Here Comes the Judge

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Exxon Mobile for damages resulting from the spill of 1,200 barrels of oil from its Silvertip pipeline into the Yellowstone River near Billings, Montana.

Billings attorney Cliff Edwards filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday in Yellowstone County District Court on behalf of eight landowners. The suit asks for a jury trial and unspecified punitive damages from Exxon for long-term harm to their land and businesses.

“The only thing corporations understand is money, and I intend to cost them enough money for what they did to make them think twice before they do this again.” Edwards said. “This is outrageous.”

LINK (Via: The Billings Gazette)

Just Don't Eat the Nads

Fish exposed to an Exxon Mobil Corp. oil spill into the Yellowstone River are safe to eat despite some crude found in their internal organs, state wildlife officials said Thursday.

Small amounts of oil were detected in the livers and gonads of some of the fish.

LINK (Via: The Flahead Beacon)

And up from the ground came a bubbling crude....

...tar sands oil that is, more toxic and corrosive than the sweet stuff.

An Exxon Mobil pipeline that ruptured, leaking oil into Yellowstone River, may have sometimes carried a heavier and more toxic form of crude than initially thought, federal regulators said on Thursday.

Richard Opper, head of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said he was surprised to learn the pipeline buried in the streambed of the Yellowstone may sometimes have moved tar sands crude from Canada.

"If the question is, did we know it was carrying tar sands oil? Hell, no," he said in an interview on Thursday. "If companies are changing the kinds of materials in pipelines to mixes that make them more likely they will leak or rupture, that raises huge concerns."

LINK (Via: Reuters)