ExxonMobil must pay $236M for N.H. pollution

ExxonMobil must pay $236M for N.H. pollution

www.usatoday.com...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Exxon Mobil was found liable Tuesday in a long-running lawsuit over groundwater contamination caused by the gasoline additive MTBE. The jury ordered the oil giant to pay $236 million to New Hampshire to clean it up.

The jurors reached their verdicts in less than 90 minutes, after sitting through nearly three months of testimony in the longest state trial in New Hampshire history.

Less than 90 minutes it took the jury to come to a verdict after a grueling 3 month trial AND Exxon says there was still more evidence that was never presented (butthurt) BUT either way, only 90 minutes and New Hampshire was awarded over a quarter billion dollars & 16 million from Citgo who was a co-defendant that settled out of court. Word is 600 wells so far have come up with MTBE in their water and an expert testified that number could reach over 5000 so NH has a lot of work ahead of them, expensive work.

So Big Oil fouls up again but with record earnings I'm sure they can handle losing a little over a quarter billion dollars and Citgo losing 16 million is chump change.

reply to post by Swills


That's not really a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.

These fines need to be much larger.
They need to make the companies hurt financially.
If the fines were huge there would be no premiums for shareholders.

That is the only way that you will ever be able to change the way they do business.

reply to post by creatives


I already agree that the fines won't hurt their pockets especially Citgo's out of court settlement. At the end of the day if lawsuits and fines became bigger and bigger these companies would just increase the price of gas, as if it's not bad enough.

The only thing we can hope for is an alternative fuel that is truly green somehow makes its way into this world, but these Big Oil companies will be damned if that's ever gonna happen.

reply to post by creatives


Agreed. Drop in the bucket to these guys.

The world’s second-largest publicly traded company after Apple said its net income was $44.9 billion in 2012, including about $10 billion in the fourth quarter, a 6 percent jump from the same period in 2011. The company’s fourth quarter earnings per share was $2.20. Exxon Mobil’s earnings for the year were up 9 percent from 2011.

The difference between a billion and a million is not just a letter.

.fuelfix.com...

Double post.

When this kind of stuff happens, they just rise the price of gas and oil to cover the expenses. It isn't as if it effects the people running the company one bit. Everything is passed on to the consumer. I bet very little of the settlement even goes to the people or to fix the problem. The state will just spend the money on other things that are not important. Maybe the sixteen million will be used to bring water to the effected homes through a pipeline. I bet the people in the homes will have to pay to have it hooked up in their house. Then they will have high water bills from then on

Considering how much they much they rake in, that's a drop in the bucket. It's always about dollars. Enviormental impact be damned. Spill some toxic oil? Throw some paper at it.