BP Will Pay Record Settlement to Louisiana
Posted: November 15, 2012 Filed under: Breaking News, Gulf Oil Spill | Tags: BP Oil, settlement 29 Comments
The Justice Department has announced a $4.5 billion dollar settlement in the BP oil spill that includes a number of very interesting things. This includes criminal indictments against two BP workers.
Two BP employees have been indicted on manslaughter charges in the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster.
The federal indictment unsealed Thursday in New Orleans names BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine. The indictment claims they acted negligently in their supervision of key safety tests performed on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig before an explosion killed 11 workers in April 2010.
The indictment says Kaluza and Vidrine failed to phone engineers onshore to alert them of problems in the drilling operation.
The charges come on the same day that BP announced that it has agreed to pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to felony counts related to the deaths of 11 workers and lying to Congress.
Also Thursday, BP said it will pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government over the the spill.
BP has also pleaded guilty to other criminal charges.
BP will pay approximately $4.5 billion and plead guilty to criminal charges as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over the deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the London-based oil giant said Thursday.
The settlement total, to be paid out over five years, includes $1.25 billion in criminal fines — the largest such penalty ever.
In addition, a BP executive has been indicted on charges he lied to authorities about his work estimating the Gulf spill rate and two BP employees have been indicted on manslaughter charges, The Associated Press reported.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other federal officials were expected to comment on the wide-ranging settlement later Thursday at a news conference in New Orleans.
BP said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect relating to the death of 11 workers, one misdemeanor count under the Clean Water Act, one misdemeanor count under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and one felony count of obstruction of Congress.
This indictment is the one I find most interesting.
Separately, a federal indictment unsealed Thursday charges David Rainey, who was BP’s vice president of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, on charges of obstruction of Congress and false statements, the AP reported. He is accused of lying to federal investigators when they asked him how he calculated a flow rate estimate for BP’s blown-out well in the days after the disaster.
This obstruction charge has to do with the way they calculated the gusher rate. This is a separate settlement from the suit settled in March that had to do with individuals impacted by the oil spill. This is a huge settlement. None of these fines will be tax deductible.
The day of reckoning comes more than two years after the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. The figure includes nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines – the biggest criminal penalty in U.S. history – along with payments to certain government entities.
“We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP chairman. “It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims.”
The settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences and about $500 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused BP of misleading investors by lowballing the amount of crude spewing from the ruptured well.
London-based BP said in a statement that the settlement would not cover any civil penalties the U.S. government might seek under the Clean Water Act and other laws. Nor does it cover billions of dollars in claims brought by states, businesses and individuals, including fishermen, restaurants and property owners.
A federal judge in New Orleans is weighing a separate, proposed $7.8 billion settlement between BP and more than 100,000 businesses and individuals who say they were harmed by the spill.
This settlement ought to go a long way to boost the economy of coastal Louisiana and to restore the ecosystems. It’s about time. However, this doesn’t end things.
Stuart Smith, a Louisiana lawyer representing some of the businesses affected by the accident, told the BBC the deal was far from over.
“They have not settled with the state of Louisiana for the natural damages… they haven’t settled with Florida, Alabama [or] Mississippi yet.”
He added that there were other significant claims still to be settled, including offshore oil and gas industry damages as a result of the moratorium on deepwater drilling put in place after the accident, casino losses, fisheries, financial institutions and real estate developers.
“So I think they’re still looking at billions of dollars in exposure even with this settlement,” he said.
I hope the long term effects of the spill continue to siphon money from BP. We have yet to see the biggest health effects and there are still many issues remaining at the bottom of the gulf impacting our wildlife and the entire set of plants and sealife that support the many many birds, animals, fish and reptiles that call the gulf home. I still haven’t put a toe in the Gulf and I’m very cautious about eating Gulf Seafood. This has really changed every one’s life down here and they should pay and pay and pay and pay …
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
That’s you in the picture isn’t it Kat? I recall that you went out on cleanup detail on the beaches, so I assumed it was you.
It’s about time that at least something was settled, however two low level employees being criminally charged smells of collusion to avoid charging the real perpetrators of the mess to my mind.
Yup, that’s me and my friend Jane. She’s holding the flag and I’m standing behind her. The flag says BP sucks.
This sounds like a very good start at some proper payback for this corporate cretin. With so much still outstanding maybe it’ll pick the meat off the bones of this creature of money.
It should really boost the economy down here. I’m not sure how well we can actually get the crap cleaned up out of the bottom of the gulf.
It may take decades, if it’s ever really cleaned up. I hope they have better technology for that than in the past!
I’m glad BP had to cough up something. But I’d like that awful CEO to go to jail for a few years too.
That awful CEO is somewhere living very well off his golden parachute. That does seem patently unfair.
This is why I hate corporation form … if it’s a partnership or a sole proprietorship he’d be broke AND in jail. But, limited liability is why there’s so many big corporations that just get bigger and worse. They just figure out how much money they need to cover their collateral damage and the CEOs always walk away. Imagine Mitt Romney running the country with that attitude.
Right you are Dak – pay and pay and pay. Will that make them more careful? Nothing will bring back or make healthy the ocean bottom – it will take a century or two. CEOs should be held accountable – serve time in prison. 4.5 billion is more than a slap on the wrist but, with all the corporate welfare for oil companies – no taxes – it’s still easy money. I sure hope the people who suffered the most are paid for their pain and helped to re-establish their businesses and homes and lives.
Great news and most welcome. I’m also enjoying the drubbing Gov Romney and R’s are taking. Jindal should be named whip-lash he changed so fast.
Jindal will say and do anything to further his own ambition. He’s a major POS.
I’m very happy to hear they’re going to to have to pay big dollars. I agree that it sounds like the only BP employees at risk for jail time are lower level. After all the pressure applied to those platform workers and the risky decisions about operations made at senior leadership levels, the platform guys get stuck with it for failing to place a phone call??
hmmm
I grew up in Fort Myers Beach (Estero Island) Florida. We moved to Atlanta in 1967 when I was 12. I haven’t had the courage to put my toe in the gulf in decades just due to garden-variety pollution issues.
The former BP employees are up for jail time. The CEO and the current BP assholes are protected by the corporation ‘personhood’. NOT really what I’d call justice.
Dak, this has to be a hit and run, but i wanted to tell you I loved your comment at Cannonfire. 🙂 It made me feel good.
If it’s the comment I think, truer words were never written 🙂
I’d blush if I wasn’t old and onery and beyond that … but I think I know which one it is
I just read it and agree totally with pd…
I’m sorry this is OT but at least some of the media are pushing back on Sen McPalin and he doesn’t handle it well at all.
CNN: McCain skips Benghazi briefing, gets testy when questioned by CNN
McBitterman is losing it.
Good news i got to come home! Check out more comments from the 47% twit. He’s worried people will get teeth.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/audio-romney-suggests-democrats-run-on-free-dental-care-in-2016.php?ref=fpb
23 years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground they are still finding oil. Recovery? We humans can only damage nature, not have it recover to its former state. What comes back is slow & different.
NPR had a pretty long piece on the settlement & the state of the Gulf today. I know I posted a while back the mutations/deformities found in shrimp, crabs and other shellfish. Record numbers of perinatal dolphin calves have been washing ashore this past year. We will never know the full numbers of dolphins, birds, turtles, whales, fish and invertebrates lost due to this disaster or whether or not some species will ever return to the Gulf. The scientist interviewed on NPR said that the mixture of corexit (the dispersant) & oil is MORE toxic than either substance separately. DUH! I’m not a chemist, nor a researcher, but I could have told them that. Now that toxic sludge is lying on the ocean floor, in colder water, and no one knows how long it will take to degrade or if it actually will. And after Isaac there were oiled birds found covered in oil traced back to Macondo.
I’m glad that some of the people impacted by this disaster will receive some compensation. There’s no way, however, to compensate Mother Nature or the impacted wildlife. I’m glad BP has been fined, but this disaster should serve as a lesson, but it hasn’t & it won’t. Offshore drilling is alive and well. Last time I checked, most people – including those along the Gulf – still support offshore oil drilling, including in deepwater areas. I fear it will be too late before the human race learns from its tragic mistakes and stops soiling our home.
Agree 1000%. Humans are remarkable in that the worst of them never, ever learn from their mistakes. What’s that saying about those who forget history?
…are doomed to repeat it.
Bingo – yup. Way back when the Exxon Valdez went aground (damn that captain), I recall litany of “never again”. Guess that didn’t work. People have very short memories unfortunately, and unless whatever directly affects them, do not realize the long term effects on the earth and all her creatures. People on the west coast are still turning up oil pockets and the disaster happened in 1989 – over 23 years ago.
Got this in an email today. Not too shabby!
Minorities and women make up the majority of the Democratic Caucus — a first for either party!
OT – but another restaurant owner blaming Obamacare for cutting hours of employees (whom he doesn’t even pay minimum wage anyway): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/john-metz-hurricane-grill-wings-dennys_n_2122412.html
I keep noticing all these folks that are assholes have restaurants that I would never eat at anyway. But, Denny’s is now on the boycott list for me.
very amusing, and I suspect not far from what is actually happening in the backrooms of the RNC.
LOL