Posted by Jessica Lee Reece. The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released its final Report to the President last week. The Report found, among other things, that the “immediate causes of the Macondo well blowout can be traced to a series of identifiable mistakes made by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean that reveal such systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry.” Based on its investigation, the Commission recommended “fundamental reform” in regulatory oversight and crisis response. The report also makes strong assertions against Gov…. Read more
Tag: BP Oil Spill
BP Spill Lawsuits Consolidated in New Orleans
BP, Transocean, Halliburton and other defendants in hundreds of lawsuits brought in the wake of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history must litigate those suits in Federal court in Louisiana, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has decided. Multidistrict litigation is a special federal procedural means of handling a multitude of separate cases which share one or more common factual issues, but are pending in different districts. The process is intended to streamline the discovery of evidence, resolve common issues of fact, avoid duplication of effort, and prevent inconsistent judicial rulings. Once pretrial proceedings are concluded, the separate… Read more
Federal judge blocks moratorium on deepwater drilling; Administration will appeal
In a ruling handed down yesterday, U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman struck down the Obama administration’s 6 month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects. The Administration immediately responded that the decision would be appealed and a new order issued.