Another Gulf Oil Disaster Settlement

Halliburton has reached a $1.1 billion settlement over its role in the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst in American history.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana must still approve the settlement, Halliburton said. The amount will be paid in three installments over the next two years, and will be kept in a trust until all appeals are resolved, the company said.

[...]

Under the settlement, Halliburton is protected from further punitive damages, if the court rules in the future that the company had been negligent for its role in the blowout, said Mark McCollum, the company's chief financial officer.

  alJazeera

Of course.

[I]n October 2013 a former Halliburton manager, Anthony Badalamenti, plead guilty to accusations that he destroyed evidence related to the spill.

But I’m sure the company was otherwise completely honest and above-board in all its affairs. Anyway, who cares? They’re protected from further punitive damages.

BP has so far paid about $28 billion for its part in the blow out.

[...]

[A National Wildlife Federation] report called special attention to the effects of controversial dispersants used to clean up the spill. Two million gallons of chemical dispersants were used after the blow out, according to the NWF, which merely cause oil to attach to the powder and sink to the bottom of the Gulf.

That’s why oil continues to wash up on wetlands and beaches and continues to contaminate the food chain in the Gulf region, NWF said.

Too bad.

And about that necessary approval by the Eastern District. No worries, I think.

A 2011 chemical mixing plant explosion in Louisiana is once again stirring up controversy as activists and residents say new information about tax incentives given by the state to the company that owned the plant, and a revelation that the plant did not pay a fine after its explosion, prove that the state has an all-too-cozy relationship with the oil and gas industry.

  alJazeera

The U.S. government has lifted a ban on BP being eligible for new federal contracts, in a move that follows a lawsuit from the British oil company claiming it was being unfairly penalized over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill.

  alJazeera

Unfairly penalized for killing the Gulf due to negligence and greed.

BP agreed Thursday to drop a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — which issued the original ban — challenging the suspension.

Ah yes. The backscratching.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.