The Department of Justice has charged a former BP engineer with two counts of obstruction of justice in the first criminal case to come out of the devastating 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The DOJ accuses Kurt Mix of intentionally destroying evidence sought by federal criminal authorities during their investigation into the largest accidental marine oil spill.
A coalition of health and environmental groups have filed a petition
with the federal court of appeals in the District of Columbia requesting
a review of the Obama administration's decision to withdraw stricter
regulations of smog-causing ozone emissions.
A coalition of environmental organizations has filed a lawsuit against
the federal government seeking to stop work on TransCanada's Keystone
oil pipeline. The groups allege that TransCanada received authorization
to begin work on the pipeline, which will transport crude from oil
sands in Alberta to refineries in Texas, from the Department of Fish and
Wildlife before the State Department had issued a final approval for
the project. The groups allege that this violated a federal law
preventing the commencement of project work before issuance of a final
approval.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard have released a report on their investigation of the causes of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil right and the subsequent oil spill. The report contains the conclusion that BP, Transocean and Halliburton violated numerous federal offshore safety regulations.
In a cross-claim filed as part of the ongoing litigation surrounding
last year's oil rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP
alleges that the manufacturer of the blowout preventer designed,
manufactured, maintained and modified the preventer in a way that
rendered it "unreasonable dangerous when used as intended."
BP filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas alleging that Halliburton's
improper conduct contributed to the oil rig explosion and resulting oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. Halliburton provided the
cementing services for the well, and many observers believe that the
failure of the cement contributed to the original blowout of the well.
BP submitted a court filing in the ongoing litigation regarding last
year's oil rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico alleging
that the owner of the Deepwater oil rig violated the law and caused the
explosion and subsequent spill.
A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that the federal government did not
follow proper procedure when it ordered a moratorium on offshore oil
drilling at depths greater than 500 feet.
A former BP contractor filed a lawsuit suit alleging that BP never verified that the systems on its Atlantis oil rig were functioning properly. The plaintiff has stated that poor conditions on the rig could lead to an even worse disaster than the Gulf Oil Spill.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups filed suit against the Secretary of the Interior alleging that the federal government illegally allowed BP to drill in over 5,000 feet of water without analyzing blow-out and worst-case oil spill analysis. The plaintiffs claim that this exemption contributed to the Gulf Oil Spill.
