There certainly was a lot of cleaning up after the BP oil spill in the Gulf region, and not all of it had to do with petroleum.

 

While the worst oil spill in U.S. history was economically damaging for many in Louisiana, others made out like bandits—becoming what locals now call “spillionaires”—by taking advantage of BP’s largesse to compensate for its accident.

 

An investigation by ProPublica found some that people charged the oil company outrageous rates for cleanup, such as billing more than $15,000 a month for a generator that ordinarily costs $1,500.

 

Another example involved a company, owned by the cousin of the St. Bernard Parish sheriff, that charged more than $1 million a month for land it had been renting for less than $1,700 a month.

 

As Kim Barker wrote: “In the end, BP’s attempt to make things right—spending more than $16 billion so far, mostly on claims of damage and cleanup—created new divisions and even new wrongs. Because the federal government ceded control over spill cleanup spending to BP, it’s impossible to know for certain what that money accomplished, or what exactly was done.”

 

According to another investigation by the Associated Press, several coastal communities in Mississippi used BP money to buy non-oil spill-related equipment, such as Tasers, SUVs, pickup trucks, laptops and a $19,000 Harley-Davidson. Another $300,000 went to Kenny Loggins, the Doobie Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, who performed two concerts to help promote Florida’s beaches.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

‘Spillionaires’: Profiteering and Mismanagement in the Wake of the BP Oil Spill (by Kim Barker, ProPublica)

BP Buys Gulf Coast Millions in Gear (by Michael Kunzelman, Mike Schneider and Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press)