Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

A third summer has passed since the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and one can see positive signs of environmental recovery in Prince William Sound. But, because the eyes can see only so much, the intellect remains wary. Just how bad, or good, is it now in one of America's most bountiful waterways after America's worst oil leak? Don't ask. Those who know will not tell. Certainly, they will not tell all.

President Obama has nominated an Alaska Supreme Court justice who earlier served on Planned Parenthood's board and battled Big Oil over the Exxon Valdez spill to a seat on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The White House announced late Wednesday that it was proposing Justice Morgan Christen for one of three open seats on the San Francisco-based appeals court. The proposed elevation of the 49-year-old Washington state native was made on the eve of a contentious vote called in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Obama's first nomination to the 9th Circuit, that of UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, which has languished in the Senate for 15 months.

After five years, several failed fish harvests, a huge wildlife death toll and discovery of what government scientists say are chronic and genetic injuries to marine life, the case of the Exxon Valdez oil spill is going to trial. Jury selection is scheduled to start today in U.S. District Court in the case of about 14,000 commercial fishermen, Alaska natives, property owners and others suing Exxon Corp. over the 1989 spill.

Richard N. Goldman, a San Francisco philanthropist and civic leader who co-founded the Goldman Environmental Prize to recognize grass-roots environmental activism around the world, has died. He was 90. Goldman, a passionate supporter of environmental causes, the Jewish community and Israel, died Monday at his San Francisco home, according to his family. The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, created in 1951 by Goldman and his wife, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has given away more than $680 million since its inception.

It has been said there are only two themes for all the stories in the world: A stranger rides into town, or a friend goes on a journey. An ambitious, accomplished account of how Exxon mismanaged the Valdez oil spill cleanup, John Keeble's "Out of the Channel" is a rare fusion of both themes. The stranger, of course, is Exxon, which rode into the small fishing communities of Valdez, Cordova and Port Graham, fragmenting and changing them profoundly.

Tides and times have been kind to Prince William Sound in the five years since the Exxon Valdez rammed a charted reef, dumping nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into pristine waters. Storms have scoured Alaska's 1,500 miles of polluted coastline, removing about half the oil embedded in some places. Many beaches look clean. Population forecasts for bald eagles are good. The tourists are back. "It's behind us," said John Manly, an aide to Gov. Walter J.

President Obama has nominated an Alaska Supreme Court justice who earlier served on Planned Parenthood's board and battled Big Oil over the Exxon Valdez spill to a seat on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The White House announced late Wednesday that it was proposing Justice Morgan Christen for one of three open seats on the San Francisco-based appeals court. The proposed elevation of the 49-year-old Washington state native was made on the eve of a contentious vote called in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Obama's first nomination to the 9th Circuit, that of UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, which has languished in the Senate for 15 months.

Richard N. Goldman, a San Francisco philanthropist and civic leader who co-founded the Goldman Environmental Prize to recognize grass-roots environmental activism around the world, has died. He was 90. Goldman, a passionate supporter of environmental causes, the Jewish community and Israel, died Monday at his San Francisco home, according to his family. The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, created in 1951 by Goldman and his wife, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has given away more than $680 million since its inception.

Exxon Mobil Corp. lost a bid to set aside a $5-billion punitive damage award stemming from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaskan waters. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the company's claim that the judgment should be overturned. Guide to Our Staff: Need to reach Business section reporters or editors? A guide to the section's staff can be found at http://www.latimes.com/bizstaff.

Exxon was granted a delay in its criminal trial until October on charges arising from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The giant oil company also wants an indefinite delay in civil damage trials now scheduled for 1992 or 1993, according to court papers. U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland in Anchorage set Oct. 7 for Exxon Corp. and Exxon Shipping Co. to face criminal charges.

Exxon Mobil Corp. must pay victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill $480 million more in interest on their delayed punitive damages awards as well as cover $70 million in the company's own appeals costs, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday brought to a close the 19-year legal battle over the Exxon Valdez oil spill by sharply reducing the punitive damages to be paid by Exxon Mobil Corp. The court ruled that the oil giant must pay $507 million -- about one-tenth of the original jury award -- to punish it for recklessly putting a known alcoholic in charge of a supertanker traveling a treacherous channel. The justices described Exxon's conduct as "worse than negligent but less than malicious." Capt.

Lawrence G. Rawl, a petroleum engineer who rose to become chairman and chief executive of Exxon Corp. and led the company's response to criticism after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, has died. He was 76. Rawl died Sunday in Fort Worth, the company said Monday. No cause of death was given. "Larry was a strong leader for our company and the petroleum industry," said Lee R. Raymond, Rawl's successor and now the chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp.

A federal judge Wednesday ordered Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay about $6.75 billion to thousands of Alaskans affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The ruling is the latest of several damage awards in the case over the last decade -- the result of successful appeals in federal court by Exxon. The company plans to appeal again. The ruling by U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland ordered Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, to pay $4.5 billion in punitive damages and about $2.25 billion in interest.

A federal judge Friday reduced by $1 billion the damage award against Exxon Mobil Corp. for spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound 13 years ago. U.S. District Judge Russel Holland reduced the original $5-billion punitive damages award to $4 billion. An Alaska jury in 1994 approved the original award in the Exxon Valdez spill, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found it excessive and sent the case back to Holland. Exxon Mobil says it will appeal the new figure.

A federal appeals court Wednesday struck down a $5-billion punitive damage judgment against Exxon Mobil Corp. stemming from the massive 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, ruled, 3 to 0, that the award was excessive on several grounds. At $5 billion, the punitive award--the largest ever at the time it was awarded--was 17 times more than the $287-million in compensatory damages granted by a jury in 1994.

Exxon Valdez Trials Set for 1993: A judge in Anchorage has ordered civil trials over the Exxon Valdez oil spill to begin in April, 1993. Superior Court Judge Brian Shortell divided the cases into requests for punitive damages and lawsuits filed for other compensation. Exxon Corp. lawyers have said they expect to turn over about 30 million pages of documents for the trials and face about 19,000 lawsuits over the nation's worst oil spill.

The toll of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill is a sadly familiar one: 250,000 dead birds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals--all victims of the oil tanker that ran over a reef late one April night and drained 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. There are others whom almost no one talks about, although unlike the birds, most of them are still alive. They are the people who scraped oil off the beaches, skimmed it off the top of the water, hosed it off rocks.

Mike Angaiak crouches on his knees on the rocky beach at Snug Harbor, scraping the bottom of a sandy pit with a trowel. Finding nothing, he refills the pit with gray sand and rocks and moves on to a spot about six feet away. Angaiak tosses aside rocks and boulders and starts to dig another hole. But this time, the sand beneath the rocks is deep brown and oily. "Ugh," he says as he lifts an oiled rock from the freshly dug hole and sniffs it. "You can smell it."