WASHINGTON - The Interior Department today announced five new violations against BP for their role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The five new violations could charge BP a maximum of $15 million in additional fines to the $21 million that could be charged to the company from violations issued in October of 2011.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee and the leading force in Congress to hold the companies responsible for the Gulf oil spill accountable, today issued the following statement on these new violations and the outstanding fines yet to be paid. Rep. Markey, along with other Democrats, has introduced comprehensive legislation to respond to the spill that would increase the fines that oil companies have to pay for violations.
"These new violations reinforce BP's culpability for their oil spill, but it is just a drop in the ocean of fines that the company still must pay to the American people for the worst environmental disaster in our history. Today's fines are unfortunately nothing more than a slap on the wrist for an oil giant like BP, the equivalent of a parking ticket on a Bentley.
"The Obama administration still must levy the fines for the natural resources that were damaged from this spill -- the wetlands, the water, the fisheries, and other environmental effects -- and those fines will total in the billions. And when those fines are levied, all Americans expect BP to pay up, and not lawyer up and fight this for years in the courts."
