make the clean energy future a reality.

After shutting down the stations in San Francisco, we headed to Lafayette, CA — home of Chevron CEO John Watson. If ever there were a guy who needs to get to work, John Watson is that guy. Unfortunately, he recently told an interviewer that he thinks it will take “generations” for us to make the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This is clearly not acceptable: There are 30,000 Ecuadoreans living amongst Chevron’s toxic pollution, and the entire world is threatened by global warming. Lives are at stake.

So we stopped by Watson’s house at the end of the day and dropped off our cleaning supplies, as a not-terribly-subtle suggestion that the CEO get to work. Check out the video.

There were, of course, more 7,000 work parties in about 180 countries today. Around 1,200 of those work parties were in the U.S., which easily dwarfs the number of astroturf events organized by the American Petroleum Institute this summer, and is nearly double the 642 Tax Day Tea Parties organized this spring with the support of Fox News. Check out the highlights from around the world on 350.org.

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Live Blog: Every Chevron Station in San Francisco Shut Down

By Nick
Sunday, October 10th, 2010

2:26- Teams just made a special delivery to Chevron CEO John Watson’s House. http://twitpic.com/2whbih

2:02- Taking a break and watching all the photos from around the world on 350.org on the largest day of climate action in history.

1:05- Things shifting and calming down at Howard St, but i have a feeling this day isn’t over! http://twitpic.com/2wgj20

12:45- Just overhead passer-by say to a perturbed customer  “they are doing good work actually. Glad someone is”. We are too!

12:41-Flickr gallery is up with photos coming in from all the stations in San Francisco. Check the out HERE

12:30- Activists report via twitter all 6 pumps down a Howard Chevron station! @RisingTideNA: 6 pumps shut down @ #chevron @ 9th & Howard #101010 #350ppm

12:29- Dance party going strong outside Howard station

12:00- Waiting for a few more updates from other stations, but a critical mass is coming together at the mega-Chevron on Howard street in San Francisco for the main event. We’ll have pics really soon.

11:50- Van Ness station getting a good cleaning, exposing Chevron’s dirty underbelly! Get to work Chevron!

11:44- Another Chevron gas station in need of a good scrubbing at 1000 Harrison st in San Francisco.

11:36- Quote of the day! “I agree Chevron does suck” – Chevron station manager (but we’ll never tell which one)

11:30- pics rollin’ in

11:26 Chevron on Harrison st just got closed for clean-up!

11:04- Another on bites the dust. Crews are at the Chevron gas station at 1601 Mission St in San Francisco cleaning up, and telling Chevron “it’s time to get to work! The rest of the world already is. 10/10/10.

11:01-From our crew in Layfyette CA (CEO John Watson’s neighborhood)— “A cleaning crew just started at Chevron CEO’s home station asking him to get to work cleaning up his dirty energy”. Kick Line Yeah!

10:59- Surprise John Watson you may not be in San Francisco but we’re watching. A Crew just arrived and shut down the Chevron CEO’s hometown station. He lives just a few block down. We’re make sure he gets the message today!

10:40- …And we’re off. Crews are arriving at the first stations in San Francisco. Chevron’s about to receive a clear message “We’re tired of you polluting and running on communities, and we’re done with your obstruction of clean energy solutions! We’re getting to work today, and it’s high time you got to work too!”

Right now RAN is shutting down Chevron stations across San Francisco, and we’re live blogging updates here all day long! So make sure to check back regularly for updates from our clean-up crews in the filed

Rainforest Action Network has sent clean-up crews to all 10 Chevron gas stations in the city of San Francisco today, Sunday, in conjunction with 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party, which is taking place in 183 countries worldwide. The Chevron clean-up crews are highlighting the company’s unprecedented oil catastrophe in Ecuador and its continued obstruction of climate change initiatives here in California.

Crews split up this morning and headed out to every Chevron station in the city. Chevron stations will be temporarily “closed for oil spill clean up” as activists risk arrest by blocking all entrances to the pumps with giant banners and warning signs reading “Closed for cleaning due to oil spills and climate pollution,” while other activist physically clean up the stations.

As one of the world’s biggest climate culprits Chevron, California’s largest corporation, has come under heavy scrutiny recently for remaining neutral on California’s Proposition 23, which would overturn the state’s landmark climate bill (AB 32) and strike a blow to clean energy investments nationwide.

“Chevron gas stations are the public face of one of the largest and dirtiest oil companies,” said Maria Lya Ramos, campaign director at Rainforest Action Network. “Four days ago, Chevron CEO John Watson refused to comment on Prop 23. Remaining silent on Prop 23 only reaffirms Chevron’s obstructive stance toward clean energy solutions in California. Chevron would rather watch from the sideline than help California lead the way toward a clean energy economy.”

On top of obstructing climate solutions, Chevron is also responsible for the world’s biggest oil disaster where they dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste-water and left over 15 million gallons of crude oil in Ecuador’s rainforest.

“In order to get to work on climate solutions, we must confront the polluters who have made it their business to obstruct climate legislation and keep the country dangerously addicted to fossil fuels,” said Rebecca Tarbotton, the executive director of Rainforest Action Network. “From California to Ecuador, Chevron is recklessly polluting communities, fighting regulation and standing in the way of the clean energy future we need and want.”

See you at the stations! Check back all day for live updates from our clean up crews.

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Chevron CEO: Oil and gas will be around for “generations”

By Mike G.
Friday, October 8th, 2010

Chevron spends a lot of time and money on its PR efforts aimed at convincing us that the company is a responsible corporate citizen concerned about the same things that keep us regular joes up at night, things like the environment, worker safety, and the inordinate influence of corporate money on our political process.

But if you’re really paying close attention (which we are), some times the truth slips out despite Chevron’s carefully prepared public façade. And the truth is, no matter what they say or do, the company is committed to putting profits over the planet and keeping us hooked on their dirty energy for as long as possible.

Rain Forest Action Network: John Watson ad
We ran this half-page ad in the New York Times earlier this year depicting John Watson’s face accompanied by the message, “Chevron’s oil men have polluted the Ecuadorian rainforest for decades. This man can do something about it now.” As it turns out, this man is okay with waiting generations to do something about oil pollution. View more Rainforest Action Network pics on Flickr.

For instance, Chevron CEO John Watson recently reiterated that his company is “neutral” on Prop 23 — the proposition that will be voted on by Californians this November that would essentially kill the state’s landmark global warming law. In fact, he reiterated his company’s neutrality over and over and over, despite being urged by the interviewer: “”Come on, take a stand here.”

But, after being pressed further and eventually leaving his official script behind for a moment, Watson stated that he thinks the transition from fossil fuels to what he called “new fuels” will take “generations.” Not if we have anything to say about it, Mr. Watson.

The planet can’t wait generations for clean energy to replace dirty fossil fuels like oil. John Watson and Chevron will continue to make a killing as long as we delay that transition, however, so it’s not hard to imagine how he arrived at his view on the matter.

The profit motive also explains why Chevron took third place on the Center for American Progress’s “Top 10 political pressure spending by energy companies” list, behind only Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips. From January 2009 to June 2010, Chevron spent over $28 million on lobbying and PAC contributions to federal candidates in order to protect its oil business.

The fact that Chevron spent so much on lobbying speaks even louder than Watson’s words. It’s time for Chevron to stop protecting its oily profits at the expense of the planet, and get real about being a responsible corporate citizen.

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