Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Chevron Smackdown: And the Goldman Award Goes To...

Environment Chris Thompson — Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 7:48 AM

Oh, snap. The Goldman Environmental Prize, which just happens to be the most prestigious and high-profile environmental justice award on the planet, was announced yesterday in San Francisco. And the winners are Ecuadoran activist/lawyer types Pablo Fajardo Mendoza and Luis Yanza, for their work demanding compensation for twenty years of environmental devastation. The losers? None other than San Ramon's very own Chevron, which spent twenty years committing said devastation, in the form of 18 billion gallons of oily water, cancer clusters, and miscarriages galore.

So it may not be a surprise to learn that Chevron representatives were really, really unhappy when they got wind that the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund planned to slap them around a bit. When the oil giant's press team learned that the Ecuadorans planned a press conference at the Fairmont Hotel, they quickly booked their very own room to present their side of the story. "We tried to reach out to the Goldman Foundation when we heard they might be in consideration, but we were stiff-armed," Chevron spokesman David Samson told the Chron. "No one ever cared to hear our side of the story." Cue the world's smallest violin.

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Must be the first time in history a bunch of "Ambulance Chaser" lawyer types got an award!

Some of the reports I was seeing sounds like the whole thing smells of a well-rehearsed scam aiming squarely at deep pockets. For example that the water samples supplied by the plaintiffs didn't actually come from the area under dispute, the supposed leukemia "victims" were actually quite healthy and had no sign of disease plus a ton of other anomalies which I think caused the case to be tossed out a few times!

Come to think of it, wasn't the real perpetrator of the crime, Petro-Ecuador (i.e. Ecuadorian Govt) who took the Texaco remediation $millions, bought a bucket and mop then pocketed the rest? I don't see any lawyers tracking down their government - oh, silly me, they went and spent all their money on limos and booze and now they are broke!

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Posted by Lostinspace on May 2, 2008 at 3:40 PM

Too bad such a "prestigious" award doesn't want to listen to both sides. Richard and Rhoda must also be upset about paying $4/gal for their limo, but you'd think they wouldn't be so short sighted.

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Posted by Sustainer on April 16, 2008 at 6:49 PM

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