Senate Proceeding 03-24-09 on Mar 24th, 2009 :: 0:00:25 to 0:10:00
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Frank Lautenberg: environmental history in our world, particularly in our country. mr. lautenberg: and while debate goes on about what corporate america has done and what they haven't done and how we should treat them in trying to get our economy back on track

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Speech By: Frank Lautenberg

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Frank Lautenberg: and we've heard questions raised about corporate behavior. i came out of the corporate world when i came to the senate and it seemed to me that things were different years ago. but over

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Frank Lautenberg: heard many in these chambers here and in the house of representatives call on companies to be better corporate citizens. and today i rise to point out what may be the greatest abandonment of corporate citizenship in our nation's

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Frank Lautenberg: history and that was displayed by the exxon corporation, one of the most profitable companies in american history, but 20 years ago this day o

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Frank Lautenberg: ran aground in alaska and still exxon refuses to live up to the obgations that it obtained when that ship ran it damaged the environment substantially. 20 years ago today the exxon

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Frank Lautenberg: valdez crashed into the blye reef in alaska's prince william sound. that ship spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil damaging 1,300 miles of shoreline and ruining the lives of thousands of americans.

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Frank Lautenberg: now, as chairman of the subcommittee with appropriations jurisdiction over the coast guard, i was taken by two -- to alaska by the coast guard and arrived there three days after the exxon valdez ran aground.

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Frank Lautenberg: to see the damages was horrifying. and -- but also during those days there, during that first da worked for discussion we often have about

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Frank Lautenberg: government servants and their obligations, there, i would say, having come from the corporate world, there are few more mindful of their obligations than those who work for government. and that day -- that day i saw from a helicopter that i flying in so many of our people committed to their

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Frank Lautenberg: responsibilities dealing with the problem, brave people traveling to tiny islands by helicopter and small boats and their mission was to save the wildlife. and i saw many of them up fairly close taking birds and mammals

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Frank Lautenberg: and young mammals particularly and fish into their hands and wiping the save the one by one wherever they could

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Frank Lautenberg: they life. it was devastating to see. it was obvious as one looked at the waters of principle sound, beautiful, beautiful place surrounded by

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Frank Lautenberg: almost seductive color that came from the oil was at the se time dealing out poisons. and portions of man -- many portions of prince william sound today remain contaminated.

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Frank Lautenberg: the canary workers, fishermen, families whose lives depended on the still paying a price and the local economy is still reeling. think about it. so much time has passed since

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Frank Lautenberg: this bill that as people injured by that disaster have already passed away. these people fully compensated for their loss. exxon was responsible for this

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Frank Lautenberg: menace, but the -- balked at every step to shirk their responsibilities. ever since the disaster exxon has defaulted on its obligations and a corrate citizen and refused to repair all comm that

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Frank Lautenberg: instead during all of this period exxon has fought tooth and nail to deprive the victims of proper compensation. spending as much as $400 million to attain lawyers and keep things bottled up in court.

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Frank Lautenberg: exxon took its fight all the way to supreme court and last year 19 years after the tragedy, the justices confirmed that exxon owes punitive damages to the victims although they and their

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Frank Lautenberg: skillful hordes of lawyers succeeded in reducing the amo of compensation. still, even today, 20 years later, the company continues to stonewall the victims by trying tovoid paying the that fell on these charges.

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Frank Lautenberg: exxon's actions are the of corporate irresponsibility. and as a former c.e.o. of a major corporation, i understand the drive to succeed, but there's nothing more reprehensible than evading its obligations to our country's people just to make a

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Frank Lautenberg: quick buck. to avoid legitimate responsibility as giant factor in our economy and social well-being. they have that responsibility. exxon had record profits last year of $45 billion. and even last quarter when companies across the country

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Frank Lautenberg: were suffering, this company, exxon, posted a profit of nearly nearly $8 billion in a single quarter, $8 billion. now it would have been a drop in the bucket for this corporation to fully compensate the who were so severely hurt. but all the money, energy, and

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Frank Lautenberg: time that exxon has wasted should have been spent make local communities whole again and helping environmental and economic damage don to alaska's prince william sound. the truth is exxon needs to change its ways

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Frank Lautenberg: 20th anniverry valdez disasse disaster is a perfect opportunity. madam president, on this anniversary we're also reminded how dangerous transporting oil can be, and that's why i've introduced a bill this day that will accelerate the use of

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Frank Lautenberg: double hulled vessels by shippers. oil spills are absolutely catastrophic to the envonment, seaside communities, and influence wide geographic areas beyond those. after examining the causes of past spills, we've written a

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Frank Lautenberg: bill to substantially reduce the possibilities of future spills. so i look forward to seeing this bill passed by thi chamber and to working with colleagues to make sure that the disasters like the someone that we saw 20