Oil Watchdog

Santa Monica, CA — The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights
and its OilWatchdog.org project today called on Chevron CEO David
O’Reilly to "immediately sever Chevron’s ties to Myanmar’s brutal
government and personally speak out against its violent suppression of
peaceful protest."

In a letter to O’Reilly, OilWatchdog co-founder Judy Dugan
said, "Your ad campaign, which a Chevron official said would cost ‘in
the high tens of millions’ of dollars, portrays a company that deeply
cares about the world and its future. Given your investment in Myanmar
alone, that is a gauzy, gorgeous lie."

Chevron has a stake in natural gas fields in Myanmar through
its 2005 purchase of Unocal. Unocal’s 28% ownership of natural gas
fields with the French oil company Total was, along with other existing
investments, excluded from an embargo by the United States and European
nations.

"It is surprising that the 2005 change of ownership did not
trigger demands for disinvestment by the embargo partners," said Dugan.
"Chevron should divest now as a moral imperative."

Click here to tell Chevron to walk its talk.

Here is the text of the letter (also viewable as a pdf here).
—————

October 1, 2007

Dear Mr. O’Reilly,

"Chevron’s lavish new image-advertising campaign makes your
65,000 employees look like the Peace Corps, sowing harmony and good
feeling across the world. Yet as you well know, the smiling families,
poets and sports coaches shown in your 2.5-minute debut television ad,
"Human Energy," don’t make corporate policy.

"Chevron’s continued lucrative investment in the natural gas
fields of Myanmar fuels a despotic regime that has focused its "human
energy" on violently suppressing its citizens — including the murder
of Buddhist monks and the apparent point-blank killing of a Japanese
news photographer.

"You could have divested the Myanmar fields when Chevron
bought their operator, Unocal, in 2005. Chevron said last year that it
was considering such action, but failed to take it.

"You and your corporation have been silent as Myanmar troops
fired on democracy proponents, beat them and incarcerated them. You
have been silent about the continued imprisonment and intimidation of
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose overwhelming 1990 election to lead the nation
was overturned by force.

"Your ad campaign, which a Chevron official said would cost
‘in the high tens of millions’ of dollars, portrays a company that
deeply cares about the world and its future. Given your investment in
Myanmar alone, that is a gauzy, gorgeous lie.

"We urge you to immediately sever Chevron’s ties to Myanmar’s
brutal government and personally speak out against its violent
suppression of peaceful protest."

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