Exxon Mobil profit hits new record high of $39.5 billion

"ExxonMobil has reported that its 2006 profit rose to a new record of 39.5 billion dollars in a year that saw all-time highs in crude oil prices.
Broken down by hour, this figure represents a profit of $4.5 million an hour, $108 million a day, or $337,500 a minute."


Damage of Exxon Valdez endures

"Oil from the massive Exxon Valdez spill, which coated 1,200 miles of Alaskan coast when the tanker ran aground in March 1989, continues to threaten the damaged ecosystem there long after experts believed it would dissipate.
When the ship hit Bligh Reef, it released as much as 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's pristine Prince William Sound and parts of the Gulf of Alaska. The spill was the largest in U.S. history, the Environmental Protection Agency says, and killed an untold number of fish, birds, seals and sea otters.
(...)
Seventeen years ago, scientists predicted that the oil would be long gone by now. "We expected the natural decay rate was 25% a year. But very little of the oil actually disappeared," says Jeffrey Short, a NOAA research chemist. "What's left is going to be there a long time."