A mere 20 years after the spill, we're seeing yet another ruling come down on the Exxon Valdez spill. 

This time, an appeals court has awarded the plaintiffs (you know, the folks whose lives were destroyed by one of the worst oceanic oil spills in our history) a little over $500 million in settlement money, and another $500 million in interest. 

I know what you're thinking - a billion dollars is a lot of dang money - but there are 33K plaintiffs, which comes down to about 30,303.03 per person whose life and livelihood was wrecked by the spill. 

You may recall the Supreme Court last year ruled the maximum penalty could be $507.5 million. 

Add to that the reality that the original penalty was $5 billion, and has been cut down 90% to $500M, and that Exxon had the gall to ask the court that the plaintiffs pay their $70 million legal bill. 

Thankfully the court denied that request. 

Of course, we'll still see Exxon taking THIS ruling back to court, dragging it on even further, which ultimately appears to be their thing.