Time to Leave Exxon Alone?
So everyone loves to hate Big Oil in general, and hometown boys Exxon Mobil in particular. (Except when they’re filling their tanks. Or looking at how their shares in the company have done.) Anyhow, adding (ahem) fuel to the populist bonfire, Exxon is seeking relief from the ridiculous amount of punitive damages a jury levied, and that question is going to the Supreme Court. Dallas-based writer Jacob Sullum asks a pretty darn good question. How many times should Exxon be punished for fouling Prince William Sound? Of the punitive damages order, Sullum notes:
They’re not really damages at all; they’re punishments. Like criminal penalties, they’re supposed to serve the goals of deterrence and retribution. Exxon argues, pretty plausibly, that the $3.4 billion it already has paid is “more than enough to deter and punish anyone for anything.”
8 Comments to “Time to Leave Exxon Alone?”
Leave a Reply
All material copyright © 2008 D Magazine. All rights reserved.
Some tend to forget that a lot of us little people are stockholders. My late Daddy toiled at the Magnolia/Mobil building for 32 years in a modest job.
How come D Magazine, the Dallas Observer and these Reason writers (and I) don’t just team up with some big anti-DMN business folks and launch a rival Dallas Times Herald paper?
God wouldn’t it be great if they were beat not just by the Web, but by print?
http://www.sourcewatch.org/ind.....cob_Sullum
Please explain to readers why a corporation, which under our Constitution is accorded all the rights and obligations of an actual person, should not be punished for an act of willful neglect that cause incalculable damage?
I do endorse Sullom’s use of “plausibly,” although I doubt its is the connotation he intended.
$3.4 billion a deterent? When the company earns that per week? Pleeeeze.
Exxon’s negligence caused permanent damage to Prince William Sound and the fishery there…now 18 years accumulation of damages. They are a poster child of corporate irresponsibility, playing the delay game as allowed by the court system. While their legal representation have earned what must be some hefty fees, it doesn’t seem smart to continue to dredge Exxon’s name through more bad publicity.
I can tell that my 18 year personnal boycott of Exxon has them on their knees begging for mercy.
Very nicely done forum.
http://srubibablo.com
What beautiful text and visitors! Greater thank you!