It's been 15 years since the Exxon Valdez oil spill blow-off and the mighty Exxon still has no double-hulled tankers in which to carry the revered, yet damaging, oil through whatever waters it chooses in Alaska. Other oil companies have accomplished this goal, and it isn't as if the Exxon got fined into bankruptcy. It stil doesn't pay taxes.
The company is playing the waiting game: If it and Mobile, moan and groan long enough, the only shipyards left to build their cheap, but new tankers will be China, because the U.S. shipyards are going straight down the tubes along with safety regulations. All in the name of financial security, as usual. Whose financial security is never clear, but Exxon gets away with whatever is in its best interest.
On that note: Unocal, another non-payer who may or may not have a double-hulled tanker, is dumping its oil waste into the Cook Inlet. Close enough for you? Even if you haven't been paying attention,the result of the Prince William Sound oil spill has changed the diets of the Native population drastically.
Whether out of necessity or lack of ability to change, these people are dying of cancers not known when pristine food was going into pristine bellies.
Starvation is a tried and true method of extermination among the powers that be.
And aren't Alaska salmon being sold to the world as 100 percent natural? How will anyone know the difference if our waters are ranked right down with the worst? Exxon and Unocal are saving money, so who cares?
You may in 20 or 30 years.
Cheri Edwards
Soldotna
