Exxon Valdez still a Disaster two Decades later.

There are children in college right now who have never heard of the Exxon Valdez and the eleven-million-gallon oil spill that destroyed Prince William Sound and the area’s Alaskan fish and wildlife almost two decades ago.

In one of the most glaring cases of the inefficiency of the American court system in history, the case of the people of Prince William Sound against Exxon is still in limbo.

The original verdict of $5 billion dollars that ruled against Exxon in 1994 has still not completed its process through the court’s appeal system. This week, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments to either sustain the 14-year-old ruling of Exxon’s liability or send it back again into the maelstrom of court papers and motions and ineptness.

The people of the Sound state their ecology has never recovered from the massive spill and want not only closure but the punitive damages they were awarded 14 years ago. To highlight how ridiculous the system is, 6000 of the 33,000 residents at the time of the spill are deceased. One has to ponder if Exxon intends to delay and file motions until everyone is long gone and then the case can be thrown out for lack of claimants to testify. To date, each court in the process has taken on average four years to respond to the case presented before them. Has anyone in the judicial process ever heard of the phrase “fair and speedy" trial?

This law suit, which was originally defined as a litmus case for demanding corporate responsibility has instead shown that money and influence and power rule in this country more than the law does.

Exxon, who has no need to worry about public image since they are part of the oil monopoly in this country, state they have spent $3.5 billion on their own cleaning up the Sound. Residents welcome these executives to visit the area and see for themselves that the damages and repercussions from this disaster are still on the beaches and in the rocks. The fish and wildlife has yet to recover and experts believe it could be decades if ever for the Sound to go back to what it was like the fateful day a drunk drove a barge aground. There are also serious health questions being asked concerning the residents of the area, who have a much higher incidence of health problems than normal.

To show again just how subjected we are to corporate greed; the judgment amount brings it into focus. In 1994, the $5 billion judgment was based on the annual profit of Exxon. Now, just 14 years later, Exxon makes $5 billion in a single month.

One would think that Exxon could find it in their souls to just give up one month’s profit to try and heal a state and an ecological system but that isn’t to be. It has to be wondered how many millions have been spent on attorneys over the past twenty years to reverse a ruling that doesn’t sit well with corporate executives. I am willing to wager court costs have climbed easily into the tens of millions but it is better to win than to be responsible according to Exxon.

We continue to hear the classic politician spewing mantra, “We must remove ourselves from our dependency on foreign oil"

It is obvious in the case of Exxon, foreign oil interests aren’t the only group we need to divest ourselves from. We need to rid ourselves from the manipulation of our own oil producing corporations as well.

Calling them “our own" actually is a compliment Exxon doesn’t deserve.