For those of you who know me, you know that before I started working for Progress Michigan I worked at the Sierra Club. Well, I may have stopped working for them, but my heart is still committed to making sure people get the best environmental protections that they deserve and that polluters pay. So, when I read the news today and saw that the Supreme Court is considering repealing the punitive damages of the Exxon Valdez oil spill 19 years, lets just say, I became a little irritated.
If the Supreme Court decides that the Federal Appeals Court was wrong in its decision to award $2.5 billion in punitive damages then American citizens will have received a slap in the face. Once again, citizens will see that corporations are put ahead of them. Corporations will be told that they can walk away from a disaster without repaying those they harm. While the community members’ livelihoods and the natural ecosystem is destroyed by the oil spill that affected over 3,000 miles of Alaskan shoreline and over 32,000 fishermen and business owners, Exxon Valdez continues to rake in billions in profits. Is this what the Supreme Court was really put in place to do – protect corporations?
Check out some coverage: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/washington/28scotus.html?hp
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802280326