Thursday, August 25, 2011
(photo: International Bird Rescue Research Center)
Federal prosecutors are still investigating BP’s underestimated oil-spill numbers that were released during last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The Department of Justice is examining whether BP officials deliberately withheld data from the federal government after telling them, beginning in April 2010, that the broken well was only releasing 1,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.
It wasn’t until August that a government panel of scientists and engineers determined the leak actually had been pouring 50,000 barrels a day into the ocean since the blowout first occurred.
BP had reason to downplay the significance of the oil spill, not only for public relations sake, but also because federal pollution laws stipulate fines as high as $4,300 for every barrel of oil that’s illegally discharged into U.S. waters.
Company leaders have said they did not deliberately lowball the spill numbers.
But The Huffington Post says, after reviewing thousands of documents and conducting dozens of interviews with engineers, scientists and government officials, that BP may have withheld key data on the well’s flow rate from the U.S. government.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Department of Justice Investigates BP for Faulty Oil Spill Estimates (by John Rudolf, Huffington Post)
Oil Spill Estimates Go Higher and Higher …up to an Exxon Valdez Every 10 Days (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Are BP and Obama Hiding Size of Gulf Oil Spill To Lessen Lawsuit Damages? (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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