Lawsuits against BP continue to mount
BP announced on June 1, 2010 that they were instituting a $20bn compensation fund to aid those affected by the oil spill, although residents complain they can't access the money [EPA]
By Dahr Jamail, Al Jazeera. One year after BP's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the number of lawsuits against the oil giant continues to mount.
Ryan Lambert is enraged.
The owner of a charter fishing business, he had always supported the oil industry in his home state of Louisiana.
He previously trusted BP, and the rest of the oil industry, to do the right thing in case an accident happened. But not any more. "I'm seeing people starving to death and BP won't pay them," said Lambert.
His business drop of 94 per cent in the last year has cost him more than $1.1mn, he told Al Jazeera, "They won't pay me, they owe me well over a million dollars just for last year, and all they do is send more papers to fill out."
He continued:
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They know what they did is wrong and they still won't pay me. I'm done playing their games. All they are doing is starving people out and trying to get them to take the one-time $25,000 payment and give up their right to sue. I know thousands of people in the fishing industry, and I don't know one person who has been made whole yet. |
In the aftermath of BP's disaster that began on April 20 of last year, the oil giant promised those whose livelihoods had been damaged that they would be made "whole" and fully compensated for their losses.
On June 1, 2010, upon the announcement that they were instituting a $20bn compensation fund to do this, BP board chairman Henric Svanberg stated: "[President Obama] is frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people."
Lambert vehemently disagrees.
"I want the entire country to know, you cannot trust what BP or [what] the oil industry promises you. I'm most definitely taking up litigation against BP," he added.
Criminally negligent
Lambert is not alone.
The Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD) is a group that uses the law to protect the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive. CBD has an unparallelled record of legal successes, with 93 per cent of their lawsuits having resulted in favourable outcomes. And, now they are suing BP for $19bn.
"We have sued them under the Clean Water Act," Kieran Suckling, the executive director and founder of the CBD told Al Jazeera. "The way the Act works is it levies a fine based on the number of gallons [of oil] spilled and how malicious or criminal BP was acting when the spill occurred. So a big part of the suit is about determining how many barrels were spilled, and BP's level of negligence."
Suckling explained that, depending on BP's level of negligence, the fine they face per barrel of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico, "could range from $1,300 to $4,300 per barrel if they are found criminally negligent."
CBD believes BP released 5.5 million barrels of oil, and is awaiting the official estimate from the federal government, which has not been released yet.
"BP will try to low ball the amount," Suckling added. "They are currently trying to argue that rather than being charged per barrel, they want to be charged per day of the spill, and they've come up with a ridiculously low number for that. If they have their way, their fine will be in the millions rather than the billions."
So far, CBD has filed eight lawsuits and six notices of intent to sue to make sure BP and the federal government are held accountable. The fact that it's the largest environmental disaster in US history strengthens their case further.
"The big issue will be what position the feds take, since we filed this suit because we do not trust the Obama administration to hold BP's feet to the fire," Suckling said, "so ultimately we will be fighting both of them."