The ship's chief engineer was sentenced to a year in prison for deliberately dumping oily water into the ocean.
The Russian national pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and intentional waste water discharge. An additional six months of supervised release will be served by Kompaniets.
Todd Kim of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division said that the intentional pollution of U.S. waters and the deliberate cover-up are serious criminal offenses. The prosecutions should send a clear message to those who would violate the law.
It's easy to tie yourself in knots over whether the sentencing of Kompaniets is fair, since it's a marked difference from what Russia has done to the US.
The US justice system doesn't always deliver complete or satisfying solutions. It's not difficult to support environmental accountability. According to the DOJ, about 10,000 gallons of oil-contaminated water was dumped into the US waters off the coast of New Orleans last year, and then lied to the Coast Guard about it.
Climate change is already making things worse in Louisiana, and keeping guys like Kompaniets from making things worse is the least officials can do.
The White House wants to delay the killer asteroid telescope.
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