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The New York Times reports that BP is set to cough up about $18.7 billion in settlement after 2010’s Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico wrecked states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. These states have been trying to pick up the pieces environmentally and economically after having their fisheries, wetlands, and wildlife take a hard hit. To help, BP is going to have to pay the largest settlement bill for an oil spill in American history, according to a tentative deal reached on Thursday between the states, the feds, and BP themselves.
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The April 20, 2010 accident occurred when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and caught fire, killed 11 workers, and sank around 50 miles from Louisiana. The settlement is set to be paid out in chunks over the next 15 to 18 years to help repair the economies and governments affected. Sucks for BP, since they already agreed to shell out $4 billion in criminal fines and blew $14 billion in an effort over three months to contain the spill. Sucks more for the environment, since no money can buy back the habitats and dead sea life.
“You break it, you pay for it,” David Yarnold, president and chief executive of the National Audubon Society, said, according to the Times. “That’s how this is supposed to work.”
