The Environmental Adult of Texaco's Amazon Oil Fields: Environmental Justice or Business as Usual
![handle is hein.journals/hhrj7 and id is 205 raw text is: THE ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT OF TEXACO'S AMAZON OIL
FIELDS: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE OR BUSINESS AS USUAL?
Judith Kimerling*
Environmentalists now widely acknowledge that social injustice and
inequality contribute to severe environmental degradation.' At the
same time, there is a growing tendency in the international human
rights community to link environmental quality with human rights
and to recognize a number of rights violations in the human impacts
of environmental destruction.2 Recent developments in and around the
ancient rainforests of Ecuador, at the headwaters of the Amazon River,
vividly illustrate the close relationship of inequality, human rights, and
the environment.
In June 1992, after two decades of petroleum extraction under
contract with the Ecuadorian government, the U.S.-based oil company
Texaco relinquished all interests in its antiquated and poorly main-
tained production facilities. Ecuador's national oil company, Petroecuador,
continues to operate the facilities.3 Texaco's Amazonian activities, how-
* J.D., Yale Law School, 1982; B.A., University of Michigan, 1978. Legal advisor and attorney
for claims against Texaco, Federation of Comunas Union of Natives of the Ecuadorian Amazon
(FCUNAE), Indigenous Organization of the Cofan Nation of Ecuador (OINCE), and affiliated
communities. Author, AMAZON CRUDE (1991) and CRuDo AmAZ6NICO (1993). This Recent
Development was made possible by the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation, Program on Peace and International Cooperation.
1. At the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth
Summit), governments and non-governmental organizations emphasized the need to eradicate
poverty and attain greater international equity in order to protect the global environment. Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development, U.N. Conference on Environment and Development,
princ. 5, U.N. Doc. A/CONF151/5 (1992), reprinted in 31 I.LM. 874 (1992).
In the United States, private and governmental studies have shown that nonwhite minorities
and poor people suffer disproportionately from toxic contamination and a lack of vigorous
enforcement of environmental laws. See, eg., The Regulatory Thickets of Environmental Racism, N.Y
TIMaES, Dec. 19, 1993, § 4, at 5; ROBERT D. BULLARD, DUMPING IN Dsxn: RACE, CLASS AND
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (1990).
2. See, e.g., Human Rights and the Environment, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Human Rights,
Sub-Comm'n on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, 45th Sess., Provi-
sional Agenda Item 4, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4ISub.2/1993/7 (1993); Case 7615, Inter-Am. C.H.R.
24, OEA/ser. L.IV.11.66, doc. 10 rev. 1 (1985) (finding that violations of the human rights of
the Yanomami indigenous people of Brazil stemmed from resource extraction activities on their
traditional lands) (hereinafter Yanomami Case]; Bernard Ominayak, Chief of the Lubicon Lake
Band v. Canada, Comm. No. 16711984, Report of the Human Rights Comm., U.N. GAOR, Hum.
Rts. Comm., 45th Sess., Supp. No. 40, U.N. Doc. A/45/40 (1990) (finding that oil, gas, and
timber development on the Lubicon Lake Band's traditional lands violated their right to engage
in the economic and social activities of their cultural community) [hereinafter Lubicon lake Band
Case]. See generally CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS, RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE
ECUADORIAN AMAZON: THE HUMAN CONSEQUENCES OF OIL DEVELOPMENT (1994).
3. Petroecuador, formally known as La Empresa Estatal Petroleras del Ecuador, is a successor
company to the Corporaci6n Estatal Petrolera Ecuatoriana (CEPE).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hhrj7&div=10&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Environmental Adult of Texaco's Amazon Oil Fields: Environmental Justice or Business as Usual
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