News Release

“BP Got off Cheap”

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ANTONIA JUHASZ, antoniajuhasz at gmail.com, @AntoniaJuhasz
Juhasz just wrote the piece “BP ‘Got Off Cheaply’ With $18.7 Billion Settlement,” which notes that “BP has already estimated total costs for all economic damages resulting from the disaster at some $43 billion.”

Juhasz, an oil industry expert, author and investigative journalist said today: “BP got off cheap. The settlement is not enough to cover BP’s legal obligations, to restore the Gulf, or to stop any other oil company from engaging in this type of grossly negligent behavior. This is particularly dangerous as Shell edges ever closer to the Chukchi Sea to drill in the Arctic. The day after the settlement was announced, BP’s stock price rose and market commentators ‘cheered.’ Rumors of an ExxonMobil merger are also growing. On the other hand, it is also a truly sizable amount of money and a lot more than many of those impacted by this disaster thought they’d ever see. So, many local environmental groups and state and local governments are understandably thankful for the restoration money they will be receiving.”

Juhasz noted that there is no “reopener” — that is, “if new costs arise at a later date, the settlement cannot be reopened, yet there is only $232 million allocated for natural resource damages identified at a later date not accounted for in the current settlement.”