Civil Fine in Gulf Spill Could be $4,300 a Barrel
May 26th, 2010In other news: Obama Biggest Recipient of BP Campaign Cash.
Via: Reuters:
Just how many barrels of oil are gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon spill is a billion dollar question with implications that go beyond the environment. It could also help determine how much BP (BP.L) and others end up paying for the disaster.
A clause buried deep in the U.S. Clean Water Act may expose BP and others to civil fines that aren’t limited to any finite cap — unlike a $75 million limit on compensation for economic damages. The Act allows the government to seek civil penalties in court for every drop of oil that spills into U.S. navigable waters, including the area of BP’s leaking well.
As a result, the U.S. government could seek to fine BP or others up to $4,300 for every barrel leaked into the U.S. Gulf, according to legal experts and official documents.
So far, analysts and experts calculating potential oil spill liabilities have mostly concentrated on the cost of the clean-up and compensation for economic damages to affected parties. Some have also discussed criminal liabilities.
But the potential for civil fines has received scant attention — and they could add up very quickly, depending on how agressive the U.S. government is in pursuing them.
The threat of hefty fines underscores the importance of quantifying how much oil is pouring into the Gulf. As BP seeks to staunch the leak that has now been gushing for at least 33 days, it has estimated a spill rate of 5,000 barrels per day. But some experts say the volume — and hence the fines — could be more than 10 times higher.
The little-known, seldom applied clause in the Clean Water Act was added in 1990 after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, and was intended to beef up the arsenal of penalties the government can apply to oil spillers to deter future disasters.
“These civil penalties could be staggeringly high, possibly running into the billions,” said Professor David Uhlmann, director of the Environmental Law program at University of Michigan.
Total liability — including civil fines as well as the cost of clean-up, economic damages and potential criminal liability — “will run into the billions and may be in the tens of billions,” Uhlmann said.
Under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency can seek in federal court to fine any party whose negligence results in an oil spill in U.S. federal waters.
Read something kind of interesting today, and that was who owns BP? Is the owner really the Queen of England?
Something I need to think about.
I imagine the Queen as someone very old,with very long tenacles of power. Certainly a member of the Illumanti. The Queen is what we, the caregivers of the elderly, call a Crone, an old woman, possibly on life support of some kind. Wondering whether any of her caregivers or executors of her estate have a freaking clue as to her liabilities re the Gulf?
Just me thinkin.
If the British Crown does own BP, and the head of the clan is “elderly,” and or absent by some infirmity that would be forgivable in my book. But if the real owner of BP is the Queen, and isn’t up to the task, uh, isn’t there a plan for Prince Charles to like step up to the plate? Or uh, is it deliberate intent ( I heard somewhere the British really don’t like black peoples – sorry) to make the po black man into the scapegoat for all of this mess? Surely, I think the powers that be want to pin this on Obama and paint him as a slave to the money machine. Sure he’s part of it, born of it, etc.
But for lack of anything else to do in this crisis, mentally, I am on my knees to the Queen. If you control the HARP machine that controls weather, earthquakes, and volcanoes in this world. Bring it on. Stop this oil leak now.