A Citizen’s Guide

Former News-Miner reporter R.A. Dillon, now working for Oil Daily in Washington, D.C., is in Juneau this week watching the proceedings. He sends us this entry for the InfoPipe while the regular contributing duo of Milkowski and Lidji rests up:

Dillingham Democratic Rep. Bryce Edgmon proposed an amendment in House Resources this afternoon that would require oil companies with large civil judgments pending against them to place the potential payout in an account controlled by the court before they could claim tax credits under the oil tax bill.

The full interest earned on the money would go to the winner of the case.

The amendment is aimed at Exxon Mobil and the Exxon Valdez oil spill case. Under existing law, the $2.5 billion judgment against Exxon in that case is earning a far greater internal rate of return (some are throwing around the number of 25 percent) than the about 7 percent interest the company would be required to pay plaintiffs if it loses the case.

Edgmon and Anchorage Democrat Rep. Max Gruenberg said the measure would speed up resolution of disputes and ensure the major oil companies can’t earn a profit off of money that they say rightly belongs to plaintiffs.

The amendment was approved by a 5-to-4 vote, a reflection of the frustration some lawmakers feel with Exxon. The amendment is likely to be removed when the bill reaches House Finance later this week. It could come up again when the bill reaches the floor.

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez struck the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, dumping 11 million gallons of crude oil. Exxon has appealed the original $5 billion punitive damage judgment, later cut in half, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has said it will take the case. About 33,000 fishermen, Alaska Natives and others have been waiting since 1992 to be reimbursed for lost income