Please consider revoking permits for Chevron to import crude oil via their marine terminal off the coast of El Segundo - Los Angeles, California, due to their failing to take legal responsibility for their crimes committed in the Ecuadorean Amazon.

While drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1964 to 1990, Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – deliberately dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater, spilled roughly 17 million gallons of crude oil, and left hazardous waste in hundreds of open pits dug out of the forest floor. To save money – about $3 per barrel – the company chose to use environmental practices on the territories of various Indigenous Peoples that were obsolete, did not meet industry standards, and were illegal in Ecuador and the United States.

The aftermath of the oil extraction has rendered Ecuadorians living in the region cancer-ridden, prone to miscarriages, and immune deficient. Further it has polluted waterways, destroyed precious plant life, and killed native animals.

Today, Chevron is a corporate criminal on the run. It has been found liable by Ecuadorian courts and ordered to pay $9.5 billion. The company is now running from an international legal dragnet to force the company to pay for the vast task of cleanup and remediation of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Ecuadorians have filed a lawsuit in Canada to seek seizure of Chevron's assets for this purpose.

Ecuador’s oil industry continues to pump about 500,000 barrels a day, most of it extracted from reserves in the Amazon rainforest. Chevron continues to operate in Calidfornia, exporting the crude to their refineries in Richmond and El Segundo, California, to be processed and burned here in the US.

We petition the California Coastal Commission and the California Energy Commission to revoke their permits to import crude from their ocean platform off the Southern California coast until they take responsibility for the devastation it has caused in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.