Saturday, December 15, 2012

Chevron-Ecuador case expert switches sides - SFGate

This case has been ongoing for a long time, and I've figured there was manipulation on both sides, but this is disappointing.  Too bad. Simply put, Texaco made a mess and then did cleanup that was stamped OK by gov't monitors - who likely weren't able to fully inspect all the problems. Chevron buys Texaco fields, and is held accountable when the full extent of the problems are documented...protracted legal battles follow, with David v.Goliath model. David uses many really hard rocks, Goliath uses lots of money to build protective armor. David apparently tries a less than legit tactic - not that Goliath hasn't done the same - so both sides have less than stellar records now. The blame is now obfuscated by years of ownership changes, manipulation and back room cigar smoke but fact remains - there remains a lot of petroleum nastiness out in the forest that needs to be cleaned up.

Chevron-Ecuador case expert switches sides - SFGate:

"The long-running environmental lawsuit against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador has pitted whole armies of lawyers, activists and technical experts against each other. Now a former combatant appears to have switched sides[to Chevron]."
...

"An Ecuadoran judge ruled against Chevron last year, ordering the San Ramon company to pay $19 billion. Chevron has vowed not to hand over the money and has sued the other side's lawyers for extortion and racketeering. The Ecuadoran team is now pursuing Chevron's assets in Argentina, Brazil and Canada to collect on the judgment.

Racketeering suit

Chevron obtained Reyes' statement as part of the racketeering suit. Company spokesmanKent Robertson said Reyes was not paid for his statement, nor was he promised work with Chevron.
"The fraud is going to come out, and he wants to be on the right side," Robertson said.
Karen Hinton, a spokeswoman for the Ecuadorans' legal team, accused Chevron of ghostwriting some of Reyes' comments, and said her team had not tried to force Reyes or anyone else to compromise their professional ethics. She also insisted that tests showed extensive oil-field contamination in the area.
"Reyes either lies or is mistaken when he claims that the plaintiffs acknowledged that the data from the judicial inspections did not support their claims," she said.
Reyes became involved in the suit at the end of 2005. He had just published a book "Oil, Amazon, and Natural Capital," arguing that Chevron and the Ecuadoran government together needed to clean up the oil fields."

'via Blog this'

Friday, December 14, 2012

The price of inequality

FROM: The price of inequality, in colour | The Equality Trust

Evidence shows that:

1) In rich countries, a smaller gap between rich and poor means a happier, healthier, and more successful population. Just look at the US, the UK, Portugal, and New Zealand in the top right of this graph, doing much worse than Japan, Sweden or Norway in the bottom left. Inequality vs health and social well-being
2) Meanwhile, more economic growth will NOT lead to a happier, healthier, or more successful population. In fact, there is no relation between income per head and social well-being in rich countries.
3) If the UK were more equal, we'd be better off as a population. For example, the evidence suggests that if we halved inequality here:
    - Murder rates could halve
    - Mental illness could reduce by two thirds
    - Obesity could halve
    - Imprisonment could reduce by 80%
    - Teen births could reduce by 80%
    - Levels of trust could increase by 85%
    4) It's not just people in poorer communities who would do better. The evidence suggests people all the way up would benefit, although it's true that the poorest would gain the most.
    5) These findings hold true, whether you look across developed nations, or across the 50 states of the USA.



    Saturday, November 10, 2012

    from: The Rude Pundit

    Dear Rude Pundit,
    Thank you.
    td

    The Rude Pundit


    11/07/2012

    A Few Brief Notes to Republicans on the Day After Their Defeat by Barack Obama:
    In four of the last five presidential elections, you lost the popular vote (we won't get into the fact that you really lost four of the last five elections completely). Is that telling you something? No, it's not. Because you're Republicans. And you don't care what reality is. You prefer to attempt to bend reality like a contortionist porn actor trying and failing to lick his own taint from behind.

    You lost. It wasn't close. It wasn't a squeaker. It wasn't a nailbiter. All of your internal magical mathematicians were wrong. It was over the second the polls closed on the West Coast because it was over before the election even started. It was over because you nominated a fraud, a Tin Man who spent the entire campaign looking for a heart not because he really wanted one but because his advisors told him that he needed one. It was over because whatever else he tried to be, Mitt Romney was as close to a caricature of a rich dick as you could get without looking like he was merely plagiarizing The Simpsons or Dickens. It was over because, despite every effort to smear and lie about the President, Americans saw that Barack Obama was not your crude Bolshevik monster, but a cool, rational man who kept trying to get things done despite monumental opposition, despite monumental debt, despite a monumental storm. You won't see these things, though, because you're Republicans, and self-reflection is to you what a hot needle is to a cyst on your ass.

