British Petroleum (BP) lost a bid to require businesses to provide proof that their economic losses were caused by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Although BP initially valued the economic-loss settlement at $7.8 billion, The Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 cost BP $9.2 billion in a U.S. lawsuit. The initial oil rig explosion killed 11 people and injured 17 others. BP admitted that businesses in certain geographical regions were presumed to have been harmed by the oil spill. It was agreed to that these claimants wouldn’t have to prove a link to the spill to recover. Business Insider reports that in the settlement, BP would now have to live with its agreement to pay billions of dollars in business losses tied to the disaster. BP reached a settlement with most private plaintiffs in March 2012.
In New Orleans, according to Bloomberg News, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier stated in his ruling that, “BP’s current position is not only clearly inconsistent with its previous position, it directly contradicts what it has told this court regarding causation.” Of the 400 miles of coast along Louisiana, approximately 125 miles of it have been polluted by the oil spill, reports dosomething.org.
BP’s settlement does not cover claims by financial services institutions, casinos, businesses in certain parts of Texas and Florida, or companies claiming losses from the deep-water drilling moratorium imposed by the Obama administration following the spill. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill also known as the BP Oil Spill was one of the worst oil disasters in history.
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