Good Morning Mr. O’Reilly, Board of Directors and fellow shareholders:
My name is Bianca Jagger, I represent Reverend Will Saunders and I am here to second this proposal.
Mr. O’Reilly, ChevronTexaco claims its strives to adhere to responsible corporate citizenship, known as the “ChevronTexaco Way”: Your Company has pledged “to conduct business in a socially responsible and ethical manner…support universal human rights… protect the environment… and respect indigenous cultures.” However, ChevronTexaco’s drilling practices in the Ecuadorian Amazon have fallen far short of these professed pledges.
ChevronTexaco in Ecuador is responsible for the worst oil related disaster in the history of Latin America, surpassing in scale the Exxon Valdez spill. While the dramatic Exxon Valdez spill occurred overnight, the environmental disaster in the Ecuadorian Amazon happened slowly, over the course of thirty-four years during which Texaco poisoned the residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon by dumping highly toxic waste and crude oil residue into the natural water system. Although Texaco left Ecuador in 1991, the contamination in the ecosystem at that time still exists and is ongoing.
None of my past experiences as a human rights advocate prepared me for the suffering I witnessed in the province of Orellana and Sucumbios. I met many residents afflicted with cancer, including leukaemia, women experiencing unusual spontaneous abortions, and children suffering from skin diseases as a consequence of direct exposure from bathing in toxic waters.
What Texaco did in Ecuador is not just an environmental catastrophe and a human tragedy, but also a major potential corporate governance issue for the company. There are serious questions that need to be answered. Has ChevronTexaco’s management adequately disclosed to shareholders the potential six billion dollars legal liability that it faces? Members of the board, has management given you sufficient information so you can independently assess the seriousness of this liability as required by Law? In the past year, the legal case brought by 30,000 affected residents, has reached the trial phase in Ecuador, with the likelihood of a favourable judgement enforceable in a U.S. Court.
Last October, an outside oil remediation expert who has worked for many large oil companies assessed the damage caused by your operations in Ecuador at approximately six billion dollars –and that does not include compensation to individuals, for health impacts and economic damage.
In 1971, Texaco made the fateful decision to discharge highly toxic wastewater by-product of oil extraction, directly into rivers, streams, lagoons, and swamps. In addition, the company carved 627 unlined toxic waste pits. Leeching from these pits contaminated the entire groundwater and ecosystem in an area three times the size of Manhattan.
Since there is no running water in the region 30 thousand people, including thousands of children, are forced to drink poisoned water from streams and rivers where Texaco discharged its toxic wastewater.
ChevronTexaco is evading its moral and ethical responsibility by claiming that the $40 million settlement reached with the Ecuadorian government absolves the company from any liability. The release received from the Ecuadorian government does not insulate the company from lawsuits brought by private citizens. Given that Texaco failed to adequately clean up the waste pits, legal scholars in Ecuador have indicated it might not even insulate the company from a future lawsuit brought by the Ecuadorian government.
ChevronTexaco claims that there is no scientific evidence linking the company’s drilling practices with the high incidence of cancer and other health problems found in communities near its oil production zones. I have brought copies of three scientific studies published in prestigious international journals, including one that was done under the auspices of the London School of Tropical Medicine that document a growing health crisis including 8 types of cancer and spontaneous abortions.
Mr. O’Reilly I urge you, to recognize the company’s moral and ethical responsibility to remediate the massive contamination Texaco left behind. We all want to be part of a profitable corporation; however, innocent human life and the environment should not be sacrificed in the name of profit. The contamination left behind in the Ecuadorian Amazon has and is unquestionably contributing to the death of innocent people, including children, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Time is of the essence.
