BLOG: ExxonMobil to pay $2.5 million for polluting the Gulf

A recently announced settlement between the Environmental Protection Agency and ExxonMobil will force the oil giant to pay $2.5 million in damages for its role in polluting the Gulf region. Specifically, the settlement is the result of accusations that eight of ExxonMobil's plants in Texas and Louisiana violated the Clean Air Act.

The EPA has stated that the settlement represents the Trump administration — which has been criticized for undermining environmental standards — taking environmental enforcement seriously.

While it's good that ExxonMobil will be forced to pay some money for its role in polluting the Gulf, the amount of $2.5 million that ExxonMobil has to fork over represents little more than a slap on the wrist. ExxonMobil is a huge corporation that takes home a massive sum of money each year. In the fourth quarter of 2016 alone, the oil giant reported earnings of $3.7 billion. So while ExxonMobil is likely not happy about losing $2.5 million, in the grand scheme of the company's overall finances, the sum is a relatively small price to pay for the years of pollution the corporation caused.

And this isn't the first time that an oil giant has had to pay a relatively small price for causing pollution compared to its overall revenue. Some other notable examples include:

• After spilling 27,000 barrels of oil into rivers, Enbridge Energy Limited Partnership was fined just $177 million in what activists called a slap on the wrist.

• Even though BP was fined a record $20.8 billion after its large oil spill, according to the New York Times, the payment has been more than manageable for the company.

Time and again, oil companies have been involved in polluting the environment and have caused long-term structural damages to the earth's climate. And time and again, while the punishments seem substantial, they are really only ever a small portion of these companies' earnings. Because of this, if the government is serious about stopping the risky behavior of oil companies, it must take a bigger swing at these companies' wallets.

Photo courtesy of WClarke