Exxon was warned by Montana's popular governor as long a two years
ago. Others warned too:
"Your pipeline is not deep enough," Exxon was told.

I don't have a link on the tip of my keyboard. But these warnings are
part of the public record.
It's all been in the local papers recently, a lot...bolstering Brian
Schweitzer's already glowing popularity.
Exxon did nothing because it turned out there was no for the state to
require a deeper pipeline.
But they cannot claim surprise. They were warned repeatedly. Long in
advance.

It's one thing for an energy company to say "we didn't know."
It's another matter when they were warned about a specific problem, in
a specific way.

High income individuals and Energy companies have been enjoying
gargantuan tax breaks since George Bush made it happen,
and because the hill-billy right has had their hand on the legislative
monkey wrench ever since.

Exxon needs to pay handsomely for this. So does the hill-billy
right. The lower Yellowstone fishery is not happy right now.