Exxon Valdez – Stark lessons for complacent Guyanese

Feb 26, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Our headline of Wednesday, February 22 (“Exxon beat down US$5B court judgment for fishermen, natives, landowners to US$507M”) should serve as a wakeup call for all Guyanese on how well ExxonMobil manages itself when cornered. The American oil giant uses every available avenue, every legal manoeuvre, and spends whatever it has to in legal fees to defeat all those who challenge it. ExxonMobil rarely loses, and even when such appears to be the case, it still comes out ahead, as it did in Alaska. Though we had editorialized about this before, we believe that this is so vitally important to the welfare of Guyanese that we do so again today.

The Exxon Valdez rupture in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989 was a catastrophe. The toll on wildlife, the pristine Alaskan environment, and the way of life of tens of thousands of Alaskans was straight out of a nightmare, an utter devastation. In double quick time, the warhorses of Exxon (after 1999, ExxonMobil) were unleashed. One of the trademarks of Exxon, then and now, is never to admit responsibility, never to anything. This is regardless of how glaring is the connection. Like a well-oiled machinery, the contingencies of crisis managers and legal case managers, are all given marching orders to take the tough approach immediately, yield no ground. The public relations spin doctors earn their money in times like these, with the only objective being to make Exxon look angelic, nowhere at fault, even in the most blatant of involvements.

To put differently, what is set in motion is layers upon layers of protection for the company, with its messages designed to insulate at all costs, and by any means. Top politicians are sometimes recruited; friendly agents in science and academia earn their dollar by spitting out defenses and rationalizations that deliver covers under which Exxon shelters. The bottom line is for Exxon not to part with a single dollar. The company prefers to spend millions on lawyers, lobbyists, and propagandists to make its case than to give anything, not even the courtesy of an apology, for a disastrous deed like what happened in Alaska in Prince William Sound 33 years ago. In the end, a court judgment of US$5B was reduced by almost 90% to just over a half billion American dollars.

Why should Exxon care about the plight of the people of Alaska (fishermen, landowners, others)? If Exxon could have fought tooth and nail, never giving up an inch, against Americans, what would it not do to Guyanese in the event of a cataclysmic oil spill in its offshore Guyana operations? If this could be the thinking, the hard response, of Exxon when the livelihoods of fellow Americans were at stake, then what would it not do when poor, at sea, coloured people are the ones paying bitter prices for the farces and failures of both the company and compromised local politicians? And when the robust American court system could be toyed with, exhausted in this manner, then what kind of chance do Guyanese in trouble have against this American oil monstrosity?

We have already seen the incomparable potency and coldhearted nature of ExxonMobil in action in Guyana. The 2016 oil contract, which reduced the APNU+AFC Coalition Government to bystanders at its own funeral. The PPPC Government and its leadership forced to eat their words, and backtrack while licking ExxonMobil’s boots in abject surrender where that same vile contract is concerned. The local Environmental Protection Agency rendered into a crippled shadow of itself, lacking voice, or any stoniness in its anatomy. And we have seen how ExxonMobil, without saying one word, has an army of Guyanese analysts, Guyanese authorities, and Guyanese mouthpieces collapsing into a puddle, while proudly singing tributes to the goodness and greatness of the American oil superpower. All the learning that some Guyanese have obtained is dedicated to rolling over before ExxonMobil, selling themselves.

We at this paper have been begging for the proper liability coverage, stronger laws and regulations, more determined leaders. ExxonMobil has won in every instance. Guyanese had better come to their senses: ExxonMobil is not a trusted partner, will never be on their side. Not when money is on the table.

Alaska, Editorial, Exxon, Guyanese, Prince William Sound, Valdez

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