Ooh, THAT Stings: Exxon Fined ONE MILLION DOLLARS For 2011 Yellowstone River Crude Spill

[hatrack]

ILLINGS – Federal officials have issued a $1 million penalty against Exxon Mobil Corp. for safety violations stemming from a pipeline rupture in 2011 that spilled 63,000 gallons of crude into Montana’s Yellowstone River.

The Department of Transportation order issued Friday reduces the penalty as originally proposed by about $700,000. That comes after the Irving, Texas-based oil company challenged some claims that it didn’t do enough to prevent the accident.

The pipeline break during summer flooding near Laurel left oil along an 85-mile stretch of the Yellowstone, killing fish and wildlife and prompting a cleanup that took months.

Safety regulators said in part that Exxon Mobil had failed to adequately heed warnings that its 20-year-old Silvertip Pipeline was at risk. The company “did not evaluate the likelihood of a release caused by flooding of the Yellowstone River, and failed to consider risk factors relevant to flooding,” wrote Jeffrey Wiese, associate administrator for the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

EDIT

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/jan/24/exxon-fined-1-million-for-2011-montana-oil-spill/

[merrily]

1. Well, there goes a fiftieth of the petty cash drawer.

[Phlem]

7. yep.

a proverbial drop of oil in a barrel.

[sarge43]

8. Coffee fund. n/t

[LiberalEsto]

2. Perfect image

One MILLION Dollars

[GoneFishin]

3. That's a riot. When I read the link ^this^ picture is EXACTLY what popped into

my mind.

I was trying to remember this movie characters name when his faced loaded onto my screen.

It's all about making the number sound big to a naive public. They probably spend that much on urinal cakes in the executive washrooms in a day.

[niyad]

4. a million to clean up this mess?? they probably had that much in loose change in the couches.

The pipeline break during summer flooding near Laurel left oil along an 85-mile stretch of the Yellowstone, killing fish and wildlife and prompting a cleanup that took months.

[Nay]

5. Boy howdy! That oughta hurt 'em!!!!

[Android3.14]

6. Bullshit

We should base fines on gross income. A million barely registers as a friendly tickle.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. Dr. Evil.

Exactly my first thought.

No more memo pads for staff, this month.

[2naSalit]

10. Not even a shoeshine's tip for these fuckers.

Totally f'ing pisses me off. I'm Montana resident and this is what we have here, apologetic shills running the regulatory and judicial processes. It's over the Bakken area so nobody's gonna mess with those jobs over there, so what if the ecosystem is trashed?

[rhett o rick]

11. That really means nothing. It looks good but Exxon can fight it for years and when it's forgotten

some Republican judge will reduce the fine. That's what happened with the Exxon Valdez disaster.

[defacto7]

12. Over which time

several million $ will go to pay the lawyers and the fine basically disappears. The lawyers profit, Exxon pays them, and the silly little fine is forgotten. That's the game.