ChristianHGross’s Recent Comments

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  One more thing...

  The real enemy here is Correa, and Ecuador...  

  http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/global/latin/36998464.h ...

  "The law would create a National Mining Company and increase state control over foreign corporations, which are largely Canadian. But the law would also allow mining to take place anywhere, including in protected areas and sharply limit community input."

  My question to you is why are you not talking about this as well? This is a disaster in waiting. And it is completely home brewed...
  On Chevron's history of denial, delay, and defamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon posted 10 months, 1 week ago 5 Responses

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  Please don't emotionalize this...

  Just because people are sick and dying does not equate to Chevron having to pay. People are sick and dying all the time due to one reason or another. Let's start a list shall we, cell phone radiation, hormones in animals, genetically modified foods...  The list goes on and on and on.

  Let's start with the first issue: (BTW I would like to point out that I have relatives who live in Ecuador, and I have had my father die on what we think was cell phone radiation.)

  1. What was the legal law present at the time of the deeds. Because if you are going to hold a company liable then you have to look at the laws of the time. This gets very complicated since at the time Ecuador was a mess in terms of legal and law. Ecuador is not one of the most corrupt nations on the planet for nothing.

  2. If the laws at the time did not forbid Texaco from doing what they did, then things become more complicated. What has to be proven is that at the time of action Texaco did things that they could have avoided. On this there is some legal footing since Texaco was not doing the same thing in Ecuador as they were doing in other places.

  3. Legal precedent I think in this cannot hold since you have to ask yourself what laws were in place? Ecuador? Then all Chevron would have to say is, "bugger you I am not there." America? Ah, but then comes the problems of international and the fact that Ecuador is a mess in terms of law.  International court is a joke so let's not even start there.

  4. Texaco was pushed out, and anybody who says otherwise is doing revisionist history. And the fact that they were pushed out is relevant because what Chevron can argue is that they clean up was cut short. After all they did clean up. Now you might say they did not do it good enough. Fair enough, but you have to go back to the times of the act and ask yourself what were the local conditions. All Chevron has to say is, "we were kicked out and to the best of our abilities we tried to be safe and cleaned up..."

  I am not trying to say Chevron is innocent. What I am saying is that this tack is fool hardy. The lawsuit should have attacked both Chevron and PetroEcuador. Because the real problem is that you have to go back and establish what the problems were. That is problematic because you are going to have to prove intent, intent that Texaco wanted to harm people.

  If I were Correa, I would have done the following:

  1. Let foreign companies come back in and make investments.
     
  2. Get companies to help clean up the mess. I would have taken the tack and said, "I know things back then were funny, but that was then, this is now." People are dying, getting sick and we need to move on, move forward.
     
  3. Take a smaller slice in the royalties in return for acting responsibly.

  I actually see a much bigger problem. With Correa defaulting, and scaring foreign capital, there will be more home brewed messes. On Chevron's history of denial, delay, and defamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon posted 10 months, 1 week ago 5 Responses

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  Hmmm... Is this Unbiased? I think NOT...

  I am not going to defend Texaco, or Chevron. BUT, let's be fair about this shall we?

  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&si ...

  This article talks about both sides and the fundamental problem I see is as follows:

  1. PetroEcuador took over Texaco and forced them to leave Ecuador.
     
  2. Texaco did make a mess, and because they were pushed out did not take the effort that they should have to do a better job cleaning.
     
  3. PetroEcuador kept on pumping garbage and sludge since they took over the fields in 1990 did not clean up the fields.

  The problem that I see here is that Chevron and PetroEcuador are BOTH responsible. Yet all we see is that Chevron is responsible. Heck if I were Chevron I would be doing the same thing, since they were kicked out, and here we are with the same problems 18 years later.On Chevron's history of denial, delay, and defamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon posted 10 months, 1 week ago 5 Responses

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  Is this really a problem?

  This video actually illustrates the problem. Yes there is climate change, but climate change has existed always. So there will be winners and there will be losers.

  In terms of wine, I know that the German wine growers are rejoicing because they can actually grow reds. Most of you will think, German red wine? Yes Germany grows some pretty good reds these days.

  In this case I guess California will draw the short end of the stick.On Climate change impacts on wineries: Could this be the last straw for some? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 2 Responses

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  Oops there goes Toyota

  That is going to cost Toyota...

  Let's say that you build a diesel hybrid. It will have fuel economy that will put a gas engine to shame. Diesel engines are more reliable, and fuel efficient that said gas motors. The problem with diesel is pollution, and there is a way around it.On GM will offer clean diesel passenger cars in 2010 posted 2 years, 3 months ago 22 Responses