Menendez Remarks for Spill Press Conference
February 10, 1999Though I am from New Jersey, I have a deep affinity for both the people and the environment of Alaska. And I am committed to making the transportation of oil in our waterways safer so that we do not repeat the Exxon Valdez disaster.
As a member of the Transportation Committee's subcommittee on Water Resources, I am concerned about the federal government's actions concerning oil transportation and their consequences across the country. I am honored to have been invited here today by the Survivors of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill -- natives and fishermen across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest who have suffered immeasurably and need America's help.
This press conference -- and, in fact, the upcoming 10th anniversary -- isn't about a singular event that happened in 1989, This is about Exxon's inaction over the past 10 years to make the people and the environment of Prince William Sound whole.
This press conference isn't about the past. It is about today, and the damage to the environment and the impacts on peoples' lives which are as devastating in 1999 as they were in 1989.
Because of Exxon's refusal to give closure to the people of Prince William Sound, entire towns and their families are still suffering. And worse yet, they are still in danger.
Exxon has refused to take safety measures -- such as double-hulled tankers -- that could prevent another Valdez oil spill. That Is why I will be reintroducing my bill entitled the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Improvement Act, which would create stricter oil shipping regulations and help create wwifter, more comprehensive responses to oil spills.
Scientists have universally called the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill the worst environmental disaster In American history. But unlike other environmental disasters such as the Love Canal or the contamination of Woburn, Massachusetts (now highlighted in "A Civil Action") many of the most gruesome and hardest-hitting stories about the Valdez spill have not yet been told. That's because the Valdez spill was far more enormous in scope, and many of its effects have only become clear in the last couple of years.
In a nutshell, Exxon lost a $5.3 billion judgement over the Valdez -- the largest punitive damages award delivered by any jury to date -- and has gotten away with paying almost nothing. Since the 1994 verdict, Exxon has appealed and appealed, delayed and delayed, lost and lost in our court system, and the victims of the spill remain largely uncompensated. Some families have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars each; others have lost everything they had.
Exxon continues to make every conceivable appeal of the award. Exxon's latest appeal will be heard within the next few months by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Exxon has paid out little since the spill, when one considers that insurance coverage and tax breaks have paid for much of the cleanup effort.
It's obvious Exon hasn't learned its lesson. Because not only do the innocent people of Prince William Sound remain uncompensated... and not only are safety measures still lacking... but Exxon has the nerve to be lobbying Congress to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
So as we consider the question of allowing Exxon to amass further power by merging with Mobil, the question before everyone with approval power is this:
In such a merger and in light of these facts, is this the right public policy? Does it promote the national interest? Does it send the right message to the larger corporate community? Does it promote justice?
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