The lawsuit

Cinesimonj: I think you miss Capt's point. No one questions how awful these oil spills are, along with the obvious cover-up going on to protect powerful interests. In no way, however, does that justify local politicians looking to fatten their wallets. Likewise, in no way does their greed justify the activities of oil companies that abuse indigenous peoples and mistreat the communities and biomes where they drill, whether by neglect or intention. Both are true; they are not mutually exclusive.

Further, Capt provides links to more news stories so we can make up our own minds on this issue. You, on the other hand, rely on two-bit sarcasm. All information is valid in this case.

Your initial point proves your bias; it's a sweeping generalization. If Chevron/Texaco wasn't drilling that oil, and an Ecuadorian firm instead were doing the drilling, would you feel better? Would the people be any less exploited?
Very, very doubtful, given how native oil industries (including Venezuela's) treat their own.

I have zero love for Chevron-Texaco. Zero. But I look around my home, by the same token, and see many products that would not be here were it not for petroleum. If we are all going to practice our two minutes hate on oil corporations, then by all means, let's completely destabilize the entire Western world economies (since plastics come from petroleum, and everything that uses plastics, etc.) so we can all feel as self-righteous as you do.

Whether you work for a for-profit or nonprofit, we all depend on petroleum, period, and no alternative energy is going to change that fact until such sources can replace everything petroleum touches.