Justices cut damages award in Exxon Valdez spill

listen to the NPR report of this, its really good

I know everyone is mad at big oil. but I clipped this directly from the article.

"Overall, Exxon has paid $3.4 billion in fines, penalties, cleanup costs, claims and other expenses resulting from the worst oil spill in U.S. history."

"Punitive damages" are awarded to spank the doer.

This was a case of "Some drunk wrecked his ship" if I remember correctly. Individual neglegence not corprate.

If you want to spank an oil company buy a hybrid.

At the end of the day, you'll be pauing for it anyway. They'll just increase gas prices again to cover it.

Born in Alaska, I've been avoiding Exxon oil for the last 19 years. The fishing industry in the Prince William sound has suffered beyond what any amount of money could cure. Over 6000 of the original plaintiffs have died (many due to suicide) and the town of Cordova has lost all hope for recovery. This is just adds a sad ending to a terrible tragedy.

Exxon paid more in legal fees to fight this then it has paid to the people they hurt during this horriable time.

Those judges just prove everyones point. Big money can buy you justice..

LOOK AT OJ

as someone depicted on NPR yesterday, for the people of Prince William Sound, this spill was devastating to their livelihoods, like someone opening your refrigerator and pouring oil all over everything - and for years to come.

Many of the plaintiffs are DEAD already, because nearly 20 years have gone by!!!
And the ones remaining are given 15,000$ a piece???

YGBFKM

Geez! They already said they were sorry! What more do you people want? Ha ha.

Holy smokes! This must be what it feels like if you next door neighbor burns down your house, totals your car and then punches your grandmother in the mouth in a drunken rage.

"Sorry dude. My bad. Here's a check for $100 bucks. That oughta cover the damages and any, uh, inconveniences. Again, real sorry about everything. Anyhoo...gotta motor. Catch ya later!"

The courts later reduced that $100 check to $24.75.

:-(

Depressing. Things just keep getting worse and worse.

how is this justifiable!?

this sucks. its really not fair for the fishermen.

Those justices have been fair minded more so than most.

And gas per gallon shouldn't be so high. If they can pay in the billions for a problem they cause (not any more...millions) they don't need the amount of money asked for at the pump as so many people are suggesting is fair.

i can't believe people want to dictate fair with people who bathed Alaska in oil. Fair. Fair would be not cheating working class out of their lively hood for the billion dollar profit margin of a greedy company.

You can only act - Do not feed those who cause these trouble. Find a Greener -oil- free transport system and care about what you eat and how long it comes from.

Disgusting, how can you justify giving a company with so much money, tax breaks, subsidies even more by slashing its damage penalties?

oh, that's right they've completely bought off our government, how can I forget? Its so blatantly obvious whenever you see stories like this.

hi

This is absolutely disgusting and it comes as no surprise a bigger deal hasn't been made of the decision.

Once again, another huge corporation gets away with helping destroy the planet.

F*ck Exxon/Mobil and their sleezeball PR men.

im not even surprised.

this is one of the worst environmental disasters ever, and Exxon pays their pocket change for it? So corrupt.

kill them all.

again?

Boo to the court system. Boo to the system that allows large businesses to get away with murder. A regime change may not take care of all the problems, may make things worse. But at some point things have to change. That is the only constant.

WTF... They're so fired.

A key passage:
Justice Samuel Alito took no part in the case because he owns Exxon stock.

Sam Alito owns Exxon stock. I'm sure that had *no* bearing on this case. Riiight.

Come on now people, think: 1% of the money saved the Exxon is still $20,000,000.00 to each justice who voted for the reduction.

We just need to look oversees / off-shore to see which bank they sent the bribe to.

It's American's paying through the nose for outrageous and unjustifiably high gas prices and now were paying even more for it by subsidizing the criminal oil barons.

Only under the Ripusoffican, that's Rip-Us-Off-ican (again).

Let's show them all our appreciation for stealing from us all and get the miserable Republicans out of office completely!

good god

I saw it too; but sandwiched between stories they gave much more attention to. It was merely reported as a fact with very little commentary on the injustice of this ruling.

This wasn't "slipped by" at all. I saw it on the news tickers this morning on CBC and CNN. Awful news, though.

as far as i'm concerned exxon should be paying the salaries of blackwater mercenaries to fight for oil .

Good point Sarbury; just slip it past while the intellectuals argue about the ethics of killing pedophiles.

Supreme Court is owned by big oil.

More proof people in this country in power do not care about the environment. The Natives there lost so much, not to mention the environmental damages which will continue there for years to come.

of course this is the same day that news of the child rape case decision breaks. Distraction?

Native Alaskans fisherman involved in the case have each received about $15,000 so far ''for having their lives and livelihood destroyed" while first-quarter profits at Exxon this year were $10.9 billion.

The company's 2007 profit was $40.6 billion.