Story submitted by Eric Worrall
James Delingpole writing for Breitbart London has published a fascinating story of how green groups were undone by their own hubris and misleading evidence in their effort to sue Chevron Oil for billions of dollars for pollution.
Thanks to Chevron’s CEO John S Watson’s courageous decision to stand up to naked green bullying, and the arrogant stupidity of eco-campaigner Steven Donziger, the case against Chevron collapsed.
I don’t want to spoil the punchline – read Delingpole’s excellent post for more information about how green bullies lost a multi billion dollar potential court settlement, when they tripped over their own pride.
Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7:
…my curiousity is not not sufficient to motivate me to read the entire decision.
I am not so easily bored…. : > )
Several of the firms and attorneys that got drawn into this come off looking pretty clean. Hard as it is for the public to believe, even lawyers can be innocent victims. Lying to his legal counsel may have been the dumbest thing Donziger did.
Of course the damage is still there because nobody is going to clean it up. This was NEVER about actually cleaning up the damage. It was always about winning at all costs and making as much money as possible.
tagerbaek says:
March 7, 2014 at 1:55 am
This was the moment when the rise of the green menace began to slow and our culture began to heal.
______________________
I just counted 12 chickens in my fresh carton of eggs.
It is just so hard not to take a swipe at the legal profession as it descends into the abyss. I passed along the excellent first comment about “Champarty” being illegal to a retired UK lawyer who replied as follows:
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Could not agree more!
Even worse we have now imported two more abominations from the USA. No-win-no-fee litigation for personal injuries and advertising by solicitors. These are the results compared with when I was in practice.
• Every law firm needs an advertising budget. Where does the money come from? Increased fees.
• The legal profession used to conduct itself with the utmost probity. Now it is inexorably becoming as corrupt as elsewhere in Europe and the English speaking world.
• Very many specious claims are made against motor insurance for back and whiplash injuries supposedly sustained in collisions.
• Motor insurance premiums have gone sky high
• Easy matters used to be handled by an articled clerk, difficult ones by an experienced partner. Now, if you have a good (and therefore easy) personal injury case, the best lawyers are eager to take you on. If you have a difficult case, and need a really good experienced lawyer, they will be too busy maximising their income with easy cases. You will need to take your chances with an inexperienced one.
• Legal fees continue to increase. A solicitor’s fees now are around £200 an hour plus 20% value added tax = £240 per hour or £4 per minute! The minimum wage is £6 per hour. A partner can charge £500 an hour plus VAT or more, especially in London. The mean average income in the UK is £25,000 per annum before income tax and National Insurance contributions of together say 40%. So you need to be very rich, or so poor you qualify for legal aid, to be able to afford to go to law. A friend of mine is suing to recover a debt of £16,000. The costs estimate is £55,000!
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With the advocacy firms (to be differentiated from firms of advocates) now losing their shirts and wigs on anti-oil-company excursions, insurances and fees will have to go up again. We continue to have the best justice system money can buy.
@goldminor
>The removal of Noriega was no loss for anyone. I don’t recall what happened in Ecuador. I,ll look it up.
John Perkins does not refer to Noreiga, which is a really interesting story too involving some of the the same chaps, but to Torrijos who effectively ran the country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamanian_presidential_election,_1978. Perkins’ job was to get Panama deeply into debt as he had been doing with Ecuador with the threat that if Torrijos didn’t sign, he would be removed. Torrijos agreed to approve deals on condition that with each one, something had to actually benefit the poor of Panama. Perkins agreed and they made a number of deals. He was in any case blown up in 1981. But don’t rely on my inadequate memory of it, read Perkins’ account as “he was in the room”.
TRM says:
March 7, 2014 at 8:38 am
Environmental damage was cleaned up, per a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) reached by Texaco, PetroEcuador, and the Ecuadoran government in 1994. From my comment on the original WUWT posting (link provided upthread):
You are correct; this [the Donziger suit] was never about cleaning up any real environmental damage (and evidence of alleged damage was tainted by Donziger’s use of biased “experts”). I have no idea what environmental damage might exist there to this day, but anything done after 1992 would be the sole responsbility of PetroEcuador, as would anything that was supposed to be done and paid for by PetroEcuador under the 1994 and 1995 agreements, but was not.
“It is just so hard not to take a swipe at the legal profession … .”
Yes, completely understandable.
However, remember, Chevron, did not win this because it sent its accounting department into the courtroom… . The rotten eggs smell so bad (or squawk so loudly) that it is difficult to remember that most of the eggs (eagles) are still good.
*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*
Re: evil only losing when it is uncharacteristically stupid —
Au contraire, Evil ALWAYS loses in the end because its hubris ALWAYS takes it a bridge too far. Greed, pride, arrogance, power-madness, etc., have, thank the Lord, built in self-destruction: blindness and folly take them over the cliff EVERY time.
