U.S. Supreme Court Overturns $2.5 Billion Award In Exxon Valdez Spill

The court ruled that the $2.5 billion awarded to Alaska fishermen and other residents for the 1989 oil spill was excessive and should be reduced to the $507 million in actual economic losses caused by the accident. By a 5-3 vote, with one justice abstaining, the U.S.’s highest court said that the $2.5 billion in so-called punitive damages should be in line with actual economic damages. Roughly 33,000 Alaskans are to be compensated for the spill, which released 11 million gallons of crude oil along a 1,200-mile coastline, closing fisheries and killing seabirds and marine mammals. Exxon, which reported $40.6 billion in earnings last year, argued before the Supreme Court that it already has paid out $3.5 billion for clean-up costs and ecological restoration projects related to the spill.