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THE US GOVERNMENT will be paid $1.4 billion in fines and penalties by Transocean, the Swiss-based firm which owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
The settlement comes after the company pleaded guilty of violating the Clean Water Act in relation to the Deepwater Horizon disaster on 20 April 2010.
The rig explosion at the offshore platform killed 11 men and the subsequent leak released millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The agreement will see Transocean pay $400 million in criminal penalties, as well as a $1 billion civil fine. The Justice Department said the deal also forces the defendant to implement court-enforceable measures to improve the operational safety and emergency response capabilities at all their drilling rigs working in waters of the United States.
“This resolution of criminal allegations and civil claims against Transocean brings us one significant step closer to justice for the human, environmental and economic devastation wrought by the Deepwater Horizon disaster,” said Attorney General Eric Holder, adding that it holds Transocean criminally accountable for the tragedy.
The settlement comes two months after BP was fined $4.5 billion for its role in the catastrophe. The two firms blamed each other for the errors made in the lead-up to the incident.
In a statement today, Transocean said the agreements “remove much of the uncertainty associated with the accident”.
“This is a positive step forward, but it is also a time to reflect on the 11 men who lost their lives aboard the Deepwater Horizon. Their families continue to be in the thoughts and prayers of all of us at Transocean.”
The fines will be paid over the next five years.
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Hopefully most of this money will go towards environmental recovery & not into some other govt fund.
Hopefully it’s not siphoned off to the terrorist state of Israel Reginald Tower.
What does Israel have to do with this story or is your anti-Jewish conspiracy theory paranoia really that bad?
That fine is just a drop in the ocean
No pun intended I presume.
The fine is not big enough considering the damage done.
However all we can do is hope all the money is put to right use.
Anglo cost us the same as 40 of these spills
Quite difficult to get the head around that one really isn’t it?!?!? :-(
Buy their shares, ASAP
Meantime on the Arctic front another Shell rig runs aground….the oceans are dying and our scientists are too busy looking for water on Mars, because thats where the funding is…from the energy oligopoly driving our 6th great extinction, the anthropocene.
If they cannot keep the Niger delta clean, what chance the Arctic? Aside from the fact the black-gold rush is for more fuel for their gluttonous consumptive economatrix experimenting with your children’s biosphere.
Abortion?These psychopathic hominids are doing a backroom mercenary abortion on the 22nd century.
Succinctly put. Dictionary anyone? :)
Useful tool the old dictionary. Clear thinking requires a vocabulary to suit the compexities.
I don’t want to be jamming up the space with long-winded detail.
We all have to a little homework if we are not to get bulldozed by these corporate dinosaurs. Or we can go for the comfort of the ostrich, which is what they prefer.
These fines are counter productive. These companies should loose their licenses. We are the ones that pay these fines at the pumps.
Petrol is actually cheaper now relatively than it was 50 years ago. The majority of the cost at the pump is taxation.
The majority of the cost at the pump is a poisoned and dying biosphere….man, not money is the measure.
have your say