Exxon Valdez

In the New York Times Saturday morning, May 20th was a story about the testy National Transportation Surface Board regarding the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  It remained the environmental story of the summer of 1989. 

Sadly the outcry and anger over the accident had little impact on our habits.  Even George Bush Junior admitted that we were still addicted to oil during his reign.  While the accident led Congress to required that all tankers must be double-hulled (By 2015 by the way so they are not all yet spill proof) we are unable to change our way of life in response to environmental disasters in a distant shoreline of our country.

Exxon Valdez would remain an issue throughout the ensuing the twenty years.  In fact it was only in the 2008 Supreme Court term that the Justices made a final weak-kneed decision relaxing the punitive damages on ExxonMobil.  The original jury felt the accident, and the corporate response, deserved a fone equal to one years profit.  As oil corporation profits grew over the twenty years, the Judicial system authority to impose punitive damages on corporation lessoned.

Two counterbalances viewpoints on the impact of the Exxon Valdez spill after twenty years:

Exxon's 

Sympathetic to the Native Alaskans