The Exxon Valdez - Poor Exxon

It's been "Nineteem goddamn years," says Greg Palast. And that's enough, says Greg Palast. And he's right.

Nineteen years ago, the Exxon Valdez "dumped its load of crude oil across the Prince William Sound, Alaska."

On that day, oil from the Exxon Valdez "devastated 3,000 square miles and severely damaged one of the world's most sensitive ecosystems." Twelve hundred miles of coastline were ruined. Fisheries and stores went bankrupt. People lost their livelihood and their homes. Thousands of marine mammals and hundreds of thousands of sea birds were killed.

How did it happen? Palast writes that "On the night the Exxon Valdez smacked into Bligh Reef, the Raycas radar system was turned off. Exxon shipping honchos decided it was too expensive to maintain it and train their navigators to use it. So, the inexperienced third mate at the wheel was driving the supertanker by eyeball, Christopher Columbus style. I kid you not ...

"On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not even supposed to leave harbor.

"If a tanker busts open, that doesn't have to mean a thousand miles of shoreline gets slimed - so long as oil-slick containment equipment is in place.

"On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not supposed [to] have left port. No tanker can unless a spill containment barge is operating nearby. That night, the barge was in dry-dock, locked under ice. Exxon kept that fact hidden, concealing the truth even after the tanker grounded. An Exxon official radioed the emergency crew, 'Barge is on its way.'"

The ship's captain, Joseph Hazelwood, had left the bridge. He was an alcoholic, and Exxon knew that he was hitting the bottle again and even drinking aboard ship.

At the time, "While cameras rolled, Exxon executives promised they'd compensate everyone." Today, Exxon lawyers are arguing before the Supreme Court that they shouldn't have to pay any of the fisherman who literally lost their lives or anyone else. It wasn't their fault!

Palast says this was Exxon's plan all along and those long-ago promises were just for show. In 1990 and 1991, Palast was working to assist the Chenega and Chugach Natives of Alaska to get Exxon to make good on their promises so that some of the remote village could be saved.

Exxon's response was "fuggedaboutit." They told Palast, "We can hold out in court until you're all dead."

And that's what they've done.

In 1994, a jury in Anchorage awarded the plaintiffs $5.3 billion in punitive damages. Exxon, which had become the Exxon Mobil Corporation, repeatedly appealed. Those appeals went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and all were rejected.

Exxon did not give up. On November 8, 2001, a federal appeals court ruled the $5.3 billion was excessive and told a judge to set a lessor amount. That was set at $2.5 billion.

Exxon appealed some more. Today the battle is being fought in the court of the U.S. Supremes. Exxon is arguing they should not be responsible for their captain's actions. They did nothing wrong, they claim.

The Supremes are leaning in favor of poor, poor Exxon, whose profits last year were a mere $40.6 billion, the largest take of any corporation ever!

Joshua Holland says that "The justices seemed sympathetic, but not to the plight of the people destroyed by what can only be regarded as a corporate crime of massive proportions."

He refers to a comment by Dana Milbanks of the WaPo, "What bothered chief justice [Roberts] was that Exxon was being ordered to pay $2.5 billion -- roughly three weeks' worth of profits -- for destroying a long swath of the Alaska coastline."

Milbanks said that "Roberts seemed the most agitated as he argued that Exxon wasn't responsible for the captain's unauthorized drunkenness. 'I don't see what more a corporation can do,' he said"

What more can a corporation do? Exxon knew Hazelwood was a drunk. They knew he was drinking on board their ships. They did nothing whatsoever about it, but rather left him in charge of a huge supertanker carrying 11 million gallons of crude oil!

What more can a corporation do? Poor Exxon!

This is where we have arrived: The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme court aweeping for the plight of a corporation that has hauled in more money in one year than any other company, ever; more money than the GNP of most every other country in the world!

Here we have the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, distraught, not at the fact that thousands of lives were destroyed, businesses and homes were rent asunder, and that one of the most beautiful coastal regions of the world was obliterated (it still stinks and reeks of oil, nineteen years later); no, the CJ was "distraught" that this poor corporation may have to pay out three weeks' worth of profits to try to make things right.

Welcome to the Corporate United States of America!