A Multinational Oil Company: the Real Victim?

Chevron is looking for something new from America: sympathy. According to a blog following Latin American issues – The Latin Americanist – Chevron has issued a new press release claiming that the company is the true victim in the long-running dispute between it and 30,000 indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest region. Forget the fact that the people in the area are living in conditions similar to a toxic waste dump after more than 25 years of shoddy and unsafe oil drilling. And forget the fact that the people are dealing with a huge health impact from incredibly high cancer rates. And forget the fact that Chevron abandoned its responsibility to clean up the toxic waste it left behind. No, Chevron, a company that just booked a record $23.8 billion profit in 2008, is the victim – because the court-appointed independent expert thinks that it may cost $27 billion to repair the damage that the company left behind.

This isn't the first time Chevron has played this card. They first tried claiming they were the victim after two of the organizers for the plaintiffs – Luis Yanza and Pablo Fajardo – won the Goldman Award (basically the Nobel Prize for the environmental industry). And it didn't fly anymore than then it does now. Sourcewatch captured some of the public reaction to the last time chevron tried to play victim:

"For shame! Caught red handed perpetrating one of the worst environmental disasters in history, Chevron now goes on the offensive, calling itself the "victim" and blaming everybody but itself: the Ecuadoran government and courts, the indigenous people themselves, other oil companies, and "trial lawyers" (an irony for a hatchet job written by the company's general counsel, who oversees a huge litigation budget),"

"Scapegoating activists who won an international prize for pointing out the pollution you swept under your rugs and stacked in your closets is poor form and unworthy of the company your advertising insists you are,"

"Public relations can save you for the moment but you will end up as just another chapter in the history books of Corporate Criminality. Hope your grandchildren are better than you are."

But this reaction didn't stop Chevron from claiming that it was a victim again, this time whining that the court-appointed expert, Prof. Richard Cabrera, was unfair because his report found that the evidence supported what the plaintiffs were alleging. Chevron's infamous chief lawyer Charles James even has the gall to say that Cabrera has an "undeniable disdain for science." Pretty rich coming from a guy who hires the scientists who did the Tobacco industry stuff as his main advisors (Exponent Consulting is an infamous "product defense" science and engineering firm – but more on this another day). Not to mention the fact that Cabrera, the 14 other scientists on his team, the university where he is a tenured professor of geology, the 10 American scientists who have reviewed and confirmed the findings of the report, and the Court itself, may take issue with James' assertions that he has a disdain for science.

It seems clear that Chevron has taken the tact that anyone who thinks they did anything wrong in Ecuador is victimizing them – no matter how much evidence they have backing them up.

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WTF is going on? Is Chevron just evil?

News out of San Francisco today: Chevron, which posted a record profit of $23.8 billion in 2008 is suing a group of Nigerian villagers for almost $500,000 in legal costs resulting from a embarrassing legal case (Bowoto v. Chevron) that Chevron narrowly survived this past November. This was the legal case in which a group of unarmed Nigerian villagers were shot and killed during the oil-derrick version of a sit-in protest. The villagers sought to hold Chevron responsible since it paid for, housed, fed, and directed the Nigerian military forces who shot the protestors. While Chevron prevailed during the trial, the entire episode was seen as a public relations disaster as a high-profile human rights trial took place just miles from Chevron's San Ramon, CA headquarters, further tarnishing Chevron's already shoddy image. Take a look at Dan Firger's blog on the Huffington Post - Landmark Human Rights Trial Bowoto v. Chevron Set To Begin October 27 for a short recap.

Well, now Chevron has added insult to injury, seeking $500,000 from the villagers who sued the company. So, people on Chevron's payroll literally shot the villagers, and now Chevron wants the villagers to pay the corporation for daring to take the company to trial over the shootings. Now, I don't have a ton of experience in this area, but I was always of the mindset that if you shoot someone its bad form to ask them to pay for the bullet. I mean damn, is Dick Cheney running Chevron now? Who shoots someone and then tries to make them pay for the fact that you shot them? And even Cheney only made his friend apologize for getting shot...I mean, this just reeks of heartless evil. According to the L.A. Times:

Laura Livoti, founder of Bay Area-based Justice in Nigeria Now, said the $485,000 sought by Chevron, California's largest company, would constitute a fortune for the Nigerians. That sum would be enough to sustain at least four villages in the Niger Delta for a year, she said.

"Chevron's attempt to squeeze nearly half a million dollars out of poor villagers who don't even have access to clean drinking water and who had wanted jobs with the company is a dramatic illustration of Chevron's heartlessness," she said.

In its claim, Chevron is seeking reimbursement from 19 plaintiffs and 30 former plaintiffs who dropped out of the case before it went to trial. At least a dozen of those named are children, Livoti said.

So this is perfect: Chevron is now suing children for enough money to support their entire village (and their neighbors!) for an entire year. Suing children? What, were all the puppies and kittens already claimed by Halliburton? I mean, this is getting almost comic book supervillain-y - with the lawsuits against children after Chevron shot their parents - did Lex Luthor take over this company?

And it's not like Chevron needs the money. Chevron made $23.8 billion profit last year. That means Chevron was making $65.2 million per day, $2.7 million per hour, and $45,251.56 per minute. At that rate it would take Chevron all of 10.72 minutes to make the $485,000 they're suing the villagers for. And these numbers are based on Chevron's profits, not their revenues, even though the $485,000 Chevron is seeking would all be tax-deductible business expenses anyway, meaning it would probably take the company about 5 minutes to generate that revenue. But Chevron isn't one to pass up an opportunity to sue children and the downtrodden, so here we are.

Even if you buy Chevron's argument that they're just trying to dissuade future lawsuits like the Bowoto case, the whole idea of suing Nigerian villagers and children is just horrible. Don't they have a single public relations professional in San Ramon? I have to imagine that a company posting $23.8b profits can afford to hire someone who is savvy enough to say "um guys, maybe we shouldn't shoot unarmed and impoverished villagers. And if we do, let's just sort of pretend it didn't happen, say we're sorry and we didn't mean to and hope the bad p.r. goes away – let's not go sue the people we shot for more money than any of them will ever make in their lifetimes. Ok guys? Because it looks really bad when a company making billions and billions of dollars is suing poor people because they stood up to us. Ok? And, by the way, can someone open a window? It's beginning to smell like sulfur in here again…"

But I guess no one in Chevron cares. Or maybe they just can't see the folly of their actions through all the smoke from the fire and brimstone filling up their big offices.

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