High-stakes trial begins over 2010 Gulf oil spill

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP put profits ahead of safety and bears most of the blame for the disastrous 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a U.S. Justice Department attorney charged Monday at the opening of a trial that could result in the oil company and its partners being forced to pay tens of billions of dollars more in damages.

The London-based oil giant acknowledged it made "errors in judgment" before the deadly blowout, but it also cast blame on the owner of the drilling rig and the contractor involved in cementing the well. It denied it was grossly negligent, as the government contended.

The high-stakes civil case went to trial after attempts to reach an 11th-hour settlement failed.

Eleven workers were killed when the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by the BP exploded on April 20, 2010. An estimated 172 millions of gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf over the three months that followed in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130225/DA4LUJO80.html

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Protestors from the National Audubon Institute, the Gulf Restoration Network and other organizations stand outside Federal Court on the first day of the Gulf oil spill settlement trial in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is scheduled to hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies, federal and state governments and others who sued over the disaster. Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I'm all for corporate capital punishment in this case.

The US should simply seize all of the company's assets that lie within the US (refineries, etc.), and set up a national oil company.

[juajen]

2. How sad it is! I am still afraid to eat seafood from my own backyard.

But, my consumption or lack thereof, pales in comparison to our wonderful wildlife, and way of life in beautiful Coastal Louisiana. We have all been devastated by this disaster. I can't even imagine BP being able to justify one thing. We have families who had to leave homes and land with no means of support, and that is just the beginning. Part of our sportsman's paradise was the Gulf and the hunting, and numerous other factors, which all have been greatly diminished by this atrocity. We still have balls of oil appearing on the beaches, with amazing persistence. Can't even imagine how much more is down there. Some people say that the oil is still leaking. I would like to know the answer to that.

[Dustlawyer]

4. They fractured the rock surrounding the wellhead, it is leaking from the seafloor and nothing can be

done about it. The rest of the country needs to know the extent of the harm. Trust me when I say that the firm I work for will get the word out.

[Dustlawyer]

3. I have been litigating against BP since they blew up their Texas City, Tx., including representing

victims of the oil spill. BP DOES NOT CARE ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT MONEY!!!!! The propaganda that they spew is nothing but lies. The effect of all those ads being aired 24/7 along the coast keeps them the #1 advertiser there. None of the stations and reporters will dare write a victims story or say anything negative about BP. FUBP!

[Left Coast2020]

5. Well, someone beat me to it.

But just in case other story is lacking, here is version from RSN.


http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/16200-trial-of-the-century-us-to-prosecute-bp