JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
It will soon be nineteen years since the Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground on March 24, 1989, unleashing a deadly black tide of 11,000,000 gallons of crude oil into one of North America’s most pristine and productive marine environments. The oil eventually covered 1,500 miles of coastline stretching from Prince William Sound to the Alaska Peninsula beyond Kodiak Island.
The Exxon Valdez disaster left death and destruction in its wake for fish and wildlife and lingering pollution of their habitats: the oil was fatal to over a half a million birds, while devastating the populations of sea otters, harbor seals, whales and other species. It also left an incalculable toll on the people of the region, their lives, livelihoods, and futures. The company whose lapses of judgment were responsible for perpetrating this monumental environmental catastrophe, Exxon (now Exxon-Mobil), has delayed in every way it could accepting full responsibility for its actions
MISSION
It will soon be nineteen years since the Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground on March 24, 1989, unleashing a deadly black tide of 11,000,000 gallons of crude oil into one of North America’s most pristine and productive marine environments. The oil eventually covered 1,500 miles of coastline stretching from Prince William Sound to the Alaska Peninsula beyond Kodiak Island.
The Exxon Valdez disaster left death and destruction in its wake for fish and wildlife and lingering pollution of their habitats: the oil was fatal to over a half a million birds, while devastating the populations of sea otters, harbor seals, whales and other species. It also left an incalculable toll on the people of the region, their lives, livelihoods, and futures. The company whose lapses of judgment were responsible for perpetrating this monumental environmental catastrophe, Exxon (now Exxon-Mobil), has delayed in every way it could accepting full responsibility for its actions.
CORPORATE HUBRIS
The principal reason for the 1989 oil spill of 11,000,000 gallons of crude oil into pristine marine waters that sustain fisheries critical to modern state, regional and national economies as well as subsistence fishing and gathering is simple and straightforward: it was Exxon’s failure to act responsibly and firmly in dealing with one of their tanker ship captains who had a known severe addiction to abusing alcohol and who abused it while in command of one of the largest oil tankers in the world.
• Exxon along with the rest of the oil industry pledged to employ the highest possible standard of care and extensive safety measures to protect the Prince William Sound.
• Exxon employed Captain Joseph Hazelwood, a relapsed alcoholic to command the Exxon Valdez, a 1000 foot supertanker.
• For almost three years prior to the spill Exxon officials received reports of Hazelwood’s drinking aboard ship and other on-shore antics associated with his drinking.
• Exxon continued to employ Hazelwood even after he dropped out of a 28-day alcohol treatment program and after continued reports that he had fallen off the wagon.
• As late as two weeks before the spill Exxon executives continued to receive reports of Hazelwood’s drinking and erratic behavior and yet Exxon still did nothing.
• On the night of the spill Hazelwood visited two Valdez bars and drank between 5 and 9 double shots of vodka (15 oz to 27 oz of 80 proof alcohol).
• Hazelwood was the only person aboard licensed to navigate in the Prince William Sound. After setting out he steered the tanker away from the shipping lane, set it on autopilot, and left the bridge.
• Shortly thereafter the Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Sound.
This sad, tragic, and indefensible series of actions and lapses in judgment by Exxon and its Captain are stunning in their boldness, carelessness, and recklessness in virtually abandoning all responsibilities to the public, to the environment, to the people who live in the spill region and whose lives were so dependent on the waters and marine resources of the region torn asunder by the oil spill and its aftermath, and to the United States which allowed them to flag and steer their oil supertanker laden with oil from the public’s lands through U.S. waters for its own profit.
If ever there was an object lesson in what corporate responsibilities should be and how cavalierly such responsibilities can be tossed aside with so little regard for the devastation such actions cause and with such a high premium placed not on reputation and corporate responsibility but upon greed and bottom line, this is it.
For nearly 20 years, people in the spill region who have themselves as well as their families suffered because of the irresponsible and negligent acts of the corporate giant Exxon-Mobil should, at last, be dealt with fairly as the District and Appellate Courts have determined. And, for once, this corporate giant should awaken to the expectations in the United States that more is expected than lip service, or faux efforts at clean up, or to hide behind a misguided, mindless policy of defending the indefensible for fear someone else may someday pursue a cause of action because of such a sorry pattern of inexcusable corporate decisions. The remedy is to take corrective action to ensure the public that this will never happen again and to begin that process by accepting responsibility for its lapses in judgment and acting as citizens of our country expect a corporate giant to act and bring responsible closure to the harm Exxon has caused. |
