The Wilderness Society’s Alaska Regional Office today issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court order to reduce the punitive damages allowed in a lawsuit over the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill:

The Supreme Court issued an order today that would cap punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill at $507.5 million.  These are insignificant for a company that made $40 billion in profits last year, and this court decision underscores why drilling should not be allowed in sensitive onshore and offshore environments. The Valdez spill was catastrophic. 19 years later oil can still be found on the beaches in Prince William Sound, yet Exxon refuses to pay the $90 million sought by the federal government and the state of Alaska to clean up the remaining oil. The Supreme Court’s decision today only further erodes the ability of those who suffer the impacts of oil spills to receive just compensation.  

Recent oil spills in places such as the Alpine oil field and Prudhoe Bay, which the oil industry touts as state-of-the-art and environmentally benign, illustrate that oil development continues to be a dirty business and spills will continue to occur. The inevitable threat of spills and other pollution associated with oil development should not be allowed in environmentally sensitive places, for example in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Chukchi, Beaufort, and Bering Seas. These are places with outstanding wildlife values that serve as the foundation for indigenous cultures, and in the case of the Bering Sea, support one of the world’s most important fisheries.

The Supreme Court’s announcement today underscores the need for stronger protections for special places like the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge, and for preventing oil drilling in parts of the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering Seas, where even industry and government admit that we cannot clean up oil when it is spilled.

The mission of The Wilderness Society is to protect Wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places.