Out of the original 5 Billion dollars Exxon was supposed to pay for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, how much did Exxon settle to pay?

• A. 507.5 million
• B. 1.0 billion
• C. 750 million
• D. 2.0 billion

Answer: (B)

When big environmental disasters lead to lawsuits, the final payment is often a negotiated settlement rather than the full amount originally demanded. For the Exxon Valdez spill, the starting claim reached about five billion dollars in penalties and damages. Exxon ultimately settled for about one billion dollars to resolve federal, state, and private claims and to cover cleanup and related costs. This is why one billion is the best answer: it reflects the actual negotiated payout, not the initial larger demand. The other numbers don’t align with the settled amount.