Quickie - oil spill

While doing some research for a possible oil spill post over at The Louisiana Personal Injury Lawyer blog, I came across some horrifying information about the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989.  Sadly, the precedent of that scenario does not bode well for the Gulf cleanup or for the possibility of BP actually paying for the damaged it caused (or at least helped cause).  

In short, the legal awards against Exxon have been slashed through appeals over the years, from as much as $5 billion, initially, to $500 million.  Furthermore, as of March 2009 - 20 years after the spill - federal and state governments were still seeking $92 million from Exxon to recoup costs of cleanup and restoration, which have been estimated at a total of $1.5 billion.  

Essentially, accidents such as the BP oil spill and Exxon Valdez are being subsidized - subsidized financially by the government entities who are attempting to remediate and restore the devastated environments and subsidized in terms of "negative externalities" by the businesses and individuals have never been fully or will never fully be compensated for the damage done by the spills.