In response to Chamber Shipping of British Columbia's full page ad in the March 24 Citizen on the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, it is worth reprinting the words from the Portland Business Journal of Bob Stoll, the lawyer who was enlisted by a class of Alaskan plaintiffs in their 19-year battle for compensation:
"The final determination of the case, after three appeals by Exxon, was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008, changing the law on punitive damages in maritime cases, and cutting Exxon's responsibility for punitive damages from $5 billion to 1/10th that amount, to $500 million.
"Other rulings by various federal courts had limited severely the amount of actual damages recoverable by municipalities, landowners and businesses.
"Exxon's expert witnesses had testified convincingly in 1994 that there would be no long-lasting negative consequences to the spill and so the judge and jury were not aware that there would still be great losses to the Alaskan fisheries 25 years after the spill".
We need only insert Enbridge and change the dates above to glimpse the possible future if the Northern Gateway project is allowed to proceed.
Chris Peter
Prince George