(Further, while many of you do not believe this, I say it to remind those who do: God is fighting on the side of Good. God is far stronger than Evil.)
In the end, TRUTH WINS. Every time. Pull that history book from off the shelf and check it out!
#(:))
Courage, mes amis!
Texan99 says:
March 7, 2014 at 6:54 am
“The Ecuadorian plaintiffs are going right ahead with collection in some South American countries where Chevron still has assets.”
Who’s leading those collection efforts? If it’s Donziger & Co, I suspect he’ll just end up being shaken down for more “facilitating fees”. Similar to a Nigerian bank scam.
The whole philosophy of bogus law suits such as this and those of the ‘Distinguished Professor’ have their origins in the actions of Sue, Grabbit & Runne, senior counsel to the British Establishment.
Apparently, some of the fallout has already occurred. From a May 2013 Denver Post article regarding the consulting firm in question:
@ur momisugly Peter Miller — LOL. Yes, and no doubt, Lye, Cheatham, & Howe were skulking about, too.
#(:))
Crispin in Waterloo says:>>>>>
I think Perkins is basically correct in “Hitman”, although I don’t buy the part about his female “trainer”. Getting too far in debt does eventually put you at the mercy of the lender, and the IMF, if I remember correctly, did convince Ecuador to borrow money to build a hydroelectric dam, and an American contractor got the job.
Texan99 says:
March 7, 2014 at 6:54 am
“The Ecuadorian plaintiffs are going right ahead with collection in some South American countries where Chevron still has assets.”
Who’s leading those collection efforts? If it’s Donziger & Co, I suspect he’ll just end up being shaken down for more “facilitating fees”. Similar to a Nigerian bank victim.
I heard about this on NPR on the way to work. Needless to say, the story they told is vastly different.
Good on Chevron, now if they would only cut off contributions to the slimey side…The oil companies of course came to embrace the green as a protection racket against the nuisance of protesters and bad press. They probably had meetings where the green said we have to lambaste you guys from time to time for optical reasons but we will show some restraint given your support.
Add to this, once the greens got a critical mass of renewables into the works, hey, why not have big oil take a large piece of the action. They are going to be penalized by taxes and regulations on the one hand and susidized and given immunity from regulations even protecting endangered species. It was a business decision – honest and above board. They weren’t responsible for a sucker being born every minute.
” Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7 says: March 7, 2014 at 9:18 am
I have no idea what environmental damage might exist there to this day, but anything done after 1992 would be the sole responsbility of PetroEcuador, as would anything that was supposed to be done and paid for by PetroEcuador under the 1994 and 1995 agreements, but was not.”
Apparently there are still huge areas affected. As usual corruption in third world countries takes the money and leaves a mess. Yes everything post 92 is all on PetroEcuador but if they can take the money and then claim it wasn’t their mess but the previous lease holders they can sue again and again.
Fortunately their malfeasance caught up to them this time. Now if only we could get that judge on some of Dr Mann’s lawsuits!!!
Will the Ecuadorian prosecution service or equivalent be seeking the extradition of those involved ?
This is incredible, it would make a really good film, documentary, etc.
That’s exactly what they’re doing. Listening to the NPR report, they did accurately report that Chevron’s win was because of widespread fraud on the part of plaintiffs. But it was hard to tell that because the beginning, middle, and end of every sentence was “..but there really was and is pollution there – no one is denying that….”
Crispin in Waterloo says:
March 7, 2014 at 9:14 am
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Gen. Omar Torrijos died in the crash of a Panamanian Air Force DHC6 during a severe storm. Allegations of conspiracy remain just that, allegations.of conspiracy.
It’s all on You Tube
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Donziger+crude&FORM=HDRSC3#
Search “Donziger crude”
“It’s illegal to conspire to break the law”
Janice Moore says:
And so was my friend’s favorite firm: Dewey, Cheatham and Howe.
I grew up in what was once the world’s third largest producing oil field. I’ve seen oil spills. They are a temporary blight and nature cleans them up. After a few years, no trace remains.
I have no idea of the extent of any of Texaco- caused oil field damages in Ecuador, only that after all this time, nature will have erased most/all spills under a scorching jungle sun.
On a completely different scale, traces of the 11 million gallon Exxon Valdez spill remain in Prince William Sound and along the Alaska coast after 20+ years, under much colder conditions. From the NOAA website: “A casual observer would not likely see signs of the oil spill today in Prince William Sound… However, there is still residual oil to be found. The remaining oil generally lies below the surface of the beaches in those places that are very sheltered from the actions of wind and wave (which help to break down and remove stranded oil), and those beaches where oil initially penetrated very deeply and was not removed.”