CorpWatch Exclusives
 | BP Goes on Trial for Deepwater Horizon Explosion by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog March 2nd, 2013 BP, the UK oil company, went on trial this week for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The company could be fined up to $30 billion over the $25 billion it has promised if the court finds that it was "grossly negligent.” |
 | Tar Sands Activist Interrupts Texas Oil & Gas Conference by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog January 31st, 2013 A climate change activist locked himself to a projector screen at an oil and gas conference in Texas today interrupting a TransCanada executive who was making a presentation on a pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Instead 300 astonished attendees heard an impassioned presentation about TransCanada’s poor safety record. |
 | Chevron Sues Its Own Shareholders In Ecuador Compensation Battle by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog January 24th, 2013 U.S. oil giant Chevron’s latest move in an epic legal battle waged against indigenous Ecuadorian villagers involves serving legal papers on journalists, a New York state government official, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, a host of environmental groups, and even its own shareholders. |
 | Frackademia: How the Fracking Industry Tries To Bully Or Buy Scientists by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog January 18th, 2013 Range Resources, a Texas company, bullied the federal government into dropping a scientific report on environmental contamination caused by fracking, a new investigation has just revealed. This comes on the heels of two major pro-fracking academic reports that had to be withdrawn in 2012. |
 | Deadly Conflict Over Honduran Palm Oil Plantations Spotlights CEO by Jennifer Kennedy, CorpWatch Blog December 31st, 2012 Miguel Facussé, the owner of Dinant Corporation in the Honduras, has come under scrutiny for the human rights abuses against farmers in the Bajo Aguán valley, where his company is cashing in on a boom in palm oil demand, fueled by loans from major donors like the World Bank. |
 | Indigenous Protestors Against Guatemala Energy Company Targeted by Jennifer Kennedy, CorpWatch Blog November 10th, 2012 Six demonstrators were killed and dozens injured when the Guatemalan military fired into a group of indigenous Maya-K'iche' gathered on the Inter-American highway to protest rising electricity charges from Energuate, a major national power company owned by a private equity firm created by the UK government. |
 | Renewable Energy Projects Generate Opposition in Puerto Rico by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, CorpWatch Blog April 8th, 2012 Puerto Rican citizen groups are protesting two renewable energy projects: a 30 megawatt solar energy project in Yabucoa by Western Wind Energy corporation from Vancouver and a 75 megawatt windmill array in Santa Isabel by Pattern Energy of San Francisco. The reason: these projects will threaten scarce farm land on the food dependent island. |
 | Emerald Energy Exploits Colombian Andes by Elias Cabrera, Special to CorpWatch March 18th, 2012 Emerald Energy, a UK company owned by Sinochem of China, is exploring for oil in the eastern Colombian Andes in the high altitude tropical mountain tundra ecosystem known as páramo. Local communities say that the company's underground explosions have caused landslides and ground collapses that have destroyed homes, crops and contaminated the local water supply. |
 | The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report by Antonia Juhasz, True Cost of Chevron May 25th, 2010 Chevron's 2009 Annual Report celebrates 130 years of Chevron operations. We, the communities and our allies who bear the consequences of Chevron's offshore drilling rigs, oil and natural gas production, coal fields, refineries, depots, pipelines, exploration, chemical plants, political control, consumer abuse, false promises, and much more, have a very different account to offer. |
 | ADM's New Frontiers: Palm Oil Deforestation and Child Labor
by Charlie Cray, Special to CorpWatch May 18th, 2010 ADM has moved beyond the days of blatant price-fixing that landed its top execs behind bars. But the company's forays into new global agricultural markets bring charges of complicity in forced child labor and rampant deforestation. Critics assert that the conglomerate's embrace of self- regulation and voluntary guidelines is but a cynical ploy to deter effective reform. |
 | BP: Beyond Petroleum or Beyond Preposterous? (2000) by Kenny Bruno May 12th, 2010 In 2000 British Petroleum launched an expensive ad campaign, re-branding its corporate image into the eco-friendly "BP: Beyond Petroleum.” We said it then. When a company spends more on advertising its environmental friendliness than on environmental actions, that's greenwash. Three long weeks into the BP oil disaster roiling the Gulf of Mexico, CorpWatch's December 2000 skewering of its new image sadly, bears repeating. |
 | The Enbridge Oil Sands Gamble by Andrew Nikiforuk, Special to CorpWatch December 14th, 2009 Patrick Daniel, the CEO of Enbridge Inc, is bullish about the future of unconventional oil from Canada’s massive tar sand deposits. His company not only operates North America’s longest crude oil and liquid pipelines, but transports 12 percent of the oil that the U.S. imports daily. Canada’s bitumen, or dirty crude, lies under a forest area the size of England and is arguably the world’s last remaining giant oil field. |
 | Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands by Moushumi Basu, Special to CorpWatch October 7th, 2009 In Eastern India's Jharkand State, tensions are mounting between Indigenous tribal communities and the Uranium Corporation of India Limited, or UCIL. Heavy security at a May public hearing in Jadugoda prevented many local activists and villagers from entering. But outside the hearing, activists from the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR) argued their case for protecting their health and the environment from horrific impacts of radioactive contaminated waste resulting from uranium mining. |
 | Damming Magdalena: Emgesa Threatens Colombian Communities by Jonathan Luna, Special to CorpWatch July 21st, 2009 Near the town of La Jagua, overlooking the Magdalena River, the landscape is dotted with concrete markers declaring the land, river, and everything else a “public utility” that Colombia has given to the energy company Emgesa as part of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project. A construction permit was granted in May, with the dam scheduled for full operation by 2014. |
 | The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report by Antonia Juhasz, http://www.TrueCostofChevron.com/ May 26th, 2009 Chevron's 2008 annual report is a glossy celebration of the company's most profitable year in its history. What Chevron's annual report does not tell its shareholders is the true cost paid for those financial returns, or the global movement gaining voice and strength against the company's abuses. This jointly-produced report documents negative impacts of Chevron's operations around the globe, in stark contrast to the message sent by the company's ubiquitous "Human Energy" advertising campaign. |
 | Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom by Barbara Briggs, Special to CorpWatch September 16th, 2008 Globally, Toyota is known for its innovation and quality of products like the Prius hybrid. A closer look at operations in Japan, the Philippines, Myanmar and the U.S. reveals a story of extreme working conditions, union-busting and other corporate abuses. In Japan and elsewhere, workers are speaking out. |
 | Ducking Responsibility: Entergy Spins Its Nukes by Shay Totten, Special to CorpWatch August 4th, 2008 Entergy Nuclear (part of the broader Entergy energy family) is spinning off its northeastern U.S.-based nuclear power plants into a related limited liability corporation, Enexus. Stakeholders in Vermont, home of the Yankee Nuclear power plant, are less than happy, with Entergy also reneging on prior commitments to cover eventual plant decommissioning costs, potentially stranding taxpayers with much of the bill. |
 | Crossing the Wayúu: Pipeline Divides Indigenous Lands in South America by Jonathan Luna , Special to CorpWatch June 5th, 2008 Touted as the first step in a major regional integration project, the 225-kilometer TransCaribe pipeline travels underground across Colombia's Guajira Peninsula to the gas refineries of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Protesting the mega project's impacts on the peninsula's indigenous communities, the Wayúu community of Mashiis-Manaa is leading the struggle against oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela. |
 | Ecuador's Yasuni Park: Oil Exploration or Nature Protection? by Agneta Enström, Special to CorpWatch March 20th, 2008 Permission for Petrobras of Brazil to drill for oil in Yasuni National Park, one of the most biologically diverse places in the world, has been suspended, but some damage has already been done by Swedish construction giant Skanska. Unless new money is found to protect the forest, exploration may resume. |
 | An Uncomfortable Spotlight in Davos by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch January 31st, 2008 The CEOs of three-quarters of the world's 100 largest companies have just completed an uncomfortable weekend at the tiny Swiss ski resort of Davos, while their companies' share prices nosedived on global stock markets, amid concern that the U.S. economy is staggering towards recession. |
 | Climate Change Debate Fuels Greenwash Boom by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch December 11th, 2007 On the Indonesian island of Bali, thousands of senior government officials are negotiating a plan to slow global warming. The coal, gas and oil companies that are major producers of greenhouse gases are finally taking notice of these high-level political discussions, and many have mounted spirited public relations exercises to defend themselves. |
 | Speaking Diné to Dirty Power: Navajo Challenge New Coal-Fired Plant by Jeff Conant, Special to CorpWatch April 3rd, 2007 A small, but growing, group of Diné indigenous peoples in New Mexico are protesting against a planned new huge coal-fired power plant. This is one of 150 similar plants scheduled to supply an anticipated boom in energy demand in the U.S. |
 | Mystery of the Missing Meters:
Accounting for Iraq's Oil Revenue by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch March 22nd, 2007 How much crude oil is Iraq actually exporting? Nobody really knows how much is potentially being stolen by corrupt officials because the contractors in charge of fixing the meters have yet to calibrate them, four years after the invasion. |
