The Exxon Valdez. The world remembers this as the poster-child for the surging environmental movement. A ship runs aground, spilling at least 10 MILLION gallons of oil. Though not the largest spill of all time, the fragile ecosystem where it happened was devestated.
The BBC reports that "A US court has almost halved the damages oil giant Exxon Mobil must pay for a 1989 oil spill off Alaska". No doubt, one of the ultra conservative activist judges appointed by King George and the neocon assholes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a good scientific report on it.
I have a couple serious questions regarding this. One, why does ExxonMobile even need the financial penalties reduced after boasting record profits for the last 6 years in this Bush economy? I believe they posted a 10 BILLION dollar net profit last quarter alone. This is a drop in the bucket for them.
Second, and probably more importantly, why has it taken 18 years for Exxon to pay out anything for this environmental disaster? Some people who were not even born when this happened can now vote! Nearly 2 decades later.
Third, why isnt the media in the USA covering this story?
