Survey: Should Exxon Have Gotten Off So Cheap?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 06.26.08
In 1994 a jury in Alaska ordered Exxon to pay five billion dollars in damages for the Exxon Valdez disaster. Through various court battles over the years since, Exxon managed to get the judgment reduced to 2.5 billion. Now the Supreme Court has thrown almost the whole thing out, reducing the damages to 507 million, less than a tenth of the original in 1994 dollars. One critic said ""This award is a drop in the bucket of Exxon's enormous profits, and it certainly provides no disincentive for them to avoid another accident in the future." But Exxon has already spent 2.1 billion on the cleanup and another 900 million in fines.
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