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Uploaded: Tuesday, May 24, 2011, 4:22 PM
Chevron critics hold protest at shareholders meeting
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by Jessica Lipsky
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| Several activist groups and dozens of supporters rallied at Chevron's headquarters during the company's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday morning to demand environmental, economic and climate justice. Organizers said they want Chevron to take responsibility for pollution caused by their operations.
"It's important to make the point that Chevron has this pattern, they go into communities and almost every community they work in, they've polluted and devastated. Chevron is a global corporation and they are causing pollution across the globe," said Mike Gaworecki, Change Chevron campaigner for the nonprofit Rainforest Action Network.
Gaworecki said the protest, held from 7 to 11 a.m. on Bollinger Canyon Road at Sunset Drive, will draw delegations from Ecuador, Australia, Nigeria and other countries where Chevron has operations to draw attention to the environmental impacts of oil drilling, much of which is outlined in the alternative annual report The True Cost of Chevron.
"I don't think anyone can know how much (Chevron) pollutes. Because companies like Chevron don't want us to know how much oil they spill, how much pollution is flaring into the air, they don't keep records," Gaworecki said.
Much of the protest centers on pollution such as that in Ecuador, where Rainforest Action Network said Texaco (now owned by Chevron) let 18.5 billion gallons of toxic waste seep into the water supply by not properly lining drill sites. Three Ecuadorian delegates will attend the stockholders meeting to voice their concerns.
But Chevron denies such accusations and pointed to its recently released Corporate Responsibility Report and Annual Report for proof of their positive aid to communities they work in.
"We're proud of the contributions we make to the communities where we operated…we make significant social investments in all those places," said Spokesman Morgan Crinklaw. "(The True Cost of Chevron) report is long on accusation and short on facts."
Crinklaw said Chevron also had representatives at the protest.
Although Wednesday's actions were critical of Chevron, Gaworecki said demonstrators are not protesting Chevron employees.
"I met a petroleum engineer who said that the average employee was on our side, but didn't know much about the situation," he said. "We're just there mainly to protest the management and board's handling of these situations. I think it's really important for (board members) to have to pass through a rally and see that there's this massive movement to have Chevron take responsibility."
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Posted by Westerner, a resident of San Ramon, on May 25, 2011 at 11:42 am I wonder how these protesters will get to the Chevron meeting. Will they arrive in their gasoline burning vehicles? Or will all of them ride their bikes? I suspect that most of them will use their gasoline burning vehicles.
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Posted by El Fluffo, a resident of Alamo, on May 25, 2011 at 12:31 pm Metinks these folks have a little too much free time on their hands. But I guess everyone needs a hobby...
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Posted by Noah, a resident of another community, on May 25, 2011 at 2:20 pm Westerner I think your missing the point.
Chevron, BP, Exxon, et al, deny us the ability to move beyond petrochemicals and fossil based energy. The billions of dollars they have spent in finding, extracting, processing, and protecting (via lobbyists and private armies) oil ensures that we cannont transition to a future free of deadly fossil fuels.
That being said the first protest at San Ramon I went to I BIKED, from my families home in Pleasanton. The second time we carpooled with 30 other activists on the coldest day on record at 5:00 in the morning to block the entrance of the HQ.
We needed to put our bodies on the line in order to bring attention to the rape and murders committed directly and indirectly by Chevron's polices. While we were in lock up one of the employes of the prision told us Chevron had paided for all the police overtime, and by the abuse and vitrol we were shown, it was clearly obvious that they knew were they paycheck lies. In the hands of crooks (Chevron pays no taxes in CA for its extraction, unlike Texas and Alaska) and murderers.
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Posted by me, a resident of San Ramon, on May 26, 2011 at 9:25 am Actually, most of the protesters arrived in a biodiesel-fueled bus. They met at 6:30 am in SF to come together in it. It's intellectually lazy and rhetorically dishonest to ask a question ("I wonder how these protesters will get to the Chevron meeting. Will they arrive in their gasoline burning vehicles?") when you have no interest in finding out the answer.
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Posted by SR Resident, a resident of San Ramon, on May 31, 2011 at 8:31 pm The comments in response to the first two are absolutely comical to me. First of all, Noah, if you're going to tell someone they're missing the point, use proper grammar and learn how to spell so people take you seriously! In what language is "paided" a word?? It is "abuse and vitriol" - not vitrol. Your first line should be, "Westerner, I think you're missing the point." If you are going to write sensationalist drivel, at least spell it correctly and use proper grammar so that SOMEONE may think you have the first clue what you are talking about. You are making the argument of your detractors for them.
And then "intellectually lazy and rhetorically dishonest?" Please!! Did you look that up in the dictionary "me," because a rhetorical question by nature does not expect a reply, but is stated for the purpose of making a point. How is that rhetorically lazy?? You all should recruit some colleagues with some real intellect before you post this senseless waste of server space next time - oh - but they'll all have jobs and be working all day.
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Posted by stu.stu.stupid, a resident of San Ramon, on May 31, 2011 at 8:46 pm Noah - you are a melodramatic pillock with a victim complex. Trying to suggest you're putting "your body on the line" with your petty little protest detracts from any valid points you could have made, or the people in other countries who have actually suffered from their desperate government attempts to extort money.
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Posted by Ms. Bunny, a resident of San Ramon, on Jun 1, 2011 at 11:34 am Many people seem unaware of all the positive contributions Chevron has made in the past decade, in particular. They'd rather focus on the negative and blame no other oil company than them. Pity. They fail to see the BIG picture, or simply don't want to. Chevron has been STELLAR in seeking alternative energies AND cleaning up the enviornmental areas in question AND preventing further damage, for the last decade that I'm acutely aware of...I can't speak to Texaco and others...
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