Exxon Mobil Records 10 Billion in Quarterly Profits

Sometimes the irony in the daily news is just too good to ignore. Today's report of Exxon Mobil's $10.7 billion fourth quarter profit and record setting $36 billion annual profit, and yes those are billions with a b, comes only three days after Exxon appeared in court for the third time appealing an original $10 billion damage award for the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster. Exxon argues that it should only pay $25 million in punitive damages for its egregious actions that resulted in the massive Prince William Sound oil spill in 1989. The New York Times reported today that Exxon Mobil's 2005 profits set a new record for corporate profits, surpassing the earlier record of $25.3 billion, which Exxon Mobil had set in 2004, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York.

For just one perspective on the record setting profits, the NYT's reports that Exxon's annual revenue of $371 billion surpassed the $245 billion gross domestic product of Indonesia, an OPEC member and the world's fourth most populous country, with 242 million people. This while the company that put a drunk in charge of the Exxon Valdez supertanker and spilled about 30 million gallons of crude oil (56% of its cargo) into the ecological jewel that was Prince William Sound, argues that its actions deserve less than $1 per gallon in punitive damages. Exxon's actions that 1989 day, according to Sound Truths and Corporate Myth$ author Riki Ott, Ph.D., ultimately led to crude oil contamination over 3200 miles of Alaska's shorelines, stretching over 1200 miles from Bligh Reef past the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island to parts of the Alaska Peninsula.

Ott's meticulously documented 2004 book, Sound Truths and Corporate Myth$, details the devastation left by the spill not only in immediate terms of marine life, but also by the massively damaging human health and marine life effects of the pressurized hot water wash 'cleanup' that Exxon rushed into action after failing to contain the spill. Ott notes that just by the end of 1989, the so-called cleanup had killed by weight as much plant and animal life as the initial oiling. Ott documents how cleanup workers, most hired on contract by Exxon and rushed in to work without respirators and with inadequate other protective gear, suffer long term nerve, skin and respiratory damage as well as the potential mutagenic effects of the primary active ingredient of the cleanup, 2-butoxyethanol.

Riki Ott Ph.D.

Ott Watch

Ott's book grabs the reader's interest and never lets go. It in fact reads better than most fictional mysteries, even though it is a meticulously researched and documented scientific and cultural tale. I highly recommend picking up a copy and giving it to all your friends as well. If reading the book sounds a little daunting however, buy the DVD of her presentation on the oil spill and aftermath or catch Dr. Ott in one of her many live presentations around the country. Her traveling itinerary and booking information can be found at the Sound Truths, Corporate Myth$ website. One great opportunity is coming up soon at the prestigious Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Monday, February 6, 5:30 PM Reception/6 PM Program, 595 Market Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco. For reservations and more information: http://www.commonwealthclub.org/