Valdez Redux
The SCOTUS has agreed to review the Exxon Valdez punitive damage amounts.
Before all you lefties and neo-commies get your enviro-panties in a wad and start holding memorial remembrances for otters, consider this: those billions of dollars in punitive damages are in addition to the billions of dollars in clean-up and damage awards ExxonMobil has already voluntarily paid...
Didn't even make a dent, did I? Well, how about this: those corporate deep pockets are ultimately your pockets. Even if you're one of those weirdo conspiracy guys who buys only a specific (non-ExxonMobil) brand of gasoline, having been convinced by the omniscient space gnomes in your head that the other companies' gasoline is bad for your vehicle, you are paying for Valdez already. Market response to stimuli. It's not confined to the company that's fined.
But all that probably doesn't matter, either. In fact, I can already hear the chorus tuning up, ready to spew and spray about "evil, capitalistic jurists." So go ahead and scream and holler and rail about how Exxon has to pay, pay, pay some more. And then when oil prices go up $10/barrel as a result, you can scream about the evil, price-gouging ways of the energy corporations. Oh, Big Oil is no saint; I freely admit that. But you can't simply reach into their bank account, yank out a huge fistful of cash, and then expect them to take it lying down. You wouldn't.
Cause and effect. Pretty simple stuff, but then I never accused anyone with a "deep pockets" legal mentality of possessing enough intelligence to tie their own shoes. One need look no further than John Edwards for proof of that.
Before all you lefties and neo-commies get your enviro-panties in a wad and start holding memorial remembrances for otters, consider this: those billions of dollars in punitive damages are in addition to the billions of dollars in clean-up and damage awards ExxonMobil has already voluntarily paid...
Didn't even make a dent, did I? Well, how about this: those corporate deep pockets are ultimately your pockets. Even if you're one of those weirdo conspiracy guys who buys only a specific (non-ExxonMobil) brand of gasoline, having been convinced by the omniscient space gnomes in your head that the other companies' gasoline is bad for your vehicle, you are paying for Valdez already. Market response to stimuli. It's not confined to the company that's fined.
But all that probably doesn't matter, either. In fact, I can already hear the chorus tuning up, ready to spew and spray about "evil, capitalistic jurists." So go ahead and scream and holler and rail about how Exxon has to pay, pay, pay some more. And then when oil prices go up $10/barrel as a result, you can scream about the evil, price-gouging ways of the energy corporations. Oh, Big Oil is no saint; I freely admit that. But you can't simply reach into their bank account, yank out a huge fistful of cash, and then expect them to take it lying down. You wouldn't.
Cause and effect. Pretty simple stuff, but then I never accused anyone with a "deep pockets" legal mentality of possessing enough intelligence to tie their own shoes. One need look no further than John Edwards for proof of that.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 14:24
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