Chevron

Reasons to avoid

1. Colorado regulators fined Chevron up to $8 million in June 2026 after finding that environmental consultants working on the company's behalf submitted thousands of falsified data points about spill sites and well closures across more than 400 locations statewide. Chevron faced the largest potential penalty among six oil and gas operators caught in the 21-month investigation.cpr.org2026-06-24
2. Chevron subsidiary Noble Energy caused a well blowout in Weld County, Colorado in April 2025 that released more than a million gallons of oil, gas, and chemicals over four days, contaminating homes, crops, and forcing the closure of an elementary school. Colorado regulators fined the company $1.53 million in March 2026, though residents and environmental groups say the settlement does not come close to covering the incident's true cost.coloradosun.com2026-03-19
3. The Department of Justice found that Chevron invalidly generated more than 2.2 million renewable fuel credits between January and August 2022 by double counting biofuel that had already been used to generate credits, then sold the fraudulent credits to third parties. Chevron agreed in March 2026 to pay a $1 million civil penalty and retire $3.6 million worth of valid credits to correct the violation.justice.gov2026-03-11
4. In December 2025, an international arbitration tribunal ordered Ecuador to pay Chevron $220 million in legal costs, effectively shifting financial liability from the oil company to the government of the country whose citizens its operations had harmed, while the 30,000 pollution victims remain uncompensated.insideclimatenews.org2025-12-10
5. Chevron's CEO received $26.5 million in total compensation in 2023, a 12% increase from the prior year, while the company's 45,000+ workers saw median pay rise just 8.7% to $175,673.reuters.com2024-04-10
6. Chevron agreed in 2024 to pay $7.5 million to California's Department of Fish and Wildlife for more than 70 oil spills in Kern County between 2018 and 2023 that killed or injured at least 63 animals and damaged wildlife habitat. It was the largest administrative fine in the department's history.sec.gov2024-03-21
7. Chevron (which acquired Texaco in 2001) inherited liability for Texaco's oil drilling operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where toxic waste contaminated land and water used by 30,000 indigenous people and farmers. An Ecuadorian court ordered $9.5 billion in damages in 2011, but none of the affected communities have received a penny.insideclimatenews.org2022-12-18
8. A 2022 House Oversight Committee investigation obtained internal Chevron documents showing the company's board-level strategy was to "continue to invest" in fossil fuels and capitalize on competitors retreating from oil and gas, even as it publicly declared support for Paris Agreement climate goals.cnn.com2022-12-09
9. A 2012 fire at Chevron's Richmond, California refinery sent 15,000 residents to seek medical attention. A 2018 EPA and DOJ settlement exceeding $160 million — the largest in the history of the Clean Air Act's risk management enforcement — covered accidents at multiple Chevron refineries that killed one worker and endangered 19 others.justice.gov2018-10-25