Blog #12: BP finally pays up

This weeks article found in the New York Times and written by Julia Werdigier, discusses British Petroleum's recent guilty plea. The British oil company plead guilty to fourteen criminal charges today as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago. Along with these fourteen charges, another two charges of manslaughter are to be pressed on two BP employees for the deaths of eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The criminal charges include mainly negligence and misconduct charges, all summing up to a settlement of $4.5 billion. A majority of which, $4 billion to be exact, is going towards government environmental agencies and is to be paid in the course of five years. However, under the Clean Water act, a company is liable to be charged at most a $4,300 fine per barrel spilled. If BP were to be charged at such rates, the total possible outcome would be around $21 billion. Regardless of the settled criminal claims, the remaining federal civil claims and claims made from damaged natural resources are still unsettled. Though back in March, claims from local seafood and medical expenses were settled in regards to economic losses. The companies trust fund is still expected to cover that settlement of $7.8 billion. In order to raise funds, the company sold large amounts of assets to afford the costs related to the oil rig explosion. British Petroleum just recently started exhibiting profit and dividend increases in the third quarter back in October, which is a milestone for their worldwide tarnished image. Perhaps once all the settlements are paid for and forgotten about, society, more importantly Americans, will begin to forgive the oil company for its crimes against nature.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/business/global/16iht-bp16.html?ref=business&_r=0