Chevron: ‘We’re not paying’ $27B fine for Ecuador rain forest contamination

Chevron: ‘We’re not paying’ $27B fine for Ecuador rain forest contamination

By Stephen C. Webster

Published: July 20, 2009
[link to waronyou.com]

U.S. oil company Chevron said Monday that it expects to lose a case which charges the company’s Texaco branch with polluting Ecuador’s rain forest with oil-contaminated water for nearly two decades.

An expert appointed by Ecuador’s courts assessed the damages to the locals’ health and environment to be $27 billion: A sum which Chevron spokesman Don Campbell bluntly told The Wall Street Journal, “We’re not paying and we’re going to fight this for years if not decades into the future.”

It will be the largest award ever in an environmental lawsuit, even if it goes uncollected.

“Chevron intends to fight enforcement by claiming the trial was unfair, in part because Ecuador’s president has publicly supported the plaintiffs,” noted Business Insider’s Erin Geiger Smith.