Balancing Profit and Environmental Sustainability in Ecuador: Lessons Learned from the Chevron Case
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: elements that form an ecosystem."3 It clearly reflects the deep commitment by Ecuador that the country has elevated this issue to a constitutional level.Since the enactment of the Constitution, the National Assembly adopted the Law Amending the Law on Mining, Water Management Act, Environmental Law and Development.4 But we did not arrive at this conclusion easily; the path to get to where we are today was long, litigious, and costly on many levels.For decades, transnational corporations took advantage of our country's institutional weakness as related to the public sector and of lax international standards for business compliance with human rights protections and regulations.Irresponsible extraction of natural resources, inadequate methods of remediation, and lack of financial compensation for victims of corporate irresponsibility harmed not only human life but also the environment.5 Arguably the most egregious example is that of Texaco-Chevron's almost 25-year operation in Ecuador.During its operations in Ecuador, Texaco-Chevron knew they were using technologies that were sub-par compared to the more advanced environmentally friendly technologies used in the United States.6 The American Petroleum Institute issued minimum standards for oil exploitation 7 before Texaco-Chevron commenced its operations in Ecuador, the oil company chose to ignore those guidelines in order to make greater profits.Beginning in the 1960's, a consortium of oil companies led by Texaco (which agreed to merge with Chevron in 2001 to become ChevronTexaco Corp. then later Chevron Corp. 8 ) extracted oil and dumped toxic waste in our Amazon rainforest using methods and technology that were obsolete and non-environmentally friendly, contrary to the technologies used by Chevron in other parts of the 3.
Author: Nathalie Cely
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W573290865