July 2, 2015 - 13:23 — Timothy Gillespie
The federal government and the Gulf Coast states have reached a tentative deal with the British oil company BP for it to pay about $18.7 billion, the largest environmental settlement in American history, to compensate for damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, federal, state and company officials said Thursday.
An American BP subsidiary, BP Exploration and Production, will pay at least $7.1 billion, and possibly more, to the federal government and the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Florida, for damage to natural resources; $5.5 billion in penalties to the federal government for violation of the Clean Water Act; $4.9 billion to the states to compensate for harm to their economies; and up to $1 billion to more than 400 local governments.
It is thought by many that the Deepwater blowout, fire and spill triggered the Dexter NDP government's descision to impose a moratorium on oil and gass drilling on Georges Bank in 2010. Prior to the spill, premier Dexter had traveled to an oil and gas convention in texas where he offered up drilling leases on Georges Bank as enticements for exploration commitments in Nova Scotia waters.
Less than 72 hours before the Deepwater spill, Fisheries and Environment minister Sterling Belliveau told a legislative committee that deepwater drilling was so safe, it would be near-impossible to have a major blowout.
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