This article was one of top headlines on the ADN today. Do you remember when it happened? Drew was telling me that his dad went to Alaska to help with the clean up (more
pictures here) – and refused to buy gas from Exxon afterwards. We were actually remarking when we arrived back to the Lower 48 in April that it was the first time we'd seen an Exxon station in nearly two years. We can't be 100% sure, but they're all but nonexistent in at least Anchorage.
As a side note, on
my first visit to Alaska (c. 1990), I remember we bought a rather expensive phial of Prince William Sound water with a thick layer of crude oil floating on top. I don't know what happened to that phial, but that's the closest I ever got to seeing the spill since we weren't able to spend the night in Valdez.
No ruling in Exxon Valdez case today
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court issued several decisions this morning but not the one Alaskans are waiting on: the Exxon Valdez case.The court generally issues its decisions on Mondays, and the Exxon case is due out before the Supreme Court term ends June 23. The lawsuit, a dispute over $2.5 billion in punitive damages, is the final legal case remaining from the March 1989 spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound.
The Supreme Court gives no hint of its decisions until they're released.
The 32,677 plaintiffs in the case have been waiting for their compensation since 1994, when a jury in Anchorage returned a $5 billion punitive-damages award against Exxon Mobil Corp. for its role in the spill. The company has been appealing the verdict since then. In 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cut the award to $2.5 billion. Exxon appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case on Feb. 27.
