Are we a Christian nation or a nation where a lot of people are Christian?
July 15, 2015
Citizens speak out against proposed carwash in Houma
July 15, 2015
BP and five Gulf states have reached a tentative agreement with the Gulf States on all of the state and federal claims arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Louisiana is slated to receive $6.8 billion out of a total settlement of $18.732 billion with Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
The settlement is an Agreement in Principle, which means that all of the details have not been worked out yet, but that all of the parties have agreed to the basic terms of the settlement.
The $18 billion settlement handed down by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana is the largest environmental settlement in history.
“There is now an agreement in principle involving the 511 local governments across the state,” said Walter Leger, attorney for Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Bernard, St. Tammany parishes, the City of New Orleans and others. “We’re attempting to obtain formal authority to present to BP to eventually effectuate a settlement.”
Not much information about the settlement is being released to the public until the deal is finalized, but here is what is known:
Of the $18.732 billion going to Gulf States:
• $8.1 billion is for natural resource damages (including $1 billion in early restoration projects).
• $232 million goes to address any unknown natural resource damages.
• $5.5 billion goes to pay Clean Water Act civil penalties (subject to the RESTORE Act).
• $4.9 billion is for state economic losses.
Of the $6.8 billion that Louisiana will receive out of that settlement:
• $5 billion is for natural resource damages (includes $368 million in previously allocated early restoration).
• A minimum of approximately $787 million is reserved for Clean Water Act civil penalties distributed through the RESTORE Act (Louisiana’s portion of the RESTORE Council distributed funds has yet to be determined).
• $1 billion is for state economic damages.
Governing bodies in municipalities across the Gulf Coast have been convening over the last week to vote to accept or decline the settlement terms. The councils for Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes both voted to accept their settlement amounts last week.
Settlements are being divided into two parts. Municipalities will receive an amount of money to be used for economic development and another to pay for environmental recovery. Last week, municipal governing bodies were voting on the economic development amounts.
Terrebonne Parish will receive $9.5 million dollars towards economic development. Lafourche Parish will receive $8.1 million.
“We don’t have nearly the population that some of these others have, but let me assure you, it’s like manna from heaven because during the entire BP incident, our sales taxes increased almost the entire time [BP was cleaning up the spill],” said Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet.
“This is the first step in the right direction,” Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph said. “[Last week’s] vote by the council allows me to sign all the legal documents associated with this settlement offer. Pending litigation prohibits us from commenting further. As this process continues we will release additional information.
Thad Angelloz, spokesman for Lafourche Parish Government said the parish is waiting to hear when they will receive the money and what the stipulations about what the money can be used for will be.
According to Leger, this week is the tentative deadline for municipalities to turn in all of the appropriate documents.
“This is something that could’ve been litigated into perpetuity,” said Senator Norby Chabert, who represents both Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. “The Exxon Valdez Spill was in the early nineties and they still have litigation going on in regards to settling some of the claims there. So, it was really in the best interest of the state [to settle].”
The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that says BP must abude by the agreement it made to pay claims in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
