Big Oil Wins Again

In a 5-3 decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that the company should not have to pay (punitive damages) - not a penny more than the actual economic losses—some $500 million—incurred by the fishermen, natives and landowners who first initiated the class action suit almost two decades ago.


Back in 1994, a lower court originally ruled that the company should pay $5 billion to plaintiffs for damages after the mammoth 11 million gallon spill, the nation’s largest to date. On appeal, the 9th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals cut the amount the company owed in half to $2.5 billion. This latest ruling will put the issue to rest.

Writing in dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginburg said the court was engaging in “lawmaking” by concluding the punitive damages not exceed what ExxonMobil has already paid out to compensate victims for direct economic losses. “The new law made by the court should have been left to Congress,” she wrote. Justices Stevens and Breyer joined Ginsburg in dissent.

Big corporate polluters across the country are cheering that now they can violate law, manufacture inferior and hazardous products, and poison people and the environment without fear of financial damages.

This was a dark (and oily) day for the scales of justice.
Meanwhile Exxon is making billions in quarterly profits...

What can you do? Never buy ExxonMobil gasoline again.