Certainly not Andy Caldwell, the so-called whose recent outburst proves he is simply a shill for Big Oil. His opinion piece (Voices, Sept. 12) makes clear that he couldn’t care less about the wildlife destroyed in the Plains All-American Pipeline spill at Refugio Beach, much less the more than 500 oil workers who lost their jobs when the oil platforms had to shut down due to Plains’ corroded pipeline.
Mr. Caldwell forgets the businesses that were terribly harmed, including fishermen and fish processors and even Big Oil itself (Exxon and Freeport McMoran stopped producing oil, and Venoco went out of business). Instead of praising the prosecutors, led by District Attorney Joyce Dudley’s courageous effort to take on Big Oil and their teams of white-collar criminal defense lawyers billing millions of dollars to defeat those few valiant prosecutors, Mr. Caldwell touts the Plains PR spin that it was a hollow victory.
Where is the so-called COLAB director (the “L” stands for Labor) when it comes to supporting all the workers who lost their jobs? Mr. Caldwell states that Plains “took responsibility,” but that is complete fabrication. Many oil workers who lost their jobs applied to Plains to be compensated for their losses through specifically established statutory procedures, but Plains refused to pay a single penny. Our firm and our co-counsel firms represent all of them because they are struggling, and many have lost their homes and their proud middle-class way of life.
Even more shocking than the Caldwell-Plains collaboration is that, in the face of government-obtained guilty verdicts for destroying specific wildlife species, as well as a felony count for intentionally despoiling our magnificent ocean and beaches, the News-Press would even publish such an outrageous “opinion” piece.
I can’t believe Wendy McCaw, the paper’s publisher and a nationally acclaimed and properly lauded defender and protector of wildlife, would knowingly allow such a callous opinion in her paper, especially with such prominent placement. It seems that Mr. Caldwell has free rein to write what he pleases, even though many of the allegedly “factual” statements he presents are demonstrably false. I believe the publishers of the paper need to rein him in. Presenting one’s “opinion” is a right under the Constitution, but presenting falsehoods as facts under the guise of opinion is not.
The public needs to support the laws now on the books which allow our prosecutors the ability to prosecute and convict those that would despoil our ocean and kill its wildlife.
Mr. Cappello is part of a team of lawyers and law firms handling a class action in federal court representing the oil workers, fishers, fish processors, and property owners and renters along the beaches that were harmed from the Plains oil spill.
Santa Barbara News-Press Op-Ed
A. Barry Cappello
September 14, 2018
Photo credit: Ben Castellano/EPA START
