here with us now, staff writer for the new yorker and president of the new america foundation, pulitzer prize winning author steve coll. he has a new book now, private empire: exxon mobil and american power. tell us about the book. you start with the 1989 valdese oil spill. it was 11 million gallons of oil into the prince william sound, and clearly defined the company s future. it was a huge trauma, much as the deep water horizon in 2010 was for bp. and it ushered in a transformation in the way exxon mobil managed itself. they used the crisis to reform all of their systems and make themselves the most disciplined operator in the business. but it also signalled the era ahead for them, the most hated oil company in the united states for a good while. struggling with a political and public affair strategy to manage a position where they were
constantly in opposition, being oposse opposed by environmentalists and really never able to recover their reputation. they would run focus groups with people and say exxon, and the first thing people would say in reply was valdese. that was kind of a black eye for these operators. you spent a lot of time with the ceo, lee raymond, who had a nickname. iron ass, if one can say that. you just did. i did. why was he the iron ass? he was a very direct, blunt, disciplinarian, seen by his peers as the most effective ceo of his era. he did not suffer fools easily. he would often say to challengers, frankly, you were advised to duck because he was coming at you often in a very direct way.
but he was someone who was able to work his will on a very large bureaucracy. exxon mobil was pretty settled in its ways, a conservative company, effective in some respects, but he really wanted to remake it, and he used the valdese crisis to basically force change from top to bottom in the corporation. mike? you mentioned focus groups. and the title of the book, private empire, most of us, i think most people probably think of exxon as an american company, which it is. and yet the reach, the sprawl, the global reach of this company, is kind of staggering, is it not? and that s what s interesting about what the company, i think, in substantial part. we live in a world where governments matter less, companies matter more, terrorist networks, all of these nonstate actors really rule our world. and large multinational corporations are more influential relatively than ever before. and partly for the reason you describe, which is that they really are global.
it s by far the largest in such a remote area, which means problems for the environment. the tanker, the exxon valdese, had just unloaded crude. it was about 25 miles from the valdese terminal and was apparently trying to dodge ice floes when it ran aground. alaska s governor, steve cooper, said there s not equipment in all of north america to clean up the spill. and one leading oil pollution expert was not optimistic. the cleanup will be a nightmare most likely. the impact on the environment also promises to be severe. 45 past the hour. that was in 1989. nbc nightly news report on the exxon valdese spill in alaska.
economic damage. reporter: and the exxon valdese will be here a hundred years from now. ten of 3 # species have fully recovered and 19ed more are well on the way. in valdez alaska, dan springer, fox news. it s a fox news alettered thousands of people will be protesting the immigration lay on this may day. casey stegall is there where it s underway. reporter: hello, brian, since we last saw you, a few more people are gathering on the state lawn. and they re not sure how many more could show up for the day s event and they re prepared for anything, especially if things turn violent. and it s been nothing major, but there already has been a little bit of violence in this state. in the last week or so, when governor jan brewer signed arizona s new immigration reform law. protesters hurling water bottles at police and