oil tanker disaster

The 2009 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference features a lot o' speakers and panels (various of us are popping in and out, and Camilla's there for the duration). One of the speakers, on Sunday at 12:15 pm in the EMU Ballroom, is Riki Ott.

Ott tells the story of the legal fight against Exxon in her new book, Not One Drop. She's a marine biologist and thought about making a living as a commercial fisher, but then ... well, we know what happened in March, 1989.

If you don't, here's a CBS story not only on the spill but on the massive economic devastation in the fishing community, and on the shock of the Supreme Court June, 2008, ruling that basically told Exxon "Whatever. That was then, and why should you have to pay for what you let happen?"

Just in case you missed the info? Exxon made more than $45 billion in profits in 2008.

I'm pretty sure Riki Ott is still fighting. I can't go hear her on Sunday, but I hope some of y'all can. The publisher produced a pretty compelling trailer for the book, which I've embedded here.