Big Oil Pollutes, Bribes, and Hijacks Its Place in Power

In 1989 the Exxon Corporation had one of it’s oil tankers wreck off of the coast of Alaska. Due to their negligence, they were convicted in a court of law of negligence and asked to pay $5 billion in punitive damages. After 20 years of appeals and reductions in the ruling, the Supreme Court, just a year into getting two new Bush appointees on the court, has reduced that ruling to $500 million.

Think about that for a moment. At the time of the ruling, the judge in question determined that a company needed to pay one full year’s worth of profit so that they would be incented to never again commit the crime of killing wildlife and forever polluting some of America’s most beautiful habitat due to being so grossly negligent as to put a drunk at the wheel of a boat carrying 1.3 million barrels of oil. Twenty years later, Exxon will now have the tremendous burden of paying out $500 million, or one day’s profit! Imagine, by litigating the Valdez disaster in court, Exxon is now paying 1/365th of what it was originally ordered to pay in terms of income (without regard to its victims and the opportunity cost of getting the money 20 years late)!!!

If Exxon would have been forced to pay this at the actual time the accident occured in 1989, the $500 million would today be worth over $1 Billion at a low 4% rate of return! In other words, they’re paying the actual fine with the interest earned just from getting to keep the money for 19 years.

Ironically, the past week has been a windfall of good news for Exxon in that they got the news that Iraq will grant them and several other Western oil companies (Shell, British Petroleum, Total) the rights to Iraqi Oil drilling that they have not had access to for 30 years. I’ve linked stories about Exxon wanting to go to Iraq to obtain oil contracts before, and in the words of George W. Bush, “Mission Accomplished.” What better time to obtain the rights to trillions of barrels of oil, than the same time you’ve inserted people into power who have created an instability in a region driving oil to over seven times higher than it was prior to Bush becoming president.

A few quick questions about the people who are taking our country down a path of no return:

How do Exxon and other Big Oil companies get away with so much polluting and influence in government. Simply put: bribery.

Who is on the take for over $1 million in Oil money since 1990? John McCain.

Who is in charge of writing our energy policy with Dick Cheney in secret? Exxon

Who is in charge of editing our environmental policy after a report is submitted from NASA to downplay reality? Exxon lobbyists hired by Dick Cheney

Who makes multi-million dollar tax deductible contributions to the National Science Teachers of America and have them distribute their film, “You Can’t Be Cool, Without Fuel?” Exxon and Shell

Who turns down 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth to teach students about global warming? the National Science Teachers of America – out of fear of losing their “donation”/bribe

Who funds think tanks to offer $10,000 bribes to “scientists” to criticize global warming findings? Exxon