Energy Finance

Big oil, in the embodiment of ExxonMobil, won a Supreme Court ruling on June 25 when the high court voted five to three to cut punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez accident case from $2.5 billion to $500 million, letting XOM off the hook for some 80% of the original amount.

The decision marks an end to the decades-long legal battle between the oil titan and the environmentalists and local fishing industry.

While the settlement is a disappointment to the plaintiffs, it must be noted that Exxon has already shelled out some $3.4 billion, literally sparing no expense, to clean up the spill and compensate native Alaskans, landowners and commercial fisherman for economic losses. 

While in most court cases ExxonMobil never quits, and never loses, and while unhappy plaintiffs were quick to point out that the settlement represents a mere four day’s worth of profit for the company, the fact is that the company did what it was meant to do–clean up the spill, compensate the victims, put measures into place to ensure such an accident does not happen again, and reduce legal penalties to reasonable amounts as required by its fiduciary responsibility to its stockholders.

BTW, Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from the case. He owns XOM stock.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.