 | Green Fuel's Dirty Secret by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch June 1st, 2006 Ethanol made from corn has been touted as the "green fuel" of the future. Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. producer of ethanol, stands to make a fortune from environmentally conscious car drivers. But is ethanol really as environmentally clean as it is hyped to be? Listen to an interview with Sasha Lilley on CorpWatch Radio. |
 | Entergy Holds New Orleans for Ransom by Rita J. King, Special to Corp Watch May 10th, 2006 Entergy, one of the largest utilities in the U.S., has enjoyed healthy profits since Hurricane Katrina. Yet its New Orleans subsidiary has filed for bankruptcy, and frightened ratepayers with visions of bills bloated to 140% of their pre-storm size. Now the Fortune 500 company is threatening to pull the plug on New Orleans if it doesn't get a $700 million-plus federal bailout it doesn't actually need. |
 | Coca Farmer Wins Bolivian Election: New President to Challenge Multinationals by Anton Foek, Special to CorpWatch December 28th, 2005 Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian who grew up in childhood poverty, has won the Bolivian presidential elections. He is part of a wave of leftists taking power in Latin America and challenging multinational corporations. |
 | Hurricane Katrina and Climate Justice by Joshua Karliner, Special to CorpWatch September 12th, 2005 For nearly five years George Bush has infuriated much of the world by refusing to take action on global warming. Instead, he has called for more study. In a way, he got what he wanted with Hurricane Katrina. |
 | Mixing Occuption and Oil in Western Sahara
by Jacob Mundy, Special to CorpWatch July 21st, 2005 Oklahoma-based Kerr-McGee's contract with Morocco to explore for oil and gain in the contested territory on the Atlantic coast of northern Africa is complicating a 30 year independence struggle. |
 | Oil Fuels Suriname-Guyana Border Clash by Anton Foek, Special to CorpWatch July 5th, 2005 Canadian, Spanish and Danish companies are fueling a border clash in the remote coastal waters off the northern edge of South America in an effort to profit out of recently discovered coastal oil reserves. NEW!Hallliburton Wins New $4.9Billion Iraq Contract |
 | The Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline: BP’s Time Bomb by Hannah Ellis, Special to CorpWatch June 2nd, 2005 With their newly opened pipeline, British Petroleum (BP) is cutting a path of environmental and social irresponsibility from the Caspian to the Mediterranean. |
 | Carbon: Under Kyoto, a Hot Commodity by Daphne Wysham, Special to CorpWatch February 18th, 2005 Are World Bank-funded efforts to compensate for corporate emissions sustainable? Or will they affect poor communities disproportionately? |
| Give War a Chance: the Life and Times of Tim Spicer
by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch June 9th, 2004 Strange or villianous, Tim Spicer's business partners over the years, have found themselves in hot water from Canada to Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe, although he has always somehow managed to avoid prosecution. |
| From Embassy Hero to Racing Disgrace by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch June 9th, 2004 In order to restore the reputation of the venerable British institution, in March 2002, Phipps launched dawn raids on five National Hunt trainers--including nine-time champion Martin Pipe--to investigate whether the trainers were illegally plying the horses with the blood-boosting drug erythropoieitin. |
| Ex-SAS Men Cash in on Iraq Bonanza by Pratap Chatterjee June 9th, 2004 Many of the best-paid private security contracts in Iraq are managed by a small group of British ex-soldiers who served in the Special Air Services (SAS), an elite regiment of commandos that is considered one of the best special force units in the world. |
 | Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch June 9th, 2004 A new Iraq contract to create the world's largest private army goes to a company run by Tim Spicer, a former officer with an elite regiment of British commandos who has a questionable track record. |
 | The Smell of Money: British Columbia's Gas Rush by Shefa Siegel, Special to CorpWatch March 13th, 2004 In Canada's British Columbia, ExxonMobil, Talisman, Shell, and other energy giants are racing to tap the region's "sour gas". But the potential toxicity of the gas is being ignored. |
| The Troubled Marriage of Environmentalists and Oil Companies by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, Special to CorpWatch December 22nd, 2003 The American environmental group Conservation International (CI) and other environmental organizations are actively collaborating with oil corporations in hopes of ameliorating the impact of their activities on local ecosystems. But observers fear that the cozy relationship that these groups have with the US government and oil companies raises serious questions regarding their independence and warn that it can undermine the grassroots work of popular movements and native peoples that aim to stop new oil drilling altogether. They also hold that it raises some serious issues regarding national sovereignty in the Global South. |
