Switch to Desktop Site  High court to hear Exxon Valdez damages
case  At issue: Should the company pay $2.5 billion in punitive
damages for the 1989 oil spill?   Awaiting verdict: Steve Smith,
a Cordova, Alaska, fisherman, saw the local fishing industry
decline in the years after the massive 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill.  Al Grillo/AP  About these ads  Nineteen years after the
tanker Exxon Valdez spilled some 258,000 barrels of oil into the
pristine waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound, the debate
still rages over how much Exxon should pay beyond the $3.4
billion it has already spent on cleanup.  On Wednesday, that
question arrives at the US Supreme Court, where the justices
must decide whether to uphold a $2.5 billion punitive-damages
judgment against Exxon Shipping. It is said to be the largest
punitive damages award ever sustained by a federal appeals
court.  The case, Exxon Shipping Co. v. Grant Baker, is being
closely followed by shipping executives, environmental
activists, oil-industry officials, and