The Troy, Alabama, city council voted recently to allow the city to pursue a claim against BP for revenues lost during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and in its aftermath. The disastrous oil spill erupted less about 50 miles south of Louisiana in April 2010, flooding the Gulf of Mexico with crude oil just before peak tourism and fishing seasons began.
The city of Orange Beach, Alabama, and BP reached an agreement Wednesday over tourism revenues the city lost during and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The settlement came after a year of negotiating, with BP agreeing to pay $1.27 million to cover lodging and retail taxes and other “small claims” the city has tried to recover since the BP oil spill fouled Alabama’s coastline.
Florida residents have photographed nearly every mile of the state’s 825 miles of beaches, part of a campaign launched by Florida’s tourism officials to show the world that its beaches are as clean and beautiful as they were before BP’s disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told an audience at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on Thursday that he lacks faith in BP and doesn’t trust the company to do the right thing in the aftermath of the oil spill.
Yesterday rumors were running high that Tony Hayward, CEO of BP Plc, the oil giant responsible for the massive disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, would be ousted from the top spot at the company. The Board of Directors met in London yesterday and today confirmed the reports that Hayward will step down from the role effective October 1. He will be succeeded by BP Executive Director Robert Dudley, who replaced Hayward as the official company spokesperson after Hayward made a series of gaffes in speaking to the