Ex-Energy Min: Texaco Knew It Was Polluting In Ecuador

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QUITO, Ecuador (AP)--Texaco knew it was damaging the environment when it launched operations in the Amazon jungle three decades ago, a former energy minister testified in a civil trial against California-based ChevronTexaco (CVX).

Retired army Gen. Rene Vargas, who headed Ecuador's Energy Ministry during a military dictatorship in the early 1970s, said Monday that state-owned Petroecuador lacked environmental engineers and relied on the U.S. company to make decisions.

Among those decisions, plaintiffs allege, Texaco chose to dump 18.5 billion gallons of oily water brought up during drilling into some 350 open pits and streams instead of reinjecting it deep underground in order to cut costs.

"Texaco knew that these methods were damaging," Vargas told reporters after testifying in the oil production town of Lago Agrio, some 175 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of Quito. "If Texaco had done the same in the United States, they would all be in prison."

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Supporters of the plaintiffs in the ChevronTexaco trial put up a banner from a building across the steet from the Superior Court of Justice Courthouse where the trial is being held in the Amazonian town of Lago Agrio, Ecuador, October 24, 2003. In this landmark trial, indigenous rainforest peoples are seeking to force ChevronTexaco to clean up the environmental contamination left behind from Texaco's oil drilling operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The sign reads 'The Amazon Free of ChevronTexaco.' REUTERS/Lou Dematteis

I'm shocked, I tell you!

That's why it moved operations elsewhere to get away from those pesky American environmental laws, such as they are.

The very idea they thought they'd just rape the Equadorian earth like this:

Texaco chose to dump 18.5 billion gallons of oily water brought up during drilling into some 350 open pits and streams.

Well, of course, if they say they're sorry, the citizens are obligated to let it slide, to absorb the damage. Why be grumpy? They must remember the great importance of American businesses! It's the least they can sacrifice.