Posts Tagged ‘ Alaska ’

Psst…Remember that 2006 BP Spill in Alaska?

May 24th, 2010. By AbiK

While all eyes are on the BP disaster in the Gulf, it’s easy to forget about a bit of unresolved BP business up in Alaska: the 2006 Prudhoe Bay pipeline spills. Well, while the rest of us may have back-burner’d it, rest assured, the US Department of Justice and folks up in Alaska have not.

According to a report in the Anchorage Daily News, “lawyers for BP and federal regulators appear to be working hard to settle a civil lawsuit the government brought against the oil company in connection with the 2006 pipeline spills”. Spills to the tune of 212,252 gallons of oil in March, 2006, and a second spill that required a partial shutdown of Prudhoe Bay.

Lawsuit?

Yes. Lawsuit. No, you didn’t hear about it back in 2006—that’s because it was filed in March 2009 by the US Dept. of Justice on behalf of the EPA and federal pipeline regulators. The civil suit alleged water and air pollution violations and a failure to meet deadlines stemming from a corrective action order from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The suit is seeking millions in fines.

And, there’s another civil suit against BP that was filed by the state of Alaska. That one seeks at least $1 billion in back taxes and “other collections”.

If you’re wondering why these are civil suits and not criminal suits, that’s because back in 2007 the Alaskan BP subsidiary had been sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $20 million after pleading guilty to a federal environmental misdemeanor. That plea basically ended any criminal prosecution of BP.

Now, if you’ll recall, we also recently posted about the would-be environmental award BP was to receive—until, of course, the Gulf disaster. The Prudhoe Bay spills though beg the question of how—how?!?—could BP be up for an award when it was less than five years ago that disaster struck in Alaska? And the award was sponsored by the federal Minerals Management Service—what, do they all have exceedingly short-term memory over there?

Needless to say, with regard to Alaska’s $1 billion lawsuit, BP’s lawyers have asked Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski to dismiss much of the charges. Hmm.

Tags: Alaska, BP Oil Spill, Prudhoe Bay
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