14 DAY TRIAL // For almost a month now, oil has been spilling at a very high rate into the Gulf of Mexico, from a drilling site tapped by the Deepwater Horizon rig. On April 20, the rig blew up and then sunk into the Gulf on April 22. Since then, oil company BP, the operator of the rig, and US federal authorities have been working around the clock to remedy the situation, and clean up the spill before the hurricane season brings tropical storms over the area. Given that most efforts have been unsuccessful, US officials are now calling out BP to give immediate clarifications on how it plans to pay for the disaster its semi-submersible drilling rig caused, the BBC News reports.
Despite all efforts, crude oil has already contaminated segments of the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi coast lines, and US authorities are adamant in forcing BP to pay damages beyond the mandatory $75 million. The company recently announced that the vast amounts of dispersant substances it released on the oil slick are beginning to take effect, but critics argue that the overall effect is negligible.
“The public has a right to a clear understanding of BP's commitment to redress all of the damage that has occurred or that will occur. Therefore, in the event that our understanding is inaccurate, we request immediate public clarification of BP's true intentions,” US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote in a letter they sent to Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, this Saturday. Over the past weeks, the company repeatedly affirmed that it would assume all responsibilities for the disaster, and that it would handle all associated costs.
The letter may have been sent due to last week's circus that took place in front of a congressional hearing committee. Officials from various oil companies shifted the blame from one to another, in a manner that US President Barack Obama qualified as a “ridiculous spectacle.” He accused oil companies and associate contractors of trying to escape their responsibility, and warned against BP and others limiting their payments to the statutory $75 million cap companies are required by law to pay for such disasters. Though everyone hopes this will not happen, the new oil spill could put the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident, with its 11 million gallons of spilled oil, to shame.