Spill Has Cost Exxon $1.9 Billion, Skinner Says

Exxon has spent an “unbelievable” $1.9 billion cleaning up last spring’s Alaskan oil spill, Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said Monday.

It was the highest detailed estimate of the cleanup cost for the March 24 spill yet given by the government or the company.

Skinner, continuing his long-running praise of Exxon’s efforts, said the full story of the extent of the cleanup after the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound has not been told. The ship spilled more than 10 million gallons of Alaskan crude oil that spread over a vast area.

“It should never have happened, but at least a very substantial, good-faith effort has been made to clean up that spill,” Skinner said at a year-end session with reporters.

“The last number I heard from Exxon Corp. is that they have spent 1 billion, 900 million dollars in their cleanup effort since the accident. That is an unbelievable number,” Skinner said.

Perry Smith, spokesman for Exxon in Alaska, said the company’s only public declaration of what it has spent is “over a billion dollars,” including $160 million in claims paid to fishermen and others who said they were harmed by the spill. He said no other breakdown of company expenditures was available.

Les Rogers, an Exxon spokesman in Houston, also said he could not confirm Skinner’s figure.

Skinner also predicted Monday that random drug tests will reveal an “alarming amount of drug usage” among people responsible for the safety of land, air and sea transportation.

Rules begin taking effect in two weeks that require random and other drug tests for millions of airline, railroad, mass transit, bus company, boat, trucking company and pipeline employees.

Skinner said companies must comply with the new rule if court orders do not stop the tests. Several suits have been filed by workers to stop the federally imposed program. Start-up dates for the tests vary by modes of transportation.