 | Bolivian President Falls Over Gas Sale to California by Jim Shultz, Special to CorpWatch October 22nd, 2003 Bolivia has been rocked by protests against a proposed gas pipeline to be built by Pacific LNG. The consortium is made up of notorious British and Spanish multinationals, including BP and Repsol-YPF. |
 | Indigenous Struggle in Ecuador Becomes a "Cause Beyond Control" by Kenny Bruno, EarthRights International March 13th, 2003 Ecuador's government recently ruled indigenous opposition to Amazon oil development a "cause beyond control." That leaves the companies free to pull out. It could also be an excuse to step up repression. |
 | Nuclear Renaissance or Nuclear Nightmare? by Karl Grossman, Special to CorpWatch October 23rd, 2002 Thought the nuclear power industry was dead? Guess again. Industry leaders met to launch a "renaissance" with help from the White House. Check out this CorpWatch exclusive. |
 | Iraq and the Axis of Oil by Maria Elena Martinez and Joshua Karliner, CorpWatch October 23rd, 2002 In this CorpWatch Opinion, we look at the connection between the looming war in Iraq, corporate crime in America and control of the world's oil supply. |
| Women's Protests Against ChevronTexaco Spread Through the Niger Delta by Sam Olukoya, Special to CorpWatch August 7th, 2002 Women recently occupied ChevronTexaco facilities throughout the Niger Delta. Their initial demands have been met, but issues remain. |
 | A Tale of Two Coups: Venezuela and Argentina by Greg Palast, New Internationalist Magazine July 3rd, 2002 April's big business-led coup in Venezuela failed, where international finance's coup in Argentina in recent months has succeeded. Greg Palast gives us the inside track on two very different power-grabs. |
 | Afghan Pipe Dreams by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch June 28th, 2002 Is the US War on Terrorism in Afghanistan really a war for a natural gas pipeline? Fossil fuel corporations and the World Bank are expressing cautious interest. Activists are concerned. |
 | Sempra: Exporting Pollution by J.P. Ross, Greenpeace, Special to CorpWatch May 27th, 2002 San Diego-based Sempra Energy is dodging US environmental laws by building power plants in Mexico -- and shipping the electricity back to California. |
 | Report Alleges US Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal by Wayne Madsen, Special to CorpWatch May 17th, 2002 Did US officials and oil companies play a role in international arms-for-oil scandal? |
 | Enron's Pipe Scheme by Jimmy Langman, Special to CorpWatch May 9th, 2002 Enron's Cuiaba gas pipeline project, built with US government support, is an ecological and social disaster. Jimmy Langman reports from Bolivia. |
 | Williams Companies: Enron II by Wayne Madsen, Special to CorpWatch February 14th, 2002 Top executives say Williams Companies faces huge losses due to deals with Enron. But a lawsuit says they were covering up the company's own Enron-like activities. |
 | Enron: Pulling the Plug on the Global Power Broker by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch December 13th, 2001 How could one of the most wealthy and powerful corporations in the world go bust overnight? It turns out that the 7th largest US business was mostly smoke and mirrors. |
 | Environmental Justice from the Niger Delta to the World Conference Against Racism by Sam Olukoya, Special to CorpWatch August 30th, 2001 As the World Conference on Racism opens, EJ activists pledge to highlight environmental racism. Sam Olukoya looks at the connection between oil disasters in the Niger Delta and racism. |
| Halliburton's Destructive Engagement by Kenny Bruno, Special to CorpWatch October 11th, 2000 Since Dick Cheney became a candidate for Vice President, many journalists have focused on his mixed financial record as CEO of Halliburton, and his enormous retirement package. Few have investigated Dick Cheney's role in influencing foreign policy for the benefit of the company. |
| Al Gore: The Other Oil Candidate by Bill Mesler, Special to CorpWatch August 29th, 2000 For thousands of years, the Kitanemuk Indians made their home in the Elk Hills of central California. Come February 2001, the last of the 100 burial grounds, holy places and other archaeological sites of the Kitanemuks will be obliterated by the oil drilling of Occidental Petroleum Company. |
| Cheney's Oil Investments and the Future of Mexico's Democracy by Martin Espinoza, Special to CorpWatch August 8th, 2000 MEXICO CITY -- The GOP's vice-presidential hopeful Dick Cheney once claimed that it was a damned shame the ''good lord'' didn't put the earth's most abundant oil reserves in democratic countries. |
| Enron in India: The Dabhol Disaster by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch July 20th, 2000 Just before dawn on June 3, 1997, police officers forcibly entered the homes of several women in Veldur, a fishing village in western India, dragging them into waiting police vans and beating them with sticks. |
| George W. Bush Gets Layed by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch July 20th, 2000 This investigative report the uncovers close ties between the GOP candidate and Enron Corportations CEO. |
 | Greenhouse Gangsters vs. Climate Justice by Kenny Bruno, Joshua Karliner & China Brotsky, CorpWatch November 1st, 1999 This report documents how the companies not only contribute to global warming but also use their enormous power to DENY the problem, DELAY solutions, DIVIDE their opposition, DUMP their problems in the developing world, and DUPE the public into believing the problem is solved. |