Things just keep looking brighter for Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM). After reporting the highest profits ever posted by an American company, it is able to look forward to an even more profitable 2008. With crude oil prices steadily creeping upward and renewable energy replacements a distant solution, Exxon can look forward to, once again, rewriting the record books.

As if that wasn't enough, the Supreme Court recently ruled that Exxon's punitive damages in the Valdez case were excessive and dropped them to one fifth of the original ruling. In 1994, the original judgment against Exxon in Baker v. Exxon was $287 million in actual damages and $5 billion in punitive damages. At the time, the punitive damages were equivalent to one year of profit for the oil company. After two subsequent appeals, the judge reset the damages to $4 billion, $4.5 billion, and ultimately to $2.5 billion. On Wednesday, twenty years after the original accident, the Supreme Court ruled that Exxon now owes $507 million. With interest, that would come to approximately $1 billion, but Exxon is expected to appeal the interest.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) got some good news today as the Supreme Court has decided to hear the company's appeal against this summer's ruling over its liability from the Exxon Valdez oil spill back in 1989.

Over the summer, the company was hit with a $2.5 billion fine, but it has argued that it should not have to pay up. It is estimated that with interest, the total amount could actually balloon closer to $4.5 billion.

The Exxon Valdez disaster was caused when the Valdez, loaded with 53 million gallons of oil, ran aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound. The result was 11 million gallons of oil polluting more than 1,200 miles of Alaskan shoreline, the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

At the heart of the whole debate is one man, Captain Joseph Hazelwood, who was accused to have been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. Exxon Mobil contends that it should not be held responsible for the mistakes of a captain that violated all company policies, but opponents are not buying that argument. The plantiffs argue that Exxon Mobil was aware that Hazelwood had a drinking problem and still allowed him to captain the ship.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. Gas prices got you down? Vote for Lee Raymond as the most overpaid CEO.

Lee Raymond retired as CEO of ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) at the end of 2005, and in April it was announced that he had received one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including stock options and other perks, this at a time when Americans were paying record fuel prices and Exxon had made the biggest profit of any company ever -- $36 billion.

Exxon defends Raymond's compensation, pointing out that during the years he ran the company, Exxon became the largest oil company in the world, as well as one of the world's most powerful companies. The stock price soared 500 percent during that time.

Raymond began his career at Exxon as a research engineer after receiving his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1963. He worked his way up the proverbial ladder with innovative moves that cut costs and increased profits. He defended Exxon against environmentalists and human rights activists, while denying the viability of renewable energy sources and the human component of global warming.

He was president of Exxon in 1989 during the Exxon Valdez disaster, when the damaged tanker spilled an estimated 30 million gallons of crude oil off the Alaskan coast and devastated wildlife. As CEO he oversaw the merger of Exxon and Mobil -- gains from the merger showed that early predictions had underestimated the potential growth.

Exxon claims that his retirement is in accordance with its standard pension plan, based on his forty plus years of service and his salary at retirement, about $51 million.