Chevron

Where to begin? Chevron is one of the world’s largest oil companies and a top greenhouse gas emitter. The company is active in a wide variety of countries and has accumulated quite the global rap sheet of pollution violations and human rights abuses. In a scathing report that calls Chevron “among the most destructive oil companies in the world,” environmental anthropologist Nan Greer points out that when indigenous communities in Ecuador made moves to hold Chevron responsible for allegedly polluting the Amazon for almost three decades, “the company threatened the victims with ‘a lifetime of litigation.’” 

Recently, Chevron’s investors began pressuring the company to investigate how its policies may be perpetuating racial injustice in the U.S., noting that “Chevron operates heavily in BIPOC communities…and its facilities have a history of harmful impacts on these communities.” When this resolution came up at the annual shareholder meeting in May 2022, Chevron CEO Michael Wirth reportedly had nothing to say about it, despite the company having tweeted “Black lives matter” in 2020. The Political Economy Research Institute found that 67 percent of Chevron’s combustion-related pollutants in the U.S. are “borne by people in minority racial/ethnic groups.” 

In the 2022 election cycle, Chevron’s political action committee gave $404,000 to politicians with the worst environmental track records in Congress, many of whom have also consistently opposed and dismantled racial justice laws. On the policy front, Influence Map noted that while Chevron proclaims to support climate action and the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, it has “lobbied actively to maintain the role of gas in the future energy mix” and has relationships with several anti-environmental industry associations such as the Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and possibly even the most notoriously anti-environment policy group of them all, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—an organization even Exxon ditched years ago. 

A recent study found Chevron engages in greenwashing, using terms like "climate," "low-carbon," and "transition" in its public-facing communications while acting in ways that run “contrary to pledges and public statements.” In our opinion, if there’s any one company that most embodies the oil industry’s gaslighting, foot-dragging, systemic racism, and massive environmental harm, it’s Chevron.