Posted on 03/07/2014 11:09:07 AM PST by CedarDave
This week the environmental movement suffered its biggest defeat since Climategate. And at the hands of its most hated enemy: Big Oil.
... the court ruling by a US federal judge that Chevron should not have to pay $9.5 billion in damages to victims of oil pollution in Ecuador is a victory for common sense and justice which we should all be celebrating.
The reason this case is so important is because it very nearly didn't happen. Though environmental activists like Michael Mann, James Hansen and Al Gore often like to claim that their enemies are in the pay of Big Oil, the truth is the exact opposite.
Few corporate entities pump quite so much money into environmental causes as the Big Oil companies ... because for years they have been running scared of the green movement, because they're big enough to wear the additional costs of green regulation and because it suits them to "greenwash" their image.
What none of them seems to have learned is that when you pay Danegeld to your natural enemy it only makes him greedy for more of the same.
This is why we should all be applauding the decision by Chevron's CEO John S Watson ... to fight this case.
For too long it has been held hostage by a minority of hard left, deep green activists whose anti-capitalist agenda has been given a veneer of respectability by the intervention of high end law firms, glossy environmental consultancies, Hollywood campaigners, "caring" grassroots pressure groups, expert scientific witnesses, "independent" moviemakers and sympathetic mainstream media coverage.
It happens all the time, all around the world, and usually they get away with it. This time they didn't. The good guys fought back - and won.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
1. It's not about David v Goliath.
2. Chevron had done nothing wrong. No really.
3. The case against Chevron was rigged.
4. Read the ruling: it's great entertainment!
4. Donziger's dodgy past.
5. Green Greed
6. Green parasites.
7. The complicit media: if it's green it must be good.
8. The usual rent-a-celeb suspects weigh in...
9. Big Green sticks its oar in too.
10. Green hubris.
From the Summary at Page 14 of the 500 page opinion of the Judge:
“Upon consideration of all of the evidence, including the credibility of the witnesses – though several of the most important declined to testify – the Court finds that Donziger began his involvement in this controversy with a desire to improve conditions in the area in which his Ecuadorian clients live. To be sure, he sought also to do well for himself while doing good for others, but there was nothing wrong with that. In the end, however, he and the Ecuadorian lawyers he led corrupted the Lago Agrio case. They submitted fraudulent evidence. They coerced one judge, first to use a court-appointed, supposedly impartial, “global expert” to make an overall damages assessment and, then, to appoint to that important role a man whom Donziger hand-picked and paid to “totally play ball” with the LAPs. They then paid a Colorado consulting firm secretly to write all or most of the global expert’s report, falsely presented the report as the work of the court-appointed and supposedly impartial expert, and told half-truths or worse to U.S. courts in attempts to prevent exposure of that and other wrongdoing. Ultimately, the LAP team wrote the Lago Agrio court’s Judgment themselves and promised $500,000 to the Ecuadorian judge to rule in their favor and sign their judgment. If ever there were a case warranting equitable relief with respect to a judgment procured by fraud, this is it. ”
U.S. Court Declares Ecuador Judgment Against Chevron Corporation Fraudulent, Unenforceable
Okay, now counter-sue and pull the economic teeth from this monster. Pauperize them. Make all Gore ride a bicycle.
Danegeld (ˈdeɪnˌɡɛld) or Danegelt
n
1. (Historical Terms) the tax first levied in the late 9th century in Anglo-Saxon England to provide protection money for or to finance forces to oppose Viking invaders
[C11: from Dan Dane + geld tribute; see yield]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
Americans (along with several European nations) paid tribute to the Barbary pirates. Finally, the U.S. fought two Barbary Wars to put an end to the piracy. The U.S. Marines played a big role -- commemorated in the Marine hymn, in the line "To the shores of Tripoli".
Love that man's compositions!!!
I sincerely thank you for posting this. I've always admired Chevron compared to some of the other corporate behemoths. This couldn't have happened to a nicer team of people under a very responsible corporate roof!!!
Got it from the Global Warming Deniers/Flat Earth Society site:
Watts Up With That?
Take a visit there if you haven't already.
And another thing I'm tryin to remember who that Clinton staffer was that burgled some vital records from the national archives by hiding them in his pants. All I can remember is Sandy Burgular, but I know that ain't right. He was a high Clinton admin official, however. Can you help me?
Laz, this is what I was askin yer help with yesterday.
You can bookmark this FR article by clicking “Bookmark” between the bottom of the article and the start of my comments.
You can retrieve FR bookmarks by going to your homepage and clicking “Links”
At your homepage, you can edit it to put non-FR links up there also. I just added the Breitbart article as an example.
If you click on my home page, you can see both article links up there.
Ah, bless your heart! Thank you. I just couldn’t recall the routine!!!
You’re welcome. And I need to do some editing when I have time — I have links up there a dozen years old!
Totally missed your request. Sorry.
You will recall that taking RICO action against enviro-racketeering was recommended in Natural Process, published in 2001.
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