July 4th / 6th, 2008
"Court Supports Exxon, Screws Alaska"
Last week, the Supreme Court once again showed its support for greedy
corporations by allowing Exxon-Mobil to skirt its responsibility to thousands of
residents of Prince William Sound who have been waiting nearly two decades for
relief from the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
The decision was just one more nail in the coffin for our environment, and
it was hammered into place by a Court that generally rubber stamps most of
George Bush’s pro-oil agenda. The next President will likely make several
appointments to the Supreme Court, and if John McCain wins the White House, we
can expect more of the same from the Judicial Branch. After all, McCain’s
solution to our current energy crisis is to let big oil companies like
Exxon-Mobil drill at will off U.S. shores. These are the same companies that once
helped to destroy the electric car industry in California, and have made
record profits on the backs of consumers who are now paying over four dollars a
gallon for gasoline. And so, the Valdez decision last week should serve as a
wake-up call for Americans to keep McCain as far away from 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue as possible come January.
Politics aside, though, it should be noted that an entire generation of
Americans was born after the historic mishap, so allow me to review what
happened and where we stand.
On March 29, 1989, Exxon’s oil tanker Valdez struck a reef and spewed 11
million gallons of crude into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. 1200 miles of
shoreline were soiled, hundreds of thousands of birds and marine life were
killed, and commercial fishing ceased to exist as a viable industry.
The Valdez skipper was faulted for being drunk on the job, but a jury also
found that Exxon was to blame for not having employed an adequate crew.
After an 83 day trial in 1994, the jury awarded $287 million in actual
damages and $5 Billion dollars in punitive damages, to be divided equally among
33,000 plaintiffs, which included 14,000 commercial fishermen
.
From that point on, Exxon’s strategy was to wait their victims out. It was
a strategy that paid off.
In 2006 the punitive award was cut in half (to $2.5 billion dollars) by an
appellate court, and last week, the Supremes reduced that to $500 million.
Today 85 tons of oil still linger in the once pristine Prince William Sound,
and none of the plaintiffs have received a dime in damages. Many of them
never will because nearly one third of Exxon’s victims have died.
Last week’s Court ruling was a great victory for Exxon-Mobil, who proved
that if you just keep stalling and appealing, and waiting for a conservative
political climate, you can get off scot free for destroying an entire ecosystem.
So to you younger readers who wonder why some of us old fogies refuse to buy
Exxon gasoline, now you know. It is our way of continuing to protest
against a corrupt corporate giant by boycotting its products. Last week’s Supreme
Court ruling has only strengthened our resolve in that regard.
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