BP

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council’s “Draft Comprehensive Plan for Restoring the Gulf Coast’s Ecosystem and Economy” does not actually include any restoration projects.

Everyone knows that life is just a little bit slower in the South; as it turns out, so is ecosystem restoration. On this date three years ago, you likely were continuing to monitor distressing television footage of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, wondering if the millions of barrels of oil …

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BP Agrees to Plead Guilty to Felony Charges Arising Out of Deepwater Horizon Disaster

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that British Petroleum has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and precipitated the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. As part of the plea bargain, BP has agreed to pay the federal government $4.5 billion in penalties, including …

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BP Reaches Partial Settlement in Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Litigation

Late Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier announced a legal settlement between British Petroleum and thousands of individuals and businesses that had sued BP for damages arising out of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. According to a New York Times report, BP has agreed to pay $7.8 billion …

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BP spill lawsuit complaint and link to early analysis

Here’s the complaint in the newly-filed lawsuit the United States filed against BP today, which I summarized earlier in this post. And NRDC’s David Pettit has written an interesting blog post with some initial thoughts about timing and choice of defendants in the lawsuit.

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U.S. sues BP, eight other defendants for violations of Oil Pollution Act in Deepwater Horizon blowout

Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit alleging that BP, Transocean, and seven other firms caused or contributed to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill earlier this year.  The lawsuit seeks response costs, natural resource damages, and economic damages under the …

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Travel Is Broadening–2010 Edition

Having just returned from a trip to Northern Europe, a couple of experiences resonate with me that, I hope, are worthy of sharing here. The first relates to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, British Petroleum, and the distinct ways in which BP’s role and responsibility for the spill are viewed, depending on one’s geographical roots. …

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BP’s pollution: not just the oil spill, according to The Onion

I can’t resist pointing out this article from America’s Finest News Source, The Onion, about the BP spill (continuing Dan’s introduction of off-color expressions into Legal Planet).  The Onion mocks BP’s handling of the oil spill by characterizing the company as spewing out something else rather vile (a common expression for insincere or deceitful talk) from its …

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Reflections on the BP disaster and today’s Bhopal criminal verdict

As Dan has pointed out, there has been discussion of possible criminal liability for BP for its conduct leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  David Uhlmann of the University of Michigan, a  former federal environmental criminal prosecutor, has expressed optimism that a robust criminal prosecution of BP would appropriately punish BP, make it more likely …

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A Corporate Culture of Carelessness

Of course, if it’s true that BP is weak on accident prevention, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there were lapses in this instance or that the lapses were the cause of the blowout. But BP’s record is a reason for concern.

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Will the BP Oil Spill Change Public Policy?

The oil spill catastrophe now engulfing the Gulf Coast brings home in incredibly vivid detail the ways in which human activity can damage the earth.  This is in stark contrast to climate change, for example, where the changes caused by accumulating greenhouse gas emissions are hard to see and where actions today will only affect the …

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