Some Alaskans like to whine about the horrible effects of the Exxon Valdez and they fought out a class action lawsuit with Exxon for 20 years over damages finally getting a billion and change out of Exxon after several trips to the USSC. But the reality is that for the State as a whole, the Exxon Valdez spill got us out of the depression induced by there being no follow-on development to Prudhoe Bay and the collapse of oil prices in the mid-’80s. Banks were folding, businesses closing, foreclosures were rampant, and people just driving up to the bank and putting the house keys in the night deposit box was a common event. At the State government level, there were more than a few pay days where we sweated making the payroll because oil revenue was so low. And then the Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef and spilled 11 Million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound.

There is only one narrow and mountainous road connecting Valdez, Alaska to the rest of the World. Valdez became the center of the recovery and cleanup work. Air access is by air taxi using mostly twin turboprops, though Alaska Airlines’ jets can get in there if your nerves are up to it. Whittier and and Seward on the western side of the Gulf have road and rail access but limited air access. Cordova, to the east of the spill area has no road access but twice daily jet service by Alaska Airlines. In those days communication was very difficult and really limited to the above towns; anything out in the actual spill area was by VHF radio or other radio-telephone service. From either Juneau or Anchorage the spill area was very far away!

And the whole economic and physical might of Exxon and the State of Alaska descended on those little towns practically overnight. Big oil companies don’t spend $5 when $50 will do, especially when they really need to look like they’re doing something, and Exxon poured money on that spill. Everybody with a claptrap boat that could get it to Valdez, Cordova, Whittier, or Seward had it chartered to Exxon or one of its subcontractors, especially the now notorious Veco, Inc. Everybody who could cut loose got over there to work, and in late March there are usually lots of unemployed people in Alaska, some of whom are even willing to get off the beach in Hawaii or Mexico and come home for work. They poured billions of dollars worth of materiel and labor into that cleanup and for the first time since early ’86, the CPI actually went up in Anchorage in the last half of ’89. Exxon threw about $5 Billion with a B at the cleanup and that cash injection got the Alaska economy moving again. In many ways it had a better impact than constructing the Pipeline because it didn’t attract so much Outside labor and the money stayed in the Alaska economy. So, there is an upside to even a lot of bad things.

That said, the PWS coast is almost entirely rocky “beaches,” sheer rock, or glacier faces and can fairly easily by washed off by weather and mechanical means, the US Gulf Coast has extensive marshes and wetlands that will be the devil’s own job to protect and clean, so everybody needs to prepare for seeing dead, oiled birds and animals ad nauseum in the MSM.

http://www.adn.com/2010/05/01/1258669/bp-didnt-plan-for-major-spill.html

It’s only a matter of time before the “Blame Bush” meme starts, you know. Of course, in this story you have the best of the leftwing press, the McClatchey-owned Anchorage Daily News, no fans of the oil industry, and the Associated Press.