Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig’s shattered interior. Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch darkness, willing themselves to the lifeboat deck.
It was no better there.
That same explosion had ignited a firestorm that enveloped the rig’s derrick. Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck. Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.
That was just the beginning of the devastation that would be wrought along the Gulf Coast as a result of that explosion. As a result of that explosion an underwater oil well ruptured, and over the next 87 days 4.9 million barrels of oil would gush into the Gulf of Mexico in the worst oil spill in the history of the world. Science Daily summarized the ecological damage:
Approximately 1,100 linear miles of coastal wetland were affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.In areas where roots survived the impact, little to no long-term impairment is expected.However, where the oil destroyed vegetation and root systems, sediment erosion converted the marshland to open water...
...Fishery closures decreased commercial production by 20 percent, which created an immediate economic hardship for fishermen. The spill also triggered public concerns regarding the safety of Gulf seafood.Productivity of the fish populations could be impacted by the spill's toxic effects on reproduction and development, which may take years or decades to determine...
...Dolphins provide scientific, cultural, and recreational services in the Gulf of Mexico.Beginning before the oil spill in February 2010 through December 2012, 817 bottlenose dolphin deaths were documented, compared with about 100 per year between 2002 and 2009...
As the Washington Post reported, President Obama took action. He summoned BP's corporate leadership to the White House, and began hammering away at an agreement to hold BP accountable. In June of 2010, he reached an agreement with BP to force them to pay damages:
The much-anticipated showdown Wednesday at the White House between President Obama and top BP executives turned into no-nonsense business meeting in which the oil giant agreed to pay $20 billion into an escrow account to cover claims associated with the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico...
...The thorniest issue in recent days, however, appears to have been resolved with a compromise. Since last week, administration officials have said that BP should pay the lost wages of oil industry workers sidelined by the administration's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling. That stance put BP's stock price in a nose dive, and BP officials made clear that such claims would be beyond the pale.
Lately BP has had second thoughts about its agreement to make amends to the Gulf residents who have been harmed by the spill. It has been trying to sue its way out of keeping its commitment to those injured by the spill. Admittedly BP didn't want to backout all of its commitment, only its commitment to help even those who were indirectly harmed by the spill. So, if you were a fisherman who lost his livelihood because of the destruction and contamination of marine life, they were willing to pay for your damages. But if you ran a seafood restaurant in New Orleans who lost business due to the reduction in available Gulf Seafood, that would be an indirect harm, and that is who BP has been trying to get out of paying.
BP went to court telling a Federal Judge that it did not understand that its agreement included those indirectly harmed like the seafood restauranteur. The Federal Court rejected BP's claim, as did the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. So, BP appealed to the US Supreme Court with its conservative corporate friendly majority. And we got a pleasant surprise. As Nola.com reported, the Supreme Court rejected BP's appeal:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected BP's appeal of its oil disaster settlement, ending the British oil giant's two-year fight over interpretation of the agreement. The decision affirms lower court rulings that, under the settlement terms, businesses claiming damages from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster need not prove direct harm.
The justices did not comment on their decision not to review the case. But they approved several requests from outside parties with interests in the dispute to file briefs.
BP sought to have its settlement overturned. It argued that the agreement was being misinterpreted to allow millions of dollars in payments to businesses that were not directly harmed by the disaster.
So, for once, the Good Guys win in the Roberts Court! And now, justice can be done.
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