Double-hulled tanker after 6 July 1993 to be fitted with double hulls, or an alternative design approved by IMO". However, in the aftermath of the Erika incident of the coast off France in December 1999, members of IMO adopted a revised schedule for the phase-out of single-hull tankers, which came into effect on 1 September 2003, with further amendments validated on 5 April 2005. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster, when that ship grounded on Bligh Reef outside the port of Valdez, Alaska in 1989, the US Government required all new oil tankers built for use between US ports to be
Exxon Valdez steel were removed and replaced that July, totaling US$30 million of repairs to the tanker. Its single-hull design remained unaltered. The Exxon Valdez spill occurred under President George H. W. Bush, whose EPA Administrator William K. Reilly played a significant role in mobilizing presidential support for action to contain and clean up the spill. Litigation was filed on behalf of 38,000 litigants. In 1994, a jury awarded plaintiffs US $287 million in compensatory damages and US $5 billion in punitive damages. Exxon appealed and the Ninth Circuit Court reduced the punitive damages to US $2.5 billion. Exxon then appealed the