Exxon, the multinational oil company you may recall from such hit environmental catastrophes as the Valdez and global warming, has agreed to pay $25 million toward cleaning up that huge underground oil plume that spans at least 55 acres of Greenpoint. The company, which rakes in somewhere in the neighborhood of $45 billion a year, reached a settlement with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office to make amends for the oil spill, which happened over the course of several decades when the company was doing business as Standard Oil. Perhaps 17 million gallons of oil was released in all, making it the second worst spill in U.S. history next to the summer's Gulf spill. But hey—$25 million! We're cool now, right? more ›

Finally deciding a lawsuit first filed in 2003, a federal jury has found Exxon Mobil liable for $104.7 million in compensatory damages for contaminating groundwater in NYC. The city had originally sought $250 million to cover construction of a treatment plant to purify the water in five wells in southeastern Queens. (The well water is used when the upstate reservoirs system is out of service during repairs, droughts and other emergencies.) The jury found Exxon Mobil guilty of failing to warn government agencies when it decided to add M.T.B.E. to gasoline. So what is M.T.B.E.? more ›