🚢 Oil Spill Incident: An oil tanker ran aground today off the northernmost ice-free port, Valdes, Alaska, resulting in one of the worst oil spills in US history.

🌊 Impact: The spill released 240,000 barrels (or 11 million gallons) of Alaskan crude oil, leading to images of blackened beaches and dying wildlife.

⚠️ Response Issues: The response was slow and inadequate, with no recovery equipment on the water 9 hours after the wreck. Neither Exxon nor the Alaska pipeline company was prepared for such a large spill.

🛑 Captain's Responsibility: The captain was found to have been drinking and was not on the bridge at the time of the accident. This incident highlighted the oil industry's negligence regarding safety protocols.

📉 Long-term Effects: Over two decades later, the environment has not fully recovered, and Exxon has paid $300 million to those affected, with a jury awarding an additional $5 billion in punitive damages.

🔍 Lessons Not Learned: A presidential commission found that many lessons from the Exxon Valdes spill were forgotten, leading to inadequate preparedness for future spills, as seen in the BP oil spill.

📅 Future Commitments: New commitments have been made to improve spill prevention and response, but skepticism remains about whether the lessons of the Exxon Valdes have truly been learned.