    You are going to get advice from everywhere, all over, left, right, crazy. So the Rude Pundit's not going to attempt to say much here because you're not going to listen. It comes down to this: Stop being jerks, and, as Joe Biden said, get out of the way. Stop being jerks to women, to immigrants, to gays, to union members. Just...well, just fucking stop. If you don't understand how the GOP strategy of the last three and a half years affected you on a national basis, no matter what the gerrymandered House district yahoo votes told you, then you are damned to be party of nothing more than bodies in the road, slowing real progress, only to be crushed and run over one at a time, hoping that enough of your squashed and squeezed viscera gums up the engines of government enough to bring it to a halt. Or until the bodies are plowed out of the way, as they were in 2006 and 2008. If you think the lesson is that you weren't conservative enough, you know nothing about the United States.

    Ultimately, you won't learn anything. Because you're Republicans. And there's something tragically touching and almost poetically ignorant about stubbornly clinging to the anchor of your principles even as the ship sinks and everyone around you is saying to let it go and take a life preserver.

    Yeah, now we to look forward to the inevitable endless investigations of meaningless things before the push for impeachment. Because you're Republicans. And that's just easier to do than actually govern.

    Monday, October 29, 2012

    Why Legalizing Marijuana on Election Day Might Not Be a Good Idea - The Daily Beast


    There are less than rosy sides to full legalization, and this article points out some of them.  They are a bit disconcerting, but still add up to less than the status quo on the issue.  The author closes with this:

    As the Seattle Times recently put it in an editorial endorsing legalization in Washington State, the relevant question isn’t whether marijuana is good: “It is whether prohibition is good. It is whether the people who use marijuana shall be subject to arrest, and whether the people who supply them shall be sent to prison. The question is whether the war on marijuana is worth what it costs.” 
    Quite obviously, the answer is no. In fact, of all the available options the status quo of criminalizing what millions of people enjoy—most of them nonwhite, poor, and in for a world of collateral damage as a result of their arrest—is probably the least attractive choice, worse only than full legalization. The better decision is incremental reforms at the state level and a hands-off approach from the feds. Let people grow pot, and sell it, but not for profit, and without advertising, and in a tightly regulated marketplace. Tinker every year, adding new provisions and privileges as much needed new research comes in. And always update the law with a sunset provision. That way the process can’t be hijacked by lobbyists and special interests—and only one thing goes up in smoke.

    Why Legalizing Marijuana on Election Day Might Not Be a Good Idea - The Daily Beast

    Saturday, October 27, 2012

    xkcd: Tradition

    xkcd: Tradition:

    I think this mindset is what drives the tea-publicans ...

    "Can't we just get back to when everything was 'swell'!?"
    I don't like 'change'.  
    Get off my LAWN!"


    'via Blog this'

    Friday, September 28, 2012

    Here on Earth -

    Here on Earth:

    WTF did space exploration ever do for ME?
    OK...follow along boys and girls...and remember that NASA/space exploration portion of the U.S. budget is less than one half of one percent...see the graphic and text below.
    Go see the nice informative website at www.ridingwithrobots.org
    td

    Here on Earth:
    “Why are we spending money and effort on space exploration when we’re facing so many issues here at home? We shouldn’t go into space until we solve all our problems...Here On Earth"

    budget

    A Very Thin Slice of Pie

    Ask many Americans what percentage of the federal budget is taken up by NASA, and they’ll answer with something in the double digits. The actual amount? Less than one percent. Less than one half of one percent, in fact. In this famous interactive infographic by The New York Times, the space budget is represented by one of the tiny sub-squares in one of the small squares in the lower right, far too small to be labeled at this scale. 

    'via Blog this'

    Wednesday, September 26, 2012

    Astronomy Photographer Of The Year Winners | TPM Media

    These are spectacular...and it wasn't even Hubble...

    td


    Astronomy Photographer Of The Year Winners | TPM Media:

    'via Blog this'

    Will 9 GOP Governors Electronically Flip Romney Into the White House?

