Gulf Disaster- A Year Later

The BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and the massive oil spill that followed, led to significant changes in the industry, hundreds of lawsuits and even more investigations, as well as severe economic harm to thousands upon thousands of people along the Gulf Coast. Following is a list of some things that have happened since that disaster on April 20, 2010.
- BP CEO Tony Hayward was ousted and replaced by American Bob Dudley. Hayward was transferred to an affiliate in Russia. Other top execs also left the company, including its Chief Operating Officer, senior vice president, along with several others.
- Several of the families of the 11 men who died in the explosion are bringing legal claims against BP and other companies involved. BP hasn’t settled with any, and the families claim they’ve heard little from the company over the past year.
- Out of the $20 billion fund set up by BP for all oil spill victims, only $3.8 billion has been dispensed to about 176,000 claimants.
- More than 300 lawsuits against BP and other involved companies have been consolidated, and a trial has been set for February of 2012 to decide how much each company is at fault. BPs liability has been capped at $75 million, which BP waived and exceeded. The anniversary on April 20th is the deadline to file claims against Transocean.
- Responders equal about 2,000 as of last month, they were 48,000 at the high point of the spill.
- Gulf drilling has to follow strict new rules and demonstrate their ability to contain a deepwater explosion.
- A survey of researchers shows that scientists rate the health of the Gulf as being nearly back to normal. However, the decline in the health of the sea floor, dolphins, and oysters conflicts with this finding.
- Investigative findings are supposed to be released within the next week regarding design flaws, along with technical failures that led to the explosion/spill.
- Transocean plans to fly the families of the 11 dead men, to the disaster site on the April 20th Anniversary. BP is not involved, no further details have been released.

The oil spill quickly stopped being headline news, but its effects have not ceased. Consequences from the explosion and spill are still being rendered almost a full year later. Out of sight, out of mind is a fitting motto for this situation, but as the information provided here shows, it is not over yet. And it will more than likely carry on for years to come.

MistyMarie
TheTruthSyndicate

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