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Big Oil Tramples Littles Guys And Walks Away

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By BARBARA VASILJEVICH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 8, 2008

My children and grandchildren live in Cordova, Alaska, where fishing is the major source of income for thousands. I want you to know that there's another side to domestic drilling that's gone almost completely unnoticed: the gamble of the unforeseeable accident.

Twenty years ago, Exxon was responsible for the largest and worst oil spill in history, in Prince William Sound. Eleven million gallons, 470 miles of devastation, and 32,667 victims later, Exxon has squirmed in court for more than 14 more years, finally getting out of paying for the damage, via the Supreme Court. The damage was far more than simply the killing of nearly 390,000 birds, 5,000 sea otters, 200 harbor seals, and 22 orcas. About 87 percent of the herring spawning grounds in Prince William Sound was ruined, commercial salmon and herring fisheries closed, also in Cook Inlet and most of the Kodiak area. And it ruined the livelihoods of an entire generation of Alaska fishermen, native subsistence fishermen, and all their families. The environment has not yet recovered, even 20 years later.

The final damage verdict amounted to only four days profit of the massive Exxon monolith, whose profits will top $550 billion in 2008. And when the victims are finally paid (only 25 percent of damages Exxon should have paid), they'll each have to pay lawyers and taxes on their individual settlement. Exxon is balking at paying interest to the victims, in spite of 20 years of waiting, with empty hands, empty fishing boats, empty retirement accounts and empty futures, all caused by an unforeseen accident.

This accident wasn't caused by drilling, but merely by a vehicle transporting oil, by a drunk driver, allowed to continue working as a ship captain in spite of Exxon's full knowledge of several past DUI transgressions. It's true that our technology for drilling far surpasses most other nations. However, the danger is not necessarily from drilling but from the unforeseen accident in the presence of enormous amounts of oil, and from the ability of the oil companies to skirt their responsibility

There are a million ways an accident could happen. The truth is that Alaska victims will never recover, at least not in their lifetimes, and that nature may never completely recover. Is it OK that a monolithic corporate entity can walk away from its responsibility, from the carnage, and from ruining the lives of 32,667 "little guys?" Hey, that's us. Scary.

How can the attitude of our politicians be "Oh, well, they'll get over it?" We should be working like Henry Ford did, to change transportation as we know it to a sustainable, clean mode that won't hurt us in the long run, instead of digging ourselves deeper into an environmental pit for our children's children to dig out of.

Barbara Vasiljevich lives in New Port Richey.

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