The Environmental Protection Agency has temporarily suspended BP from any new contracts with the federal government. In a statement, the EPA attributes this action to “BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company’s conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of a [...]

So now we have an answer to the talk of a settlement in the BP oil disaster case. The company will pay a total of $4.5 billion in fines and payments, as well as admit to criminal charges. But the fines and payments do not include civil violations of either the Clean Water Act or [...]

The US government has still not reached a settlement with BP over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, though talks continue.

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 [...]

Everyone is looking forward to the three days of arguments next week in the Supreme Court on the individual mandate and the health care law. But regardless of that outcome, the court is well on its way to expanding the rights of corporations over the individual, and curtailing Americans’ access to the courts for redress. [...]

I’m not entirely well-versed on the Administration’s policy on mountaintop mining, but to the extent that I do come across the various proposals, they have vacillated back and forth a bit. Last April it seemed like an EPA rule on the practice, which entails blowing off the top of a mountain to extract resources, allowing [...]

With the Justice Department pondering civil and criminal charges in the BP oil spill, including investigating the death of 11 employees, investors took flight from the oil giant. As BP hacked away at a pipe gushing oil at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, investors sawed off 15 percent, or $21.1 billion, of the [...]

Couldn’t happen to a more deserving company. The U.S. government has launched a formal criminal and civil investigation into the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday [...] “We will make certain that those responsible clean up the mess they have made and restore or replace the natural resources [...]

Well, this is something: BP Plc has decided not to attach a second blowout preventer on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to end the flow are over until the relief wells are finished, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Thad Allen, who spoke at a press conference today. Today is [...]

John Harwood excitedly types up Administration pleadings that they can get a half-dozen Republican votes for a climate change bill: Within the 59-member Senate Democratic caucus, the conservative Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska appear out of reach. But as Mr. Graham prods his party to respond to younger voters’ environmental concerns, [...]