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Ted Stevens Takes Aim At Exxon

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is a busy guy, what with the FBI raiding his house and all. But recently he took time out of his regular pork-barrel business to return to the practice of law. Stevens is a Harvard Law school grad, and was a practicing lawyer before he was elected to Congress in 1964. He recently dusted off his law books and wrote an amicus brief on behalf of Alaska fisherpeople who sued Exxon after a drunk sea captain crashed its oil tanker, the Valdez, into Prince William Sound in 1989, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the delicate ecosystem.

An Alaska jury hit Exxon with a $5 billion verdict in 1994, but Exxon hasn’t paid a dime of it. Instead, it has appealed the case for so long that 8,000 of the original class members in the lawsuit have since died without seeing the case resolved, according to the Anchorage Daily News.In the latest installment of the long-running litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in October to hear the case.

Sen. Stevens has written an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs, drawing on his vast knowledge of maritime law that includes a law review article he wrote back in 1950, which is cited in the brief, according to the Wall Street Journal. Stevens told the Journal that he didn’t think the justices would actually look up his article, but that he wanted to establish that he had some expertise in the area. “I don’t imagine the justices look at these amicus briefs that much,” he said.

Comments

it's a series of tubes!

I'll be darned. First good thing Ted Stevens has ever done?

Posted by: Rawlston on 02/06/08 at 9:23 AM Respond

Wow, thank you, Senator, for actually doing something for your constituents, in between drafting proposals for the next Bridge to Nowhere. Kudos, sir.

Posted by: Charity on 02/06/08 at 9:28 AM Respond

I understand the attorney on the short list for Attorney General if Hillary wins is a lawyer defending Exxon in this suit.

Love it when Hillary stands up for the little guy.

Posted by: elydog on 02/06/08 at 11:25 AM Respond

If, Senator Stevens knew anything about the law maybe
he would had something done
to Exxon For sure.
But, I laughed at how little
he knew about the internet,
so I suppose he came out about
the same on Exxon.
He really should retire, like some of the others up there.

Posted by: Virgie on 02/06/08 at 11:35 AM Respond

Drunk captain is not the true story. The captain was drunk but was not on the bridge at the time.

Further, Exxon was in direct violation of the agreement they signed with respect to safety precautions. This agreement was a requirement in order to use Valdez as the port for their oil.

Check out the real story about Exxon (and BP) with respect to Valdez at my blog. It's pretty shocking how foreseeable and avoidable this was.

tinyurl.com/39j9rz

Don't believe blogs? Neither do I. So, I provided links to real information in my post.

Posted by: Misanthropic Scott on 02/06/08 at 2:02 PM Respond