    Will 9 GOP Governors Electronically Flip Romney Into the White House?:

    "In Ohio 2004, at 12:20 election night, the initial vote tabulation showed John Kerry handily defeating Bush by more than 4%. This 200,000-plus margin appeared to guarantee Kerry's ascent to the presidency. But mysteriously, the Ohio vote count suddenly shifted to Smartech in Chattanooga, Tennessee. With private Republican-connected contractors processing the vote, Bush jumped ahead with a 2% lead, eventually winning with an official margin of more than 118,000 votes. Such a shift of more than 6%, involving more than 300,000 votes, is a virtual statistical impossibility, as documented in our WILL THE GOP STEAL AMERICA'S 2012 ELECTION (www.freepress.org)."

    'via Blog this'

    Sunday, September 16, 2012

    xkcd: Geology

    Gneiss! I knew I made the right choice those many years ago...just an eyeblink in geologic time, but already there are new wrinkles...I think I may be having an orogeny. No schist!



    xkcd: Geology: "http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/geology.png"

    'via Blog this'

    Friday, August 17, 2012

    Economy In Perspective - unemployment, jobs, GDP growth, inflation, the deficit, and tax receipts

    If you can read this small but informative website - it's just a few pages and reads sequentially - and still want to vote for a Republican I will be amazed.  Please explain.

    td

    Economy In Perspective - Home:


    INTRODUCTION

    "During an economic downturn politicians often have very heated arguments about the best way to approach the problem.  This made us curious about how effectively the economic policies of previous presidents might have dealt with these situations.  In 2009 we began researching the issue and compiled some statistics.  Our goal was to create a long-term view of the economy, using the metrics that everyone brings up to show how good (or bad) things are going. These are: unemployment and job creation, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, inflation, the deficit, and tax receipts.  This would let people put numbers to common questions such as, “What was happening” and “How did we get that way”."
    ...

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Commerce have been compiling economic data for decades, and whenever possible we have taken the data directly from their website.  For data on national debt and federal receipts, our source is the St. Louis Federal Reserve. 
    ...

    so the authors took lots of data and made many graphs and charts like this one here

    ...
    CONCLUSION
    We disregarded all the arguments and took the simple step of finding the economic measures that seemed most important: jobs, growth, spending and inflation, and asked when they looked good and when they looked bad.  We found the answer very surprising.  With few exceptions, the economy looked good when democrats were in the oval office, and less good when republicans had taken over.  It seems somehow that it can’t be that simple, but we’re content to let the analysts fight over that.  For us, the numbers speak for themselves more clearly than any economic analyst ever has.

    'via Blog this'

    Wednesday, August 8, 2012

    Chart of the day, HFT edition | Felix Salmon


    This astonishing GIF comes from Nanex, and shows the amount of high-frequency trading in the stock market from January 2007 to January 2012. (Which means that the Knightmare craziness of last week is not included.) The various colors, as identified in the legend on the right, are all the different US stock exchanges. You might think there are only two stock exchanges in the US, but you’d be wrong: there are only two exchanges where stocks are listed. There are many, many more exchanges where stocks are tradedhttp://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/08/06/chart-of-the-day-hft-edition/


    High Frequency Trading (HFT) has warped the stock market.  Literally millions and billions of trades are made lasting only micro-seconds, sometimes pulled just before completion, affecting the stock price up or down, then entering again to buy or sell at that newly affected price - scraping profits off of manipulating transactions within the market system - not based on buy and hold.  It's what the day-traders of the 80's and 90's used to do - only done over micro-second intervals, not hours or days.

    One of the points here is that there is a chance to generate some revenue and hold down the manipulation of the market by adding small transaction fees - particularly for these rapidly traded transactions - not for your purchase of XYZ Inc. for dividend or long-term investment.

    If not "significant losses will end up being borne by investors with no direct connection to the HFT world" - and just like in the 2008 market collapse, the guys with the computers and suits will profit, while the rest of us take it in the shorts.

    td
    Update from a SlashDot comment on the post - where I first saw the HFT article.

    by cpm99352 (939350) on Tuesday August 07, @07:51PM (#40911727)
    To repeat my comments from just a few days ago [slashdot.org] , the fine article [caseyresearch.com] states on page 4:

    Many HFTs will make near-simultaneous trades on different exchanges and profit because of the delay in one of the exchanges. An example will help me explain: let’s use the NASDAQ and EDGE exchanges, and say that ABC stock is trading at $1.00. The HFT will send a bunch of quotes (offers) to NASDAQ and EDGE, trying to sell ABC stock at $1.01. Once the NASDAQ order is accepted, the HFT can simultaneously cancel the $1.01 sell order on the EDGE exchange and replace it with a buy order at the original price of $1.00. EDGE immediately accepts that $1.00 order, because its system has not caught up to the new price of $1.01, and the HFT’s net position becomes zero. This is possible because of latency, which is jargon for delay in the system. The net result is, the HFT captures a $0.01 arbitrage. By scalping this tiny amount from many trades, the profits add up quickly

    Let's repeat: the HFTs are putting orders on the system for which they have no intention of fulfilling. This is a violation of SEC rules, yet the SEC does nothing. There was an AC responder to my post who made a blanket denial cancellations were happening. Care to respond?



    Chart of the day, HFT edition | Felix Salmon:

    "The stock market today is a war zone, where algobots fight each other over pennies, millions of times a second. Sometimes, the casualties are merely companies like Knight, and few people have much sympathy for them. But inevitably, at some point in the future, significant losses will end up being borne by investors with no direct connection to the HFT world, which is so complex that its potential systemic repercussions are literally unknowable. The potential cost is huge; the short-term benefits are minuscule. Let’s give HFT the funeral it deserves."

    'via Blog this'

    Sunday, July 29, 2012

    The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic - NYTimes.com

    OK, now will you stop listening to the corporate message manipulators?

    "Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause."  
    RICHARD A. MULLER
    Published: July 28, 2012


    'via Blog this'

    Wednesday, July 18, 2012

    National Debt / Voodoo Economics Video & Slides

    I love the guy at zFacts...

    "This slide show explains why the Republican debt is $12 Trillion when calculated by the balanced-budget standard that Republicans prefer, but only $9.2 Trillion by economic standards. It aslo explains some about why the debt went out of control, and when debt is good and when it's bad."


    National Debt / Voodoo Economics Video & Slides:
    'via Blog this'

    Friday, July 6, 2012

    Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist | Do the Math

    This is an eye-opener - and it's not about climate-change, just an energy-use calculation.

    The upshot is we've always argued bigger is better, growth is progress, and think that a steady state is somehow bad, economically. Well - we're going to have to get used to it, globally anyway - but that doesn't mean there isn't a wonderful flux of energy/economic forces that will keep things circulating and providing opportunities for millenia to come...read on.

    timmmaaayyy



    Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist | Do the Math:

    U.S. total energy 1650-present (logarithmic)
    Total U.S. Energy consumption in all forms since 1650. The vertical scale is logarithmic, so that an exponential curve resulting from a constant growth rate appears as a straight line. The red line corresponds to an annual growth rate of 2.9%. Source: EIA.




    "Physicist: At that 2.3% growth rate, we would be using energy at a rate corresponding to the total solar input striking Earth in a little over 400 years. We would consume something comparable to the entire sun in 1400 years from now. By 2500 years, we would use energy at the rate of the entire Milky Way galaxy—100 billion stars! I think you can see the absurdity of continued energy growth. 2500 years is not that long, from a historical perspective. We know what we were doing 2500 years ago. I think I know what we’re not going to be doing 2500 years hence."

    'via Blog this'

    Tuesday, June 12, 2012

    They Are Both Keynesians Now - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

    They Are Both Keynesians Now - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast:

    "Obama inherited an economy in free-fall and the most obstructionist opposition in decades. He prevented a second Great Depression, achieved a halting recovery, passed universal healthcare and won as solid a victory against al Qaeda as is conceivable. What he needs to argue is that this is just the beginning of a national renewal, a downpayment on the rest  - by insisting that long-term debt reduction can be done now, that immigration reform must be achieved for the next generation of Americans, and that the insane tax code can be rescued from the special interests.


     Obama will not win by playing safe, it seems to me, or defensively, so that external events determine his fate, and Romney can crudely but mercilessly try to blame all our woes on the incumbent. Obama's brand is inextricable from reform, and his campaign must be designed to break the Republicans' resistance to such reform. You don't need a new slogan. "Yes We Can" needs just some tinkering. "Yes We Must" is more 2012."

    'via Blog this'

    Monday, June 4, 2012

    If You Want Another Debt And Spending Binge, Vote GOP

    I'm lazy today and just want to look at the pictures...if you're more inclined read the link below, and the counter from the other side that it linked to - and debunked.


