Criticism of Chevron
That same year, an Ecuadorean scientific team took water and soil samples after Texaco left and found petroleum hydrocarbons at unsafe levels in almost half.
[10][11][12][13] In 2011, Ecuadorian residents were awarded $8.6 billion, based on claims of loss of crops and farm animals as well as increased local cancer rates.
[4] In November 2013, the international arbitration tribunal issued a partial award in favor of Chevron and its subsidiary, Texaco Petroleum Company.
[22] Some media later alleged that Chevron had paid a key witness in the case hundreds of thousands of dollars for his testimony, which he later admitted to have been false.
The videos purportedly show employees and consultants finding petroleum contamination at sites in the Ecuadorean Amazon that the company claimed was cleaned up years earlier.
[25][non-primary source needed][dead link] According to the company, the videos show routine testing to establish the perimeter of oil pits.
[34] In 2002, Angola demanded $2 million in compensation for oil spills allegedly caused by Chevron, the first time it had fined a multinational corporation operating in its waters.
[35] During the investigation in 2013, two other hazardous chemical related incidents happened at separate refineries, including an explosion and a fire in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and a rupture in El Segundo, California.
[35] The Richmond refinery paid $540,000 in 1998 for illegally bypassing waste water treatments and failing to notify the public about toxic releases.
Elizabeth Dole, the US Secretary of Labor, said: "OSHA's investigation makes clear that Chevron knew of the need for protective equipment and clothing.
The reasons for the suit included "a continuation of years of neglect, lax oversight and corporate indifference to necessary safety inspection and repairs.
On July 14, 2009, the sale of Cobasys to SB LiMotive Co. Ltd., an electric vehicle battery joint venture between Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. and Robert Bosch GmbH, was announced.
[50] Sherry Boschert accused Chevron of limiting access to large NiMH batteries through its stake in Cobasys corporation and control of patent licenses to remove a competitor to gasoline.
Boschert concludes that "its possible that Cobasys (Chevron) is squelching all access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses in order to remove a competitor to gasoline.
"[55] In October 2007, International Acquisitions Services and Innovative Transportation Systems filed suit against Cobasys and its parents for failure to fill an order for large-format NiMH batteries to be used in the electric Innovan.
Chevron had stated that the military intervention was necessary to protect the lives of its workers and considers the jury's decision vindication for the accusations of wrongdoing.
[60] According to US Embassy Cable BAGHDAD 000791 the Iraqi prime minister believed that Chevron was engaged in negotiations to invest in Iran in contravention of UN sanctions.
[63] Oil spills from drilling platforms in shallow water causes high impacts on marine life, including bioaccumulation.
[63] On November 8, 2011, Chevron came under fire by Brazilian authorities for its role in the spill of crude oil off of the southeastern coast of Brazil.
[67] The National Petroleum Agency (ANP) suspended Chevron's activities in Brazil until it identified the cause of an oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
According to a Reuters news report, workers on the KS Endeavor were ignored by Chevron when they requested evacuation due to concerns of increasing smoke billowing from the drilling borehole.
In an email response to Reuters, Chevron said it did not receive requests to evacuate the rig and that staff on board had the right to call a halt to work if they believed conditions were unsafe.
[71][72] Chevron has experienced protests aimed at the company by local communities in Southern Poland when they started gas exploration in the region.
Their complaint is that Chevron did not provide all of the documents required for gas exploration in Poland, and that the company has not promised to share a percentage of the revenues with the local landholders.
[73] According to gas and oil expert Andrzej Szczesniak, one of the main reasons for the protest is the difference between Polish and American law.
Finally in 2013, YPF and Chevron signed an agreement for the Vaca Muerta oil field, the world's second-largest shale gas deposit.
[86] In October 2021 the company adopted an aspirational net zero target by 2050 and pledged to cut the overall carbon intensity of its products by 5%, by 2028 including scope 3 emissions.
A group of investors demanded from the company to cut emissions and said in response to the announcement: " Rather than a 5% reduction in Scope 3 intensity, absolute emissions need to come down by 40% by 2030 to have any chance of achieving the 2016 Paris Agreement"[89] In December 2022, U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney and U.S. House Oversight Environment Subcommittee Chair Ro Khanna sent a memorandum to all House Oversight and Reform Committee members summarizing additional findings from the Committee's investigation into the fossil fuel industry disinformation campaign to obscure the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming, and that upon reviewing internal company documents, accused Chevron along with BP, ExxonMobil, and Shell of greenwashing their Paris Agreement carbon neutrality pledges while continuing long-term investment in fossil fuel production and sales, for engaging in a campaign to promote the use of natural gas as a clean energy source and bridge fuel to renewable energy, and of intimidating journalists reporting about the companies' climate actions and of obstructing the Committee's investigation.
[93] These announcements earned Chevron intense criticism from the Biden administration, with White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan stating "For a company that claimed not too long ago that it was ‘working hard’ to increase oil production, handing out $75 billion to executives and wealthy shareholders sure is an odd way to show it."
