Tweet
The Justice Department, which has been more active in closing cases than pursuing them lately, has accused BP of “gross negligence” in a court filing. The language has a very particular significance; if successful, BP would owe quadruple the amount of damages under the Clean Water Act, which could lead to a total of $21 billion in fines.
The U.S. government and BP are engaged in talks to settle civil and potential criminal liability, though neither side will comment on the status of negotiations.
“The behavior, words, and actions of these BP executives would not be tolerated in a middling size company manufacturing dry goods for sale in a suburban mall,” government lawyers wrote in the filing on Aug. 31 in federal court in New Orleans [...]
BP rejects the charge. “BP believes it was not grossly negligent and looks forward to presenting evidence on this issue at trial in January,” the company said in a statement. A Transocean spokesman had no immediate comment.
The filing has to do with a separate settlement, before the same judge, between BP and 125,000 individuals of the Gulf Coast, for $7.8 billion. BP states in that settlement that their actions “did not constitute gross negligence or willful misconduct.” The Justice Department wants the judge to invalidate that part of the settlement as prejudicial, and leave open that ruling until the government trial in January of next year.
This could merely be a negotiating tactic. Talks between BP and DoJ are underway for a settlement that would avoid trial. Given prior history, that’s the way I’d expect this to go. But the government does not want BP to enter into an agreement that minimizes their culpability for the Deepwater Horizon spill, as it would bolster the oil company’s negotiating stance.
Meanwhile, we continue to see the effects of that spill in the Gulf:
Old oil has washed up on some Louisiana beaches after Hurricane Isaac and officials are testing whether it’s left over from BP”s Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010.
Officials late Tuesday restricted fishing in waters extending a mile off a roughly 13-mile stretch of coastline.
BP is of course saying it’s too early to assign blame for this latest batch of oil. Given how much they spilled into the body of water, however, it’s a pretty safe bet.
23 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL News Desk
the DOJ is going to take on BP? hahahahahahahahahahhahhahha
But all the culprits will be forgiven as we look forward, not back. Fie.
And 15 years from now BP will settle for $100 million dollars without admitting to any guilt or negligence.
They not only get away with the impetus behind overthrowing Iran’s secular representative government in 1953, they’re going to get away with ruining the Gulf. It never ends.
Prior commenters beat me to it.
Don’t make me laugh. DOJ slapping BP on the wrist? Yeah, right. Pull the other one.
Duly noted that most citizens are NOT paying one whit of attention, and now the GOM disaster is being touted as having been “cleaned up” or other similar nonsense. I’ve seen articles touting what a “great” job Obama did in “handling” the crises.
Yeah, right. Pull the other one.
Not to interrupt the party, but there is a Caribbean-wide tsunami watch in effect as of right now, due to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Costa Rica.
“The Justice Department wants the judge to invalidate that part of the settlement as prejudicial, and leave open that ruling until the government trial in January of next year.”
This looks like an election year trinket. At the time Obama made much with how her personally negotiated the BP settlement and then got Ken Feinberg to get people to sign their rights away:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-after-meeting-with-bp-executives
Obama as a lawyer know it would be laughed out of court trying to unsettle a legal settlement, but it should make good political fodder.
In a mature, civilized world BP higher ups would all be in jail.
Fascinating to see that the Dems think left-leaning nods to the electorate are actually good politics here in the run-up to the election. Obama certainly thought they were in 2008.
Can you say, more empty pandering by the vacuous Dimocraps?
In a just country tony hayward would have been hung on the oil stained beaches of the gulf coast and left to rot in the sun.
Oh man…..now you’ve ruined the ending for ALL of us. /s
I can say it in French.
Hey, never know when it might come in handy.
Oh my. That would foul the beaches even more. No this is a recycle administration. He will be beach csar and given a bottle of sun cream and watch for globules of oil on every pretty beach he can find.
BTW, feinberg has a new book out about the tough jobs he has had being fair to those experiencing loss in major catastrophies. You can see his sad story in the wapo here. He says in the interview that madoff is worth more than Mother Teresa, but I’m not sure what the question or answer mean.
A sternly worded statement I see.
Feinberg is a scumbag who uses cost-benefit ‘analysis’ to reward rich people.
You’re absolutely right. I don’t think that I made my comment snarky enough to show what a “sad story” his tough jobs are. His jobs are made tougher by him cutting the losses of the 1% who employ him. The wapo piece is a fluff job.
BTW, eCAHN, since you listen to WBAI, you have probably heard Michael Ratner on Law and Disorder with Michael Smith and Heidi Boghosian. I think that they do a good job of looking at legal problems from a progressive viewpoint.
Corporations are only “people” when it comes to rights, you big silly. As far as seeking responsibility, they get to pass the buck.
These people simply do not think like us. EVERYTHING, to them, comes down to the dollars and cents value of things. I actually feel sorry for them. The world must be a horrible place if everything, including love or compassion, has a price tag upon it.
If anyone was ever serious about living the life that Jesus laid out, it was Mother Teresa. As far as I’m concerned she’s a measuring stick for those of us to be the type of person that God set out for us to be in the New Testament.
Better watch out. Tony and the boys will go back to the yacht races, pump oil out of their asses and eat it instead of selling it to us. Then we’ll be sorry.
I mean, jebus. In a cost saving measure, BP floats an incendiary bomb in the gulf, kills 14 of their employees, innundates the gulf in black sticky stuff, destroying businesses, livelihoods and pelicans and now the DOJ says they were negligent. If that’s not the depths of kenyan socialism, I don’t know what is.
If there is any financial restitution extracted from BP, they’ll just compensate for it by increases in their contracted charges to the DoD for providing fuel to the US armed forces.