1989: Exxon Valdez—The Ocean Never Forgot

On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by Exxon Corporation, slammed into a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. It dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into the water.
Wildlife died choking. Coastlines turned black. Generations of Indigenous fishing communities were devastated.

They called it an accident.

But here’s what really happened:

The Spill Wasn’t an Accident—It Was Business as Usual

• Exxon had slashed costs, reducing the number of crew on board.
• Radar that could’ve prevented the disaster was broken—and left unfixed to save money.
• Response teams were underfunded, undertrained, and too slow. Exxon didn’t care—they’d already sold the oil.

It wasn’t a fluke. It was the inevitable result of a system that values profit over people, ecosystems, or the future.

Who Paid the Price?

• Thousands of sea otters, eagles, orcas, and fish species—dead or disrupted for decades.
• Alutiiq, Eyak, and other Indigenous communities, whose subsistence economies were devastated.
• Small fishermen and workers—many lost their livelihoods forever.

And Exxon?
They made record profits the following year.

They spent more on PR than on cleanup.
They got their fines reduced.
They appealed.
They lobbied.
They walked.

The Courts Helped Them Get Away With It

In 2008—almost 20 years later—the U.S. Supreme Court slashed the damages Exxon owed from $5 billion to $500 million.

A drop in the bucket.
A slap on the wrist.

What We Learned

• Corporations will always cut corners when no one’s watching.
• Regulatory agencies are often toothless or captured.
• The Earth is not a line item—and they’ll never see it that way.
• Real accountability doesn’t come from courts—it comes from us.

Never Let Them Rewrite It as a Footnote

They want us to forget. They want it to sound like it was just “bad luck” or “a tragic spill.”

But the Exxon Valdez was a crime.
A crime against ecosystems. A crime against communities.
And it still happens. Every time a pipeline leaks, a train derails, a refinery explodes—it’s not fate. It’s greed with legal cover.

We remember the wreckage.
We remember the lies.
We build what they break.
And we never let them off the hook.