For those of you following, you know that a while back the plaintiffs in the case were caught on camera saying that they “cooked” the science of the oil damages in order to win close to a $20 billion settlement. It gets far more interesting now. Here is Coyote on Tony Soprano Environmentalism:
The Ecuadoran $18 billion court decision is turning out to be a monumental case of environmental fraud. I am willing to believe that early critics of Texaco (now Chevron) had legitimate beefs about the company’s stewardship in its drilling operations in the 1970’s in the Amazon. However, all semblance of principle has gone right out the window in a gigantic money grab.
A while back, it was reported that environmentalists (featured in the movie “Crude” were captured in the outtakes of the movie discussing how they lied about the science to the courts in order to score a big payday (bonus points for Obama appointing one of the fraudsters to the National Academy of Sciences). See the link for the video evidence.
Past fraud revelations have cast doubt on the key scientific report submitted to the court as part of the proceedings, a report that is now known to have been ghost-written by the plaintiffs. However, supporters of the judgement against Chevron have argued that the judge has always claimed that this study did not sway his decision in the case. Now we know what did sway his decision:
Today new allegations of deceit and wrongdoing were leveled against the plaintiffs’ lawyers bringing the already deeply troubled environmental suit against Chevron in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, which stems from Texaco’s oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon between 1964 and 1992. (Texaco was acquired by Chevron in 2001.)
In Manhattan federal district court this morning, Chevron filed the declaration of a former Ecuadorian judge, Alberto Guerra, who describes how he and a second former judge, Nicolás Zambrano, allegedly allowed the plaintiffs lawyers to ghostwrite their entire 188-page, $18.2 billion judgment against Chevron in exchange for a promise of $500,000 from the anticipated recovery.
I am pretty sure however that Chevron is doing some fishy stuff too. Nonetheless, I am puking in my mouth. And it all starts with a little harmless “Eco-Bench” on campus … then they put in the solar-paneled trash compactors, then they come for the bottles, then they build the LEED buildings and then they get to the good stuff like this. Harmless “social-justicey” stuff, right? Just doing our small part to save the planet.
Good one, WC. I am a Coyote fan, and know of his extensive knowledge on the general subject.
Today John Kerry ascended to the throne, his Queen being Theresa Heinz, good buddy of Danny Ortega, the present Leninist ruler of Nicaragua, and darling of those who wish for more redistribution of the scant wealth south of Houston.
How many historians have compared the relative success, not even counting Pizarro, of the failure in Latin America, to say, success in Rocky Mount, North Carolina?
Sorry to change the subject, but I just watched Rick driving Inga through the Arc d’ Triomphe, and I thought how great it would have been to have a convertible to catch beautiful women and then encounter them in Casablanca.
Quick geography question: (I did not check this before asking): where is Casablanca?
This is a direct challenge to every student at the U of R who has thought they are smarter than Professor Rizzo. No cheating,
Bonus question: Which African countries to the west of Casablanca have been in the news?
Another bonus question: who played Mister Ferrari, and give an adverb for how he unwrapped the Maltese Falcon. Did he do as lustily as Paul Krugman or Ben Bernanke might have, lustily?