If shareholders were criminally (or financially) liable for harm, the thing that would 'show those polluters' would be the way a market panic dumped their stock

If shareholders were criminally (or financially) liable for harm, the thing that would 'show those polluters' would be the way a market panic dumped their stock long before a spill occurred. No one would want much XOM stock in their pension portfolio because they take big risks, shipping and piping toxic substances in ways that frequently cause major disasters. Their business wouldn't be completely destroyed, but they'd have an incentive to take fewer risks - They finally phased out single-hull tankers in US waters 25 years after the Valdez, if this proposed liability was present 1989 they might not have chartered that ship for fear of a shareholder exodus.