Nineteen years after the Valdez spilled millions of gallons of crude into Alaska's then pristine Prince William Sound, the Supreme Court has finally reached a settlement between Exxon and members of the Alaskan community who lost their livelihoods, resulting in addictions and suicides, their lives ruined. Exxon was originally ordered to pay 5 billion in damages to these people, but by appealing the case, their high priced lawyers were able to get the settlement reduced to 2.5 billion, then the Supreme Court reduced it to 500 million, yet another victory for big business, another blow to the rest of us. It just goes to show that in this great country of ours, you can get all the "justice" you can afford. To put it in perspective, 5 billion is merely an eighth of Exxon's profits in 2007, yet they can't seem to live up to their social and environmental responsibilities. I won't be buying gas from those scumbags.
BP and Shell are supposed to be better choices. I just drive less and plan on buying more fuel efficient cars. I also bought a bike that gets 50 mpg to replace my truck which gets closer to 18mpg. Use less it will hurt them more.
About boycotting exxon,as bad as they are,is exxon any worse than many other big buinesses in the US nowadays?What about the drug companies,the insurance companies,the corporate media propanda stations like CNN,FOX etc. etc. etc.--the list can go on and on.The right thing to do is to "bring back" strict regulations on Big businesses,which the US "used" to have.By a few people boycotting a giant company,well thats like David versus 1000 Goliaths.Government is the only one with the muscle to slamdunk these criminals.But ya gotta wait cause right now:America is run by the rich and for the rich. 30 years ago this was NOT the case.
Agreed, but the only recourse we have in an unregulated capitalist economy is to put our money where our mouth is, hit the bastards where it hurts most, in the pocket book, since they don't seem capable of doing the right thing otherwise. By a few people, sure, but by enough people, we can make a difference. Corporations like wal-mart have been forced to change their business practices due to public outrage, which negatively affected their bottom line. They didn't make those changes out of the goodness of their hearts. I agree government oversight is necessary to curtail greed. The only way to bring back corporate regulation is to elect politicians who will make it happen... ...If that's even possible at this point... Otherwise all we can do is subsidize the least of the evils with our choices as informed consumers, or do without.
You raised some good points,key being electing officials that would take a hard stand against big business and of course bringing back regulations.AND in exxons case if enough people singled out exxon,it would be effective in some ways.The real answer is to get every big business special interest group out of Washington.These vermin have no place in goverment period.To quote John Edwards when dealing with insurance companies,drug companies etc. he said "You cannot be nice to these people".
LOL,,a thread to boycott exxon is started 2 weeks after they announced they will no longer sell gas at the retail level..way to stay informed folks... i guess that makes it a easy thing to boycott huh?? LOL actually you will find it nearly impossible to boycott them because there fuel and oil is sold under hundreds of different names..
I'll believe it when I see it, I still see lots of Exxons around. And if this is true, I agree it's a good way to work around what I'm suggesting, talk about strategic marketing, keep the Exxon name out of the public eye for a few years, and the American public will forget about it like we do everything else...
I found this link, pardon my ignorance. Exxon will still be selling it's gas through third parties using it's logo, but the cost of operating service stations is too high, so they're passing that cost on to third parties while maintaining their record profits. Pretty clever. Boycotting the Exxon logo will still be effective though.
You can't do much at the retail level as as already been discussed. All these companies are corporations with shareholders. Oil company stock is popular because it consistantly delievers a healthy return. Unknown to many, retirement funds often buy into this kind of stock in a major way. Your pension now or in the forseeable future is likely a result of this investment. You need to contact your employer to check into what your retirement plan has in it's portfolio. You then need to protest what you see if you find it offensive. Organize. Start a movement of fellow pensioners. Enlighten them. This is how to build a snowball on a hilltop. Push if you see the need. x
Just playing devils advocate but seriously, why does aprox 50-200 people need 5 BILLION dollars. Exxon has an accident (still scum bags but an accident nevertheless) and a bunch of people should get rich out the anus (insanely rich) for being in the right place at the right time. In Alaska you can live TWO wealthy life times with just a million dollars. The Supreme Court might have been playing buddy buddy with big business or they asked the same question I just have. Again... Just playing devil's advocate
Good point, something I've given some thought to since I posted this. Unfortunately if Exxon goes down, so do the rest of us, and if they're hurting it's not the corporate execs that make the decisions that suffer (other than the share holders complaining that the stock's down), it's the little guys at the pump that are screwed, especially now that they're getting rid of their retail. Now it'll be the third parties selling the gas that get hit with any repercussions. Isn't that always the way it works in corporate America. The scumbags at the top are insulated while everyone else pays the price for their poor decisions. The way I look at it, Exxon managed to stall the legal process for 20 years with their fancy lawyers until the republicans managed to stack the deck in their favor, with a supreme court that is sympathetic to corporate interests. Nice precedent. It'll take years to fix the damage the bush administration has done to the "justice" system, if it can be fixed. I will reiterate though that public opinion can affect the actions of large corporations. No one wants to be seen as the bad guys if they can help it, it's just a matter of public awareness, but don't count on main stream media for that. There were thousands of people effected, and they only got around 15 grand each. Not much, considering their lives were ruined.
