Oil Spills

Last night I had the opportunity to see the documentary, Black Water on Planet Green. It's about the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in 1989 and I highly recommend watching it if you get a chance.

In the wake of the recent spill in Louisiana, I am worried at the precedents set in Alaska. I didn't realize that it took twenty years to settle the lawsuits against Exxon and they ended up paying only $507 million dollars in punitive damages to the fisherman of Prince William Sound. The original award was $5 billion dollars, the equivalent to a years profit for Exxon at the time. Exxon earned $45 billion dollars in 2008. The fishing industry in the Prince William Sound has yet to come back, the cannery has never reopened and the community of Cordova, AK has suffered both economically and socially ever since the spill. The volunteers that cleaned up the oil have suffered numerous health problems and even death from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon toxicity that resulted when the oil was steamed and breathed in by the workers. Exxon has claimed no responsibility.

How is it that our country, our court system, values a corporation's interest more than a community? Environmental concerns not withstanding, how is it that we have so little regard for our people? Why was Exxon allowed to drag out the process after their appeals were repeatedly denied? How will this precedent now affect the Gulf Coast and the state of Louisiana? I am concerned that once again we will favor a corporation over people, in an area that has already suffered so much. BP has stated that they do not own the well that exploded, they merely lease it, does that then mean they aren't responsible? Exxon has been giving BP advice on how to orchestrate the cleanup. Perhaps we should be wary of their assistance.

Maybe this country's love affair with oil needs to end. We have the technology and the capability to reduce our dependence on non-renewable fuels like oil. Whether you believe in global warming or could care less about the environment, shouldn't we care enough about our people to stop putting them in harms way physically and economically?

To read more about the oil spill in the Gulf, click on the link below.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/exxon_valdez_a_glimpse_of_the.html