Latest Mississippi River Delta news: Oct. 1, 2013

10.01.2013 | In Latest News, Uncategorized

BP under pressure as civil trial resumes on 2010 gulf oil spill
By UPI. Sept. 30, 2013.
” The second phase of BP’s civil trial in the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began Monday and the company must be held accountable, environmentalists said…” (read more)

BP lied about size of U.S. Gulf oil spill, lawyers tell trial
By Kathy Finn, Reuters. Sept. 30, 2013.
“In the frantic days after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP lied about how much oil was leaking from its Macondo well and took too long to cap it, plaintiffs’ lawyers said on Monday at the opening of the second phase of the company’s trial…” (read more)

BP faces new trial and $18b in fines over 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster
The Guardian, by Suzanne Goldenberg. Sept. 30, 2013.
“Oil giant BP is to fight attempts to fine it up to US$18 billion over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, at a new trial in New Orleans. The latest legal battle revolves around its efforts to cap a runaway well, and the amount of oil that entered the Gulf of Mexico during the 87-day spill…” (read more)

Environmental groups target BP as second phase of oil spill trial begins
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune. Sept. 30, 2013.
“A variety of environmental groups are using the resumption Monday (Sept. 30) of the federal trial of BP and its drilling partners over liability for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill as an opportunity to demand BP properly compensate the public for the oil spill’s damage…” (read more)

Phase two of BP civil trial begins today and environmental groups want justice
By Laurie Wiegler, Examiner.com. Sept. 30, 2013.
“Conservation groups represented by the Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign are Tweeting from Judge Carl Barbier’s courthouse today. For much is at stake as the second phase of the BP civil trial gets under way…” (read more)

US trial over Gulf oil spill resumes
Al Jazeera.  Sept. 30, 2013.
“A US federal trial over the 2010 Gulf oil spill has resumed, with a focus on BP’s response to the disaster, with billions of dollars at stake as the two sides argue over how much oil was leaked into the Gulf of Mexico…” (read more)

BP accused of lying to govt during Gulf oil spill
By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press. Sept. 30, 2013.
“BP lied to the U.S. government and withheld information about the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico after its well blew out in 2010, attorneys told a judge Monday…” (read more)

Deepwater Horizon forced culture change on oil and gas industry
By Ed Crooks, Financial Times. Sept. 30, 2013.
“The presidential commission investigation into the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which reported in January 2011, was clear in its criticism not only of BP and the other companies involved, but also of the offshore oil industry as a whole…” (read more)

As BP oil spill trial resumes, lying accusations bubble up
CBS. Sept. 30, 2013.
“A trial over BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has resumed with a federal judge hearing claims that the company misled federal officials and withheld information about the amount of crude spewing from its blown-out well…” (read more)

BP says response to oil spill was ‘extraordinary’  
By David Hammer, WWL TV (New Orleans). Sept. 30, 2013.
“Billions of dollars are stake as U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is hearing arguments Monday about BP’s effort to stop the oil flowing from the Deepwater Horizon during the second phase of the oil spill trial…” (read more)

BP knew 2010 U.S. Gulf spill was risk, lawyers tell trial
By Kathy Finn, Reuters. Sept. 30, 2013.
“Long before the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, BP knew its Macondo well could explode and then lied about how much oil leaked, plaintiffs’ lawyers said at the opening of the second phase of the company’s trial on Monday…” (read more)

BP staff ‘not prepared for blowout’
By Ed Crooks, The Financial Times. Sept. 30, 2013.
“BP was unprepared to respond to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, in spite of decades of warnings that an underwater well blowout was possible, lawyers for plaintiffs seeking damages over the spill have alleged…” (read more)

Plaintiffs: BP unprepared for Gulf spill, misled US officials
By Collin Eaton, FuelFix. Sept. 30, 2013.
“BP, back in federal court Monday, is fending off allegations it misled U.S. officials on how much oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from a blown out well in 2010, during the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history…” (read more)

BP trial over the 2010 oil spill reopens, revisits talk of flow rates, ‘top kills’ and ‘junk shots’
By Mark Waller, The Times-Picayune. Sept. 30, 2013.
“After a five-month break, the BP trial resumed in New Orleans on Monday (Sept. 30) for its second phase, with lawyers accusing the oil company of failing in its disaster preparations and attempts to stop to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and a BP lawyer countering with descriptions of extensive efforts amid uncertain conditions…” (read more)

Organisms could take decades to recover from spill
By Xerxes Wilson, Houma Courier (Houma, La.). Sept. 30, 2013.
“It’s possible that microscopic communities in the deep sea near the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill will take decades or more to recover, according to research released last week…” (read more)

The Big Busy: A radical reset after the Katrina catastrophe is transforming the economy of New Orleans
By EconSouth (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta). Sept. 30, 2013.
Vanishing Wetlands Vital to New Orleans, p. 10. (read more)

New Orleans economic rise gets attention from Federal Reserve publication
By Mark Waller, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.). Sept. 30, 2013.
“The city’s challenges […] include maintaining the progress, solidifying a diversification away from the traditional industries of tourism, shipping and oil, preserving the city’s distinctive character and dealing with the long-term impacts of the dissolving wetlands needed to buffer the most populated areas from the open Gulf of Mexico…” (read more)