Walking With the Ghosts of Exxon
It’s 5 a.m. on the 4th of July, and the alarm goes off. I open one eye and think surely I must have set it for the wrong time, but then I remember. Today I’m heading to Prince William Sound with Shannyn Moore and Zach Roberts. Our goal is to document the lingering effects of oil, still present in the Sound after the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in the spring of 1989. It’s 2010, and a child born then would be 21 years old now. It’s hard to believe. I was not in Alaska back then. I,…
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill – A Cautionary Tale for Arctic Ocean Drilling
~A footprint fills with oil on Knight Island in Prince William Sound more than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Photo J. Devon By Richard Steiner As the Obama administration prepares to issue final permits for exploratory oil drilling on the outer continental shelf off Alaska’s Arctic coast this summer, the public is hearing some familiar promises from industry and government – the risk of a catastrophic oil spill is small, best available technology will be used to prevent spills, any oil spill will be effectively contained and cleaned up, government will keep a vigilant eye on industry,…
The Exxon Valdez Gets Its Death Sentence
The artist tanker formerly known as the Exxon Valdez has gotten its death sentence. It has been sold for scrap for about $16 million. The tanker, which was only a shiny new three year old in 1989 when it slammed into Bligh Reef, causing devastation of people, marine life, and the economy in Prince William Sound, has had an odd history which is almost at an end. The Dallas Morning News reports: Twenty-three years after the oil supertanker became synonymous with what its Irving-based owner at the time calls “one of the lowest points in ExxonMobil’s 125-year history,” the ship is…