Title: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill - HISTORY
Headings: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Contents
Oil Spill Cleanup
Environmental And Economic Impacts
Oil Pollution Act of 1990
Fate of Exxon Valdez
Sources
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Content: Water and Air Pollution
Oil Pollution Act of 1990
In the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which President George H.W. Bush signed into law that year. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 increased penalties for companies responsible for oil spills and required that all oil tankers in United States waters have a double hull. Exxon Valdez was a single-hulled tanker; a double-hull design, by making it less likely that a collision would have spilled oil, might have prevented the Exxon Valdez disaster. Fate of Exxon Valdez
The ship, Exxon Valdez —first commissioned in 1986—was repaired and returned to service a year after the spill in a different ocean and under a different name. The single-hulled ship could no longer transport oil in U.S. waters, due to the new regulations. The ship began running oil transport routes in Europe, where single-hulled oil tankers were still allowed. There it was renamed the Exxon Mediterranean, then the SeaRiver Mediterranean and finally the S/R Mediterranean. In 2002, the European Union banned single-hulled tankers and the former Exxon Valdez moved to Asian waters. Exxon sold the infamous tanker in 2008 to a Hong Kong-based shipping company.