exxon

Roughly four weeks after the spill took place, many basic details are still unknown to the public. Questions include what exactly caused the spill, how big was the spill exactly, and how long did it take for emergency responders to react to the spill, to name a few.

In the past 30 days, the global oil industry has had 13 spills on three continents. And it's not just pipeline leaks. Oil has spilled offshore and on, at train derailments and during routine maintenance.

The National Safety Council (NSC) honored Exxon Mobil with an award for “comprehensive commitment to safety excellence” at the same time that Exxon's Pegasus pipeline spewed an estimated 84,000 gallons of tar sands crude through the yards of residents in Mayflower, Arkansas.

New photos and video from the Arkansas oil spill showing a scene so bad it's surreal. Oil is now in nearby Lake Conway's wetlands, either intentionally diverted by Exxon to keep it out of sight and away from the media.

The thousands of barrels of tar sands oil which poured from a ruptured crude oil pipeline on Friday continue to devastate both man and beast alike in the community of Mayflower, Arkansas.

A records request by ProPublica to the IRS turned up a list of the original funders of the group: Exxon, Pfizer, Time Warner, and other corporations put up at least 85 percent of the $1.3 million the foundation raised in the first year and a half of its existence, starting in 2003.