Ecuador Court Fines Chevron $9 Billion in Rain Forest Pollution Case

[The Straight Story]

Ecuador Court Fines Chevron $9 Billion in Rain Forest Pollution Case

In one of the largest settlements ever handed down in an environmental pollution case, a judge in Ecuador has ordered oil giant Chevron to pay more than $9 billion in damages and legal fees for polluting a stretch of the Amazon decades ago.

Chevron has 15 days to publicly apologize for its actions or else the damages could double, ruled Judge Nicolás Zambrano in Lago Agrio. But an apology is unlikely to come anytime soon, given the corporation’s aggressive position in the case.

Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson called the ruling “illegitimate and unenforceable.” The company plans to appeal through the Ecuadorean legal system and avoid paying the damages. “This is the product of fraud,” he said. “It had always been the plan to inflate the damages claim and coordinate with corrupt judges for a smaller judgment.”

From the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, Texaco drilled for oil in the Oriente, a corner of northeastern Ecuador, in partnership with state-owned Petroecuador. As part of its operations, Texaco dumped a mixture of petroleum and water into open pits near the oil wells. When Texaco pulled out of the country, it agreed to clean up a portion of the wells, while Petroecuador continued to operate the rest.

http://www.allgov.com/US_and_the_World/ViewNews/Ecuador_Court_Fines_Chevron_9_Billion_Dollars_in_Rain_Forest_Pollution_Case_110216