Buffalo Boy's Blog
Giving You More Than Just My Two Cents
Oil Companies Paying Off US Supreme Court
Obviously the conservative judges on the US Supreme Court can be bought off by big oil. The US Supreme Court decreased the punitive damages that Exxon Mobil needed to pay for the Exxon Valdez Oil spill from $2.5 billion to $500 million.
Alaskans are none to happy about the decision and no one can argue that $2.5 billion is too much. Not when Exxon Mobil is making that 10 times over per quarter. $2.5 billion is a drop in the bucket, Consider it interest on what they should have paid back then to a community and state that is still recovering and obviously bitter about the spill today.
I guess its okay to have a drunk captain driving a oil tanker according to the US Supreme Court of judges who can now be bribed. The damage that that spill did to the Alaskan economy, its wildlife and that community is worth well over $2.5 billion and is yet another example of how little conservatives and the Bush administration care about the well being of the people and the land, air and water that we have a right to be clean and healthy.
Instead they will do anything to save the coorporate interests as long as they get their pockets lined. There is the other reason Obama needs to win the presidency, so he can balance the liberal vs. conservatives on the supreme court. At a time when Exxon Mobil could have been made to step up and do the right thing, they are let off the hook in a time when no one trusts them or the system this country was founded on. Almost 20 years later Alaska is being essentially told that big oil's profits are worth more than their environment and economy that was brought to a stand still by this spill.
"We've got more excuses, we're going to blame it on speculators, blame it on oil companies, blame it on OPEC, when there's only one group in this chamber we ought to blame -- and that is all the liberals in this House who have voted for no energy each and every time over the last 18 years."
"Fully aware that their 'Use It or Lose It' bill had been thoroughly discredited by independent geologists, outside experts, and even members of their own caucus, Democratic leaders brought forth this bill anyway today knowing it had no chance of earning passage," Blunt said. "And while they may think that's an appropriate use of floor time before leaving for recess, I don't know that the millions of American families struggling to make ends meet in a world of $140 oil would agree."
What does anything you just said have to do with how unfair that settlement is to the state of Alaska? Even Alaskan residents are outraged that they are short changed that much by a supreme court that is supposed to be fair. that decision isn't fair, its insulting to a community that was hurt in ways we will never know. 33,000 fishermen who fished for a living and put food on America's plates had their lives put on hold or totally disrupted due to that spill. All due to a drunk captain of a rich oil companies tanker.