"Why does the way of the guilty prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?"
Jeremiah 12:1 NRSV
When I began my other blog, Lion Lamb, 13 years ago to the month, my second, rather tentative post was about the crime of the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster of thirty years ago which did untold environmental damage which still has repercussions. My indignation arose from the vast profits the oil giant continued to make -- $10 billion US in a quarter -- and how there seemed to be no accountability. I quoted from the prophet Jeremiah as a crie de coeur. I've been earnest about environmental degradation for a long time!
Exxon Valdez disaster and species affected
Have the chickens, or oil-soaked seabirds, finally come home to roost? Exxon is currently on trial in New York State, not for that oil-spill, but for defrauding shareholders by misrepresenting how carbon regulation would affect the company's financial outlook. This is only the second such trial in America but it could open the door for more lawsuits. There is even a Canadian connection here because one focus in the case will be Exxon's investment in the carbon-intensive Alberta tar sands, a project that some investors feel won't make financial sense under tougher climate regulations.
Exxon and other oil companies may have known about the impact of human-made climate change for decades and suppressed sharing their own research. More recently oil company execs have conceded that the climate emergency is real, but this is disingenuous, to say the least.
The current lawsuit will likely be long and arduous but at the very least it is challenging the right of corporate entities to plunder the planet's resources without consequences. Some are wondering if this is Big Oil's moment of reckoning as we saw with Big Tobacco decades ago.
There may even be answers to Jeremiah's prophetic questions and to those who have challenged the powerful in our time.
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