For Immediate Release: March 27, 2006
Contact: Shawnee Hoover, 202-546-9707

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(Washington, DC) - More than 2300 people involved with the Exxpose Exxon coalition called ExxonMobil's executive offices on Friday, March 24, 2006 to commemorate the anniversary of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and demand payment for the spill victims.

“March 24th should never be just another day at ExxonMobil headquarters,” said Exxpose Exxon campaign director Shawnee Hoover. “Company executives need to be reminded that people are watching with disgust year after year as the company defies its legal obligation to pay for the damage it’s done.”

Despite record profits of $36.1 billion in 2005, ExxonMobil continues to fight the $4.5 billion in punitive damages it owes to 30,000 fisherman, Alaskan natives, and others whose lives and livelihoods were devastated by the 1989 oil spill. An estimated 3,000 plaintiffs have died since the court ordered the compensation in 1994.

"They should be scrambling on this significant day," says Dr. Riki Ott, commercial fisherman in Alaska and author of Sound Truth and Corporate Myths: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. "It means a lot to our communities here in Prince William Sound that so many people are pressuring ExxonMobil to be accountable for the devastation it caused."

In February 2005, the long-running case went again before the courts and ExxonMobil continued to appeal the former rulings and argue that the criminal penalty be reduced to $25 million. Plaintiffs argue that ExxonMobil is fighting so hard because it does not want such a strong precedent set for oil spills.

The infamous spill that contaminated 1,300 miles of beaches and surface waters and killed thousands of marine animals is the world’s largest and most ecologically devastating oil spill to date.

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