Adam Wall

Exxon Mobile

            I have been talking about oil a lot on this blog. It runs our world though and it’s extremely important to the human race. It runs our lives. This week, oil is again in the news. Oil spills have happened a lot over the past few decades and they destroy environments, they are terrible and whole ecosystems can collapse just because of oil. The Yellowstone River this week had an oil pipeline burst, releasing over 50,000 gallons of oil into the surrounding area. There is more on the spill here. 

            Exxon Mobile has gone through this routine multiple times.  They’ve gone through multiple spills before, such as in 2011 and of course a really devastating spill in 1989. You would think that they would learn there lesson by now but nope, they keep on not being careful with a substance that ruins ecosystems and bad things keep happening. They’ve paid millions of dollars in repairing damages to the environment and ecosystem but it doesn’t seem to harm the company and oil spills still keep happening. The government usually does nothing other than give a small fee to the oil company. No trade or consumer restrictions, no slowing production, just a small fine that is like pocket change to such a large oil company such as Exxon Mobile. The government needs to lay down the law; just these small fines won’t stop spills. By applying harsher penalties on oil companies, we can force them to better protect the environment through better built pipes and better procedures.