Texas joins other Gulf states in suing BP for environmental damage

Originally posted by Harry Weber - Houston Chronicle - May 17, 2013

Texas on Friday joined other Gulf Coast  states suing BP for environmental damage caused by the 2010  oil spill.

Texas’ suit seeks natural resources damages, economic damages and civil penalties. Louisiana and Alabama sued initially, while Florida and Mississippi sued last month around the three-year anniversary of the disaster.

The Deepwater Horizon Trial: A Headache for Obama?

Originally posted by Bruce Thompson - American Thinker - April 27, 2013

Just over three years after the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, Halliburton has finally decided to face the music and increase its reserves for payment of civil damages by $1 billion.

Things did not go well for them in the seven weeks of testimony just concluded in federal court in New Orleans.  They were caught hiding samples of the exact cement mixture that failed, which they had been ordered by the court to preserve.  They had to admit that the cement formulation used "had a low probability of success."

Empty nets in Louisiana three years after the spill

Originally posted by Matt Smith - CNN - April 29, 2013

Yscloskey, Louisiana (CNN) -- On his dock along the banks of Bayou Yscloskey, Darren Stander makes the pelicans dance.

More than a dozen of the birds have landed or hopped onto the dock, where Stander takes in crabs and oysters from the fishermen who work the bayou and Lake Borgne at its mouth. The pelicans rock back and forth, beaks rising and falling, as he waves a bait fish over their heads.

Transocean CEO says firm had safety problems before Gulf oil spill

Originally posted by Simone Sebastian - Houston Chronicle - March 19, 2013

NEW ORLEANS — Swiss drilling contractor Transocean knew it had a high-potential safety problem across its company months before the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill because it had  suffered four rig deaths in a span of just 92 days, the company’s chief executive officer testified Tuesday.

CEO Steve Newman said at a civil trial over the Gulf disaster in federal court in New Orleans that he sent a memo to staff in fall 2009 that said he was concerned about the increasing number of major incidents. He testified that Transocean needed to work quickly and decisively to fix the problem and “stop the fatalities.”

Gulf Oil Spill Trial Begins

Originally posted by Corey Olson - KTRH - February 26th, 2013

Nearly three years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the trial is underway to determine exactly who is responsible for the disaster, and how much that responsibility will cost.  The defendants are BP, Transocean, and Halliburton. Attorney Brent Coon has handled many cases stemming from the spill and is watching this trial closely.  He tells KTRH that there is plenty of responsibility to go around. "BP owned the oil concession for drilling this oil, Transocean was the rig owner, and Halliburton made the cement that was to plug the well," he explains.  Nevertheless, BP has been the big name attached to the disaster, and if Monday's opening arguments are any indication, the other defendants want to keep it that way.  "To no surprise, most of the parties in the case, including Halliburton and Transocean, are trying to point the fingers at BP," says Coon.

Guilty: Transocean convicted in Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Originally posted by Harry Weber - Houston Chronicle - February 14, 2013

NEW ORLEANS – The owner of the deep-water rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico nearly three years ago after an undersea well blew out is now the second company to be convicted of a crime stemming from the deadly disaster.

Transocean to pay $1.4B fine for Gulf oil spill

Transocean, the drilling company that owned the oil rig implicated in the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, will plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and pay a $1.4 billion fine, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Spill claimants may get second chance

BP and some plaintiffs' lawyers in the litigation over the 2010 Gulf oil spill are asking a federal judge to give claimants who asked to leave a proposed class-action settlement another chance to participate.

Is the BP Criminal Settlement Enough?

BP and the Department of Justice announced on Thursday that they had reached an agreement on a record fine stemming from criminal charges related to the 2009 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Judge must decide who can withdraw from spill deal

Thousands of Gulf Coast residents claiming economic or health damages from the 2010 oil spill have told a New Orleans federal judge they don’t want to participate in a class action settlement, and now he has to decide which ones he’ll allow to opt out.