BP won’t pay for Gulf oil spill research

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http://grist.org/news/bp-wont-pay-for-gulf-oil-spill-research/

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Who’ll be watching out for the dolphins?

If BP let a bull loose in a China shop, the company would take umbrage at the usual “you break it, you bought it” policy.

The oil giant is refusing to pay for some of the ongoing research into the environmental effects of its 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, forcing the federal government to spend money on the needed science — money that had been earmarked for oil spill emergencies. The Financial Times reports:


The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a US government agency, wrote to BP last July seeking almost $148m to pay for “injury assessment and restoration planning activities”, including funding of $2.2m for research into the recovery of the coastal wetlands, more than $10m for dolphins and whales and $22m for oysters.

In October, BP replied to the NOAA request rejecting the majority of those requests, saying it was concerned over “the lack of visibility and accountability” in the process, and the unwillingness of the [Natural Resource Damage Assessment] trustees, which are US federal agencies and coastal state governments, to engage in technical discussions of the substantive issues.