A Real Remedy for the Big Spill
Long after the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spilled its oil into a pristine Alaskan inlet, neither the environmental recovery nor the ensuing litigation was yet complete. Indeed, in 2008 -- 19 years after the damage was done -- the Supreme Court overturned the punitive damage award of the courts below. This case of justice delayed is what we do not want to repeat in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.
Instead, Congress now should pass a law directing that the Department of Interior be given discretion to impose a penalty in an amount proportional to the cleanup costs, the amount of natural resources damages, and any compensatory damages awarded in the inevitable Deepwater Horizon litigations. That penalty should be deposited in a wholesale, non-profit Green Bank that will finance clean electricity and electrified transportation.











