After four years of debate and legal testimony, a federal district judge
ruled Thursday that BP's grossly negligent actions led to the explosion of the 2010
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and consequent gusher that spilled an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from two and a half miles below the seabed. The accident also killed 11 workers and injured 16 others.
Judge Carl Barbier, a Clinton appointee, didn't let others involved in the spill off the hook:
“BP’s conduct was reckless,” Barbier wrote in a decision today in New Orleans federal court. “Transocean’s conduct was negligent. Halliburton’s conduct was negligent.”
Barbier apportioned fault at 67 percent for BP, 30 percent for Transocean and 3 percent for Halliburton.
Transocean operated the rig used to drill into the seabed and Halliburton laid the faulty cement that failed after the well exploded, sending oil gushing into the gulf waters for 87 days. A
government report in 2011 noted that all three companies were at fault, but not equally. BP, the report stated, "was ultimately responsible for conducting operations at Macondo in a way that ensured the safety and protection of personnel, equipment, natural resources and the environment."
Both Halliburton and Transocean say that the lies BP told about how much oil was gushing from the blown well in the days immediately after the accident delayed efforts to cap the gusher.
Now the question is how much BP and the others will be penalized. BP could face fines up to $18 billion but has only set aside $3.5 billion to cover such costs. It has already taken a $43 billion charge in its latest earnings statement to cover clean-up and other costs of the giant spill. The federal government, five states and a multitude of private businesses, including fishing operations, have sued for losses. But the setting of final penalties is years away.
There is more to read below the fold.
Plaintiffs announced Tuesday that oil services giant Halliburton had settled for a payout of $1.1 billion to property owners. Federal and state claims were not part of the settlement, which must be approved by Judge Barbier:
"Halliburton stepped up to the plate and agreed to provide a fair measure of compensation to people and businesses harmed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy," co-lead plaintiffs' attorneys, Stephen J. Herman and James P. Roy, said in a news release.
The Environmental Protection Agency in March
lifted a ban that prevented BP from bidding on new government drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, said the “announcement lets a corporate felon and repeat offender off the hook for its crimes against people and the environment.”
During the ban, BP had continued to operate on some of the more than 600 lease blocks it holds in the gulf, more than any other company. In March, BP put up $41.6 million in successful bids for new gulf lease blocks. And late last month, the company was the highest bidder on 27 of the 32 bids it made, a total of $22.8 million.