Blogger Offers ‘Definitive Guide’ to Environmental Lawsuit on Eve of Chevron Shareholders Meeting

By: Bob McCarty
Bob McCarty Writes

If you’re like most Americans, you’ve probably heard little about an environmental lawsuit that has potential to produce the largest settlement in the history of the world. In the space below, I offer for free information that might best be described as “The Definitive Guide to the Chevron Ecuador Lawsuit (hereinafter referred to as “The Guide“).”

Before I introduce the contents of The Guide, however, let me offer a brief overview of the lawsuit:

The case pits the Amazon Defense Coalition, led by a Philadelphia-based lawyer, who claims to represent tens of thousands of indigenous people damaged by the reckless actions of Texaco Oil Company as it operated in a partnership with state-owned PetroEcuador from 1964 to 1990. Because Chevron Corporation purchased Texaco in 2001, the United States’ third-largest company became the target of — or defendant in — the class-action lawsuit that’s now in its 16th year and is expected to be decided upon in an Ecuadoran court within months.

In addition, I’ll ask you to view a handful of videos.

The first, shown in Part One and Part Two below, aired on the CBS program, “60 Minutes,” May 3, and functions much like a free advertisement for the plaintiff:

The second video (below), produced by Chevron with help from former CNN newsman Gene Randall, makes a solid paid-for argument:

Now that you’re up to speed, you’re probably asking, “What makes you such an expert that you can produce The Guide?” My answer: “Nothing, that is, other than the fact that I’ve collected a treasure trove of documents and links to documents since becoming the target of a serious “spin” campaign that started soon after I began investigating the $27 billion lawsuit.”

During the past 31 days, I’ve had more than three-dozen separate e-mail conversations with representatives of both ADC and Chevron.

On the plaintiff side, I’ve received most — but not nearly all — of the information I requested from Karen Hinton, the hired-gun public relations person overseeing the ADC’s “infosuasion” efforts. In addition, I interviewed Andrew Woods, a Huffington Post blogger and Harvard Law School graduate who serves as one of the plaintiff attorneys.

On the defense side, I’ve discussed the case with Justin Higgs and Kent Robertson, both of whom serve on Chevron’s media relations team. I was even invited to travel to Ecuador at Chevron’s expense to get a close-up look at the facts of the case. Unfortunately, the trip was postponed and then rescheduled on a date that made my participation impossible.

The most-recent volley of the spin battle landed in my inbox today in the form of a four-page letter (below) Chevron sent to its shareholders May 20.

Dated May 20 and signed by Lydia L. Beebe, corporate secretary and chief governance officer, the letter uses four pages of well-worded prose before concluding with an urgent plea:

We urge our stockholders to visit the website we have constructed about this case and to assess the facts for themselves. We also urge you to reject the trial lawyers’ stockholder proposal

Because Chevron shareholders are meeting May 27 at the company’s headquarters in San Ramon, Calif., I decided to publish The Guide below to help them see the facts in the case and, hopefully, make the right decision (i.e., the one that supports Chevron).

Below is a list of documents and links that form The Guide:

AMAZON DEFENSE COALITION (Plaintiff)

Primary Web Site = TexacoToxico.org/eng (English)

Secondary Web Site = TexacoToxico.org (Spanish)

Primary Document = Cabrera Report (pdf)

Primary Video = CBS “60 Minutes” — “Amazon Crude”

Primary Photo Site = ADC Public Photo Gallery

Primary Law Firm Web Site = Kohn Swift & Graf, P.C.

Best Pro-Plaintiff Media Coverage = CBS “60 Minutes” — “Amazon Crude”

CHEVRON (DEFENDANT)

Primary Web Site = ChevronEcuador.com

Secondary Web Site = Texaco in Ecuador (English)/Texaco in Ecuador (Spanish)