Global Exchange, Amazon Watch, West County Toxics Coalition Green Action, community members and activists took an Earth Day message to Chevron's San Francisco offices. These offices billed as "Clean Energy Solutions" offices are Chevron's "greenwashing" headquarters. Chevron made $18.7 billion last year, but only a fraction of total revenue was put towards clean safe renewable energy. Take a look...
- Chevron's 2007 revenue = $204 Billion
- Chevron's 2007 clean energy revenue = $240 Million
- Chevron's self estimate of oil exploration and refinery expansions = $50 Million A DAY
This adds up to...
- Chevron committing 1/8 of 1% of total revenue to clean energy
- In 1 year, Chevron spends as much on clean energy as they spend in 5 days of oil exploration and refinery expansion!
The High Cost of Chevron's Oil
The Next Disaster -- the Alberta Tar Sands
Chevron is a key player in what could be the next man-made oil disaster -- the Tar Sands. The Tar Sands are a huge oil reserve buried under Canada's Boreal Forest. Chevron is a 20 percent partner in a project to extract this oil. The environmental costs of extracting tar sands oil are even higher than those associated with traditionally sourced oil.
To extract oil from the Tar Sands, the ground needs to be super heated with either natural gas or nuclear energy until the tar separates out. The extraction process itself requires 4-5 barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced, which is leading to a water shortage in Alberta. The tar sands industry also uses large quantities of energy and produces massive amounts of wastewater, known as "tailings." Already, two toxic tailings dumps from Canadian tar sands mines are visible from space with the naked eye.
Meanwhile, if further development continues, the tar sands will almost single-handedly guarantee that Canada will not make its obligations under the Kyoto protocol. And in addition to environmental impacts, the development of the tar sands will displace several first nations communities, not unlike what happened in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Chevron's Crimes in Ecuador
In April 2008, Chevron hired a high-priced PR firm to discredit two Ecuadorian environmental justice advocates who were chosen to receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. Pablo Fajardo Mendoza & Luis Yanza have been leaders in the fight to make Chevron clean up what's been called a toxic "Rainforest Chernobyl" that was unleashed on the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1964 to 1990. During that time, Texaco (which was later bought by Chevron) is said to have dumped nearly 17 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of drilling wastewater into the Amazon. Local indigenous communities -- who are suffering from severe health effects including cancer and birth defects and have also been dispossessed of their lands -- are suing Chevron with Fajardo Mendoza and Yanza's assistance.
Chevron is going to need a lot more than PR help to hide the high price that its practices have had on communities in the Amazon and beyond. Global Exchange, Amazon Watch and other environmental and human rights groups, are determined to shed light on Chevron's participation in human rights violations, environmental destruction and war.
Chevron's Crimes Closer to Home
Chevron's environmental and human rights violations are especially of concern because one of Chevron's large refineries is located in our own backyard; in Richmond, California. Chevron is looking to expand and upgrade the refinery, which would enable them to refine heavier grades of more-polluting crude oil (such as oil from the tar sands). Chevron's Richmond refinery already processes oil from Iraq, making it one of the top U.S. companies to profit from the Iraq war.
The process of refining the oil creates asthma- and cancer-causing pollution that endangers the health of the people of Richmond, many of whom are low-income and people of color.
Chevron's practices are harming human beings and the environment straight across the Americas. It's time we take action. Please join Global Exchange and our allies in declaring freedom from oil and freedom from Chevron!
Join the Freedom from Oil campaign! Contact 415-575-5553 or cleancars@globalexchange.