Latest Mississippi River Delta News: November 19, 2012

11.19.2012 | In Latest News, Uncategorized

BP Spill Settlement Is $2.4 Billion Windfall for Wildlife
By Mark Drajem, Bloomberg News. November 18, 2012.
“Oil was still gushing from BP Plc (BP/)’s Macondo well in 2010 when a little-known non-profit rushed to establish a new resting area for more than 1 billion migratory birds that stop each year at the Gulf of Mexico…” (Read more)

Gulf Coast States at Odds on Penalties for Oil Spill
By Campbell Robertson, The New York Times. November 16, 2012.
“NEW ORLEANS — With BP’s agreement on Thursday to plead guilty to 14 criminal charges and pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments in connection with its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Coast politicians are now eyeing a much bigger potential windfall from the company: $20 billion or more in civil pollution penalties for the spill…” (Read more)

Even after $4.5-billion oil spill fines, civil trial looms for BP
By Michael Muskal and Richard Simon, The Los Angeles Times. November 16, 2012.
“WASHINGTON — BP has accepted criminal responsibility for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a move that it said has put the criminal part of one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters in the rear-view mirror…” (Read more)

Fine money is a way forward
Editorial, The Daily Comet (Houma, La.). November 17, 2012.
“Billions of dollars are a good start toward setting things right…” (Read more)

Body Believed to Be Missing Worker Found Near Site of Oil Rig Blast
By Colleen Curry, Whitney T. Lloyd and Alyssa Newcomb, ABC News. November 18, 2012.
“A body believed to be one of the workers missing since an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded was recovered late last night in the water near the platform…” (Read more)

Army Corps: Isaac’s flooding caused by its path, slow speed, not improved N.O. levee system
The Associated Press.
“NEW ORLEANS — The Army Corps of Engineers said Friday that improvements to the New Orleans-area levee system did not cause Hurricane Isaac’s storm-surge flooding in parts of Louisiana that were not inundated during Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav…” (Read more)

Miller wary BP criminal settlement
By Tom McLaughlin, Northwest Florida Daily News. November 16, 2012.
“While many were cheering the government’s settlement of criminal charges against BP, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller sounded a word of warning…” (Read more)

Mobile County officials on BP settlement: This is not the end of the story
By Ellen Mitchell, The Press-Register. November 16, 2012
“MOBILE, Alabama — Mobile County officials were unsatisfied with the $4.5 billion BP agreed to pay to settle federal criminal charges against the company for the 2010 Gulf oil spill, but many saw the fine as a start in the right direction…” (Read more)

Tulane president: Katrina taught New Orleans not just to rebuild, but to reimagine
By Scott Cowen, President, Tulane University, for The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.). November 18, 2012.
“During the height of Hurricane Sandy, Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel remarked that the storm was “New Jersey’s Katrina,” a phrase that has a double resonance for me. As president of Tulane University for the past 15 years, I was in New Orleans during Katrina and its long aftermath…” (Read more)

Breaking Down The BP Settlement: Where Will The Money Go?
By Kiley Kroh, Center for American Progress. November 16, 2012.
“Yesterday, the Justice Department announced BP agreed to plead guilty to 14 criminal charges stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines and penalties – the largest single criminal fine and largest total criminal resolution in US history…” (Read more)