5 Mar 2014
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Court Rules Against BP in Settlement Terms
posted by Unknown @ 09:40 0 Comments
Now the company must again resume payments to businesses that were adversely affected in the spill. Payments had been temporarily suspended back in December while the judge considered the appeal.
“In light of
our reading of the settlement agreement,” wrote Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick of
the US Court of Appeals in New Orleans , “we
conclude the settlement agreement does not require a claimant to submit
evidence that the claim arose as a result of the oil spill.”
The blowout
of the deepwater Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico off the
coast of Louisiana killed 11
rig workers and spilled millions of barrels of crude oil straight into the
waters of the gulf. The oil spill
occurred in April 2010.
Cost of the settlement
The initial value of losses due to the spill, according to
BP, came in at $7.8 billion. A
regulatory finding last year increased that amount to $9.2 billion. BP disagrees with that amount.
“BP had asked
the court to prevent payments to business economic-loss claimants whose alleged
injuries are not traceable to the Deepwater
Horizon accident and oil spill,” says Geoff Morrell a spokesman for the
company. “BP believes that such claimants are not proper class members under
the terms of the settlement and is considering its appellate options.”
In fact, the
company believes costs will run even higher than the $9.2 billion amount when
you factor in claims not yet received or processed. There are currently more than 85,000 claims
yet to be reviewed, this according to a Feb. 28 report.
Claims
not included
The
settlement does not even include other claims like those from 750 state and
local governments, 700 casinos, 250 financial institutions, and another 900
companies that saw losses due to the ban that followed the spill. The Obama Administration imposed a ban on
drilling in the gulf following the spill.
There is
still time for more claims as the deadline for filing does not expire until six
months after all appeals have been exhausted.
BP estimates claims from local and state governments alone could total
as much as $34 billion. If gross
negligence is found, some claims could as much as triple.
Added
fines
On top of all
the claims, BP could be facing as much as $17 billion in fines under the US
Clean Water Act. The amount of the fines
is directly related to the amount of oil spilled due to negligence. That number will be decided by US District
Judge Carl Barbier. The date for that
trial has yet to be determined.
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