Texaco-Chevron Oil Pollution

"Most people know that the Amazon rainforest is endangered. But the role of U.S. oil companies in its destruction has largely gone unnoticed by the outside world. Because of the remoteness of the Amazon's oil fields, much of what we witnessed on that trip had never been recorded before." —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., American environmental lawyer Oil was first discovered at Lago Agrio—in the Cofan territory of Ecuador near Colombia—in the 1960s. For decades, unregulated development of the Lago Agrio oil field by Texaco caused serious environmental in the surrounding Cofan territory, including contaminating soil and water with crude oil and toxic chemical byproducts, as well as numerous pipeline leaks and major spills. 30,000 locals including members of five Amazonian tribes began a class-action lawsuit against Texaco in 1993. A nearly 20-year long legal war ensued, going all the way to an international arbitration court in the Hague in 2018 that ruled in favor Chevron, which now owns Texaco, clearing the multinational oil company of all responsibility for the damage.