I think you had better do a little reading as to who lowered the award, in reality it was the 9th Circuit Court of appeals.
excerpt from Litigation and cleanup costs. If you read further you'll discover SCOTUS also became involved:
"Meanwhile, Exxon appealed the ruling, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the original judge, Russel Holland, to reduce the punitive damages. On December 6, 2002, the judge announced that he had reduced the damages to $4 billion, which he concluded was justified by the facts of the case and was not grossly excessive. Exxon appealed again and the case returned to court to be considered in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling in a similar case, which caused Judge Holland to increase the punitive damages to $4.5 billion, plus interest."
The only problem I have with the Pebble Mine IS...
Having a Canadian(foreign) Company bogard the venture..
Yeah I know that about the 9th and SCOTUS - Holland started the ball rolling and I and everyone else in the lawsuit got shafted on our awards because of him.