After 12 years, many assume, and the oil companies would like us to believe, that because a multibillion settlement in the criminal suit was awarded that the Prince William Sound ecosystem has recovered. But that is not the case. Unfortunately, there are still lingering impacts to the wildlife and the people of the Prince William Sound region. According to a recent University of North Carolina review of 220 Valdez studies conducted over the past dozen years, many species have yet to recover. It is important to realize that the Exxon Valdez oil spill was not an anomaly.
Oil spills are a common occurrence at oil production fields and during transport.
At Prudhoe Bay, for example, there is at least one reportable spill a day . Just over the past three months, BP Amoco has had at least four major spills on Alaska s North Slope totaling more than 56,000 gallons. Big Oil is polluting America s political system with huge contributions. The Presidential Inaugural Committee also received significant funding from the oil and gas industries. George Bush is a former oil man himself, having owned the fairly unsuccessful Arbusto Energy Inc. and Bush Exploration.