A Primer on DilBit Spills in a Corporatist State

If you want an idea of what's in store for British Columbia if Harper/Redford/Enbridge/Beijing et al manage to drive their pipelines through to the coast, you need only look to the most recent dilbit spill in Arkansas.

AlterNet offers a handy summary, 6 Things You Need to Know About the Arkansas Oil Spill.

ExxonMobil which is allegedly dealing with the Arkansas clean-up has so much clout it somehow got the FAA to declare the airspace over the pipeline leak a no fly zone.   Exxon now has control of the airspace over its damned fiasco and it's even trying to throw a blanket over the state Attorney General.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who spoke of future litigation as a “certainty,” derided attempts by ExxonMobil representatives to manage his visit to the site.
 
He added that he had issued a subpoena for documents, data and other evidence from ExxonMobil pertaining to the ruptured pipeline.

Lawyers from ExxonMobil were set to arrive Wednesday in Mayflower, Arkansas.

   And you think we don't live in a corporatist state?

The Bush Court Pays Off Big Time for Exxon

Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Aslaska's Prince William Sound. The tanker Valdez struck a rock, causing the worst oil spill in American history. The effects are still being felt.

In 1994 a jury awarded the state and affected parties a $5-billion judgment against Exxon. An Alaska appeals court then trimmed that - by half - down to $2.5-billion.

Today the Bush court voted 5-3 to transform Exxon's smackdown into a pat on the bottom, lowering the punitive damages award to $500-million. That's trimming 90% off the punitive damages the jury sought to impose. That works out to just under $50 per gallon of spilled oil in punitives.