Remember this: $507.5 M Valdez settlement 1/5 of the $2.5 B cost of cleaning up the oil spill

[1776Forever]

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Settlement: Exxon to pay $507.5 million
by alia_d | June 15, 2009

http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/exxon-valdez-oil-spill-settlement-exxon-pay-507-5-million

On June 15 2009, Exxon Mobil Corp was ordered to pay $507.5 million in punitive damages for the Exxon Valedez Oil Spill that occurred off the coast of Alaska in 1989. The $507.5 million settlement is only "a fraction of the $5 billion in punitive damages originally awarded to fisherman, Alaska natives, business owners and other litigants by a jury" in 1994.

After the 1994 court ruling requiring a settlement of $5 billion, Exxon launched a series of appeals. At a trial in 2006, the jury agreed to cut the settlement in half to $2.5 billion. In June 2008, Justice David Souter ruled that punitive damages cannot exceed the approximately $500 million Exxon has already paid to victims of the oil spill and their families.

Interestingly, the $507.5 million settlement only amounts to about 1/5 of the $2.5 billion cost of cleaning up the oil spill, which flooded the alaska coastline with 10.8 billion gallons of oil and is known as one of the most destructive man-made environmental disasters in history.

.............

I had forgotten about this until I heard someone on Ed Schultz radio show bring it up today. The Supreme Court has to bear this injustice! What will happen to BP after all is said and done years from now? Will it go that far? You know it will!

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. I understand that the "people" are still waiting to paid the 500 million.

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. A fraction of the orginal settlement...and twenty years late. Too late for many.

[BeFree]

3. Billion gallons, or million?

Exxon got away cheap and is why they are still in business.

BP will not be so lucky.

[Statistical]

4. The author or article is mixing up facts.

PUNITIVE damages are a penalty and have nothing to do with cost to cleanup the spill. A worker could suffer $100 in actual damages and then win $100 million in punitive damages (total award $100,000,100).

Exxon outside the lawsuit paid $2 billion in cleanup costs and settled another $1 billion in claims before the case ever went to court.

In the case Exxon lost and was ordered to pay $287 in actual damages and $5 billion in punitive damages (total damages: $5,287,000). Various appeals later the punitive damage portion got cut from $5 billion to $507.5 million (a travesty of justice). Exxon took so long paying victims in a later ruling the judge added nearly half a billion in punitive interest and demanded payment within 90 days or Exxon would pay further punitive interest. Exxon finally paid promptly at that point (to avoid further finance charges).

While what Exxon (and Supreme Court) did hard horrible people should at least get the facts right. Making it look like Exxon only paid 1/5th of $2.5 billion cleanup cost is silly and easily disproven.

Little know fact is the Exxon lawsuit created the first CDS. JP Morgan extended Exxon $4.8 billion credit line during appeal process (in case Exxon lost and had to promptly pay). JP Morgan collected a nice fee for this credit line but didn't like leaking $4.8 billion in cash. Thus they sold CDS to third parties so they could recapitalize those funds. The horror of CDS and other synthetic financial instruments have been with us ever since.

[1776Forever]

5. Not disputing you but check this link out for more information on your facts:

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: On Its 20th Anniversary, We Can't Afford to Forget
Submitted by meg on Mon, 03/23/2009 -

http://blog.buzzflash.com/alerts/632

.....Even some progressive news sources take Exxon's word that they've paid $3.4 billion in damages and cleanup costs, but they're victims of fuzzy math. According to Amy E. Trainer in her article The Whole Truth: What Exxon really paid for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, "The true amount of financial liability that Exxon incurred, after factoring in tax credits, insurance payments, and the discount rate as applied to the civil natural resources damages fine, is much closer to $1,776,000,000 or roughly half of what Exxon has claimed."

Even if they correctly present the facts and the lies of this complex story, you can bet few news organizations will bring up Exxon Mobil's annual profits. As the rest of the world sinks into a recession, Exxon is breaking its own records in the money-making contest. Yet they still drag out payments to Alaskans who have lost everything, driving many into poverty as appellate courts halve settlement amounts over and over again.

Then, of course, there's the fact that this isn't ancient history. As we saw earlier this month in Australia, devastating oil spills still occur to this day, and with alarming frequency.

For these reasons, BuzzFlash ran a series on the Exxon Valdez last month. Due to the multi-faceted nature of this story, we split it up into four parts:

Our first article addresses the efforts of Alaskans to try and force oil companies to safely transport oil before the spill, in an attempt to avoid disasters such as the Exxon Valdez. The second article in the series deals with the despicable attempts of Exxon to avoid making good on its promises to clean up and pay for the damage it inflicted upon Alaska. The third in our series details the environmental devastation that continues to plague the Sound to this day. Finally, part four talks about Exxon's commitment to shoddy science and propaganda, which supports their lies about oil and the environment.

(more at link)