    If You Want Another Debt And Spending Binge, Vote GOP - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast:


    For me, it's just like the headline and history indicates - Republicans spend like drunken sailors and complain when the Democrats try to tidy up their mess by tightening the belt and trying to generate enough revenues to pay for the Republican spending binges.



    I tell my 'conservative' friends I'm a fiscal conservative and couldn't possibly vote Republican - they're not conservative - except socially, and I'm a social progressive who believes the richest (for now) country in the world should be able to take just a bit off our massive offensive (hardly defensive) military spending and take care of all the healthcare and social needs we have.

    And quit whining that some people using the social safety net are able to or want to 'game the system' and 'live off the gov't teat' (woo hoo! - look at that lavish lifestyle).  The few that do are able to take so few real dollars compared to the corporate and defense contractor sucking on the teat that it's like a kid taking sand from the beach with a toy bucket vs. a line of dump trucks and a front end loader.

    td
    'via Blog this'

    Wednesday, May 30, 2012

    Position available : id : (F576XLEBU4Q968627)...

    Hey - I don't need the work, but if any of you do, please contact this company, I'm sure it's legit, the penultimate line says "This letter is an official job invitation and it has nothing to do with any suspicious activities."


    td




    Greetings,

    Please, look at following offer.
    Our company is called Transit Delivery Escrow incorporated. We are currently recruiting employees to fill in the position in the shipping processing and courier service department. Our recruiting department searches for candidates on the web, so if you have received this letter, that means that your CV has been seen on the web by the online recruiting department managers.

    TDE inc is a European company based in Poland(city of Krakov) that provides retail sales and forwarding of many products(mostly modern electronics devices) and selling it to European customers. We are growing and continue to develop since 2005.

    To fulfill your duties you will need to be able to receive the items and to send them off via United States Postal Service and many other structures.

    There are totally no investments from your side. Salary is $1500 monthly minimal amount and it is built from each task rate with unlimited peak.

     You are required to have/be:
    - 18 years old minimum
    - be located at designated address on a regular basis
    - be available to work on PC with internet access
    - have day time contact phone number


    There is no need in any storage.

    This letter is an official job invitation and it has nothing to do with any suspicious activities.

    If you are interested, please contact us via email.


    'via Blog this'

    Tuesday, May 29, 2012

    The truth about renewable energy: Inexpensive, reliable, and inexhaustible | Grist

    I know we'll get to a point where even the entrenched opponents recognize we're better off collectively in so many ways - maybe it's that term "collectively" that bothers them - or at least they can spin that fear. But I think it's their bottom line.


    I heard it put in perspective the other day, something I've said - the old adage of "what's good for GM is good for America" isn't true, and hasn't been when "GM" is replaced by "Multinational Corporation".  Why do we allow large multinational corporations ANY say in our politics?  Exxon-Mobil (and many other companies) has a larger "GNP" than many nations.   But they're not American companies - and have no patriotic allegiance to the U.S. - and will make decisions on what's best for their bottom line.  Not what's good for America...and since they're energy companies, they see competition for their bottom line in renewables, and have spread FUD about it for years. 

    The truth about renewable energy: Inexpensive, reliable, and inexhaustible | Grist:

    "[A]s technological advances and plummeting costs drive explosive growth — U.S. installed wind capacity has grown sevenfold to nearly 47 gigawatts in the last seven years — real-world experience is shattering long-held assumptions every day. Even ardent supporters of renewables may be surprised by what we’re learning."

    'via Blog this'

    Wednesday, May 23, 2012

    Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return?: Scientific American

    Well, this will make your day a bit cheerier...not.
           Like Wile. E. Coyote, we're heading for a fall.

    "In Limits to Growth, a bitterly disputed 1972 book that explicated these findings, researchers argued that the global industrial system has so much inertia that it cannot readily correct course in response to signals of planetary stress. But unless economic growth skidded to a halt before reaching the edge, they warned, society was headed for overshoot—and a splat that could kill billions."

    Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return?: Scientific American:

    'via Blog this'

    An Obama Spending Spree? Hardly (CHART) | TPMDC

    If you're living in the Fox world...this seems unreal...but my Republic party friends, the truth hurts...

    td

    An Obama Spending Spree? Hardly (CHART) | TPMDC:

    "Obama’s policies, including the much-criticized stimulus package, have caused the slowest increase in federal spending of any president in almost 60 nears, according to data compiled by the financial news service MarketWatch."


    'via Blog this'

    Friday, May 18, 2012

    What’s the real difference between cage-free and pastured eggs? [VIDEO] | Grist

    Cage free eggs...Free Range eggs...either one still has chickens sitting on top of one another indoors...the free range is a small outdoor area attached to the gargantuan coop.

    I worked framing a couple of 60 ft x 400 ft coops for "fryers" back in East Texas years ago for summer work in college.  Chicken industry there has always been pretty big.  And pretty nasty.  Shove 30,000 chicks in one half of the building - auto-feed and auto-water for about 3 weeks, open the doors in the middle when they can't move around anymore and they take over the other half as well...at about six weeks they're herded into trailers at the other end and hauled to the chicken factory in town.  Factory, not the neighborhood 'butcher shop'.

    I'll let you consider the working and killing conditions there.

    So, how'd we get to industrial food from where we were pre-WWII? We had most of our population living rural, gardening if not farming, providing at least some of their own food, and bartering with the neighbors...w/o getting taxed on the trade either.

    Well, there was depression, a dust bowl, a lot of us moved off farms to the city to get factory / industrial jobs and the small farms agglomerated into big businesses with chemical fertilizers and an automated factory mentality.  Now we're short on factory / industrial jobs, and our tech jobs are outsourced too.

    We may all end up with a few chickens in the backyard, and some garden veggies just to get along.
    Jefferson would have liked more of that kind of thing. We could, and maybe have, done worse.

    I wish I lived one place more so I could tend garden and maybe have a chicken or two...my peripatetic life of chasing work to wherever it is will have to change though. (Not that that's a BAD thing.)

    Nice little video...

    What’s the real difference between cage-free and pastured eggs? [VIDEO] | Grist: "What’s the real difference between cage-free and pastured eggs? [VIDEO] By Douglas Gayeton"

    'via Blog this'

    Wednesday, May 16, 2012

    Econographia

    Looking at the charts on this site, I can't understand why any U.S. American would vote for the GOP.
    I include my favorite two charts on the blog's first page.

    Econographia: "This is not a political site. It has no affiliations. The data is sourced from the various government agencies responsible for compiling data on the performance of our Nation’s economy. These include the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Census Bureau, and others."





    'via Blog this'

    Monday, May 7, 2012

    U.S. could make $15.1 billion on AIG bailout: GAO | Reuters

    U.S. could make $15.1 billion on AIG bailout: GAO | Reuters: "U.S. could make $15.1 billion on AIG bailout: GAO"

    and...oil imports down from over 60% to just over 40%, bin Laden gone, economy better - but not fixed - still the world countries buy T-Bills over anything else, more domestic oil production than ever...I could go on, but, what the hell are republican voters whining about...oh, yea, he's the democrat president they've sworn to block no matter what.  Country be damned - party first...

    'via Blog this'

    Monday, January 30, 2012

    You got to love huge multinational corporations...

    Chevron's Plan to Evade $18b Ecuador Liability Falters

    See the documentary "Crude" for background on this article:




    "U.S. courts are showing increasing hostility toward Chevron and its CEO John Watson over the company's $18 billion Ecuador liability as the oil giant's plan to quash the landmark case continues to falter"

    "Documents recently obtained via U.S. discovery actions shows that Chevron engaged in extensive acts of corruption and fraud in Ecuador. Chevron doctored soil samples to mislead the Ecuador court and used a secret lab to hide evidence of toxic contamination; paid $2.2 million in hush money to a man who threatened to expose the company's corruption in the Ecuador trial; tried to entrap an Ecuadorian judge with secret video recordings, and used U.S.-based experts to lie to the Ecuador court about the company's deceptive field sampling."

    "Chevron is already facing likely criminal charges in Brazil -- a country with enormous reserves coveted by the company -- for lying about its recent spill off the coast of Rio province."\

    "Chevron simply cannot change the fact its horrific contamination in Ecuador is visible to the naked eye and has been confirmed by journalists and courts the world over," she added. "The evidence is so overwhelming that no amount of trickery can save the day for Chevron at this point"

    Contact: Karen Hinton, 703-798-3109, Karen@hintoncommunications.com
    SOURCE Amazon Defense Coalition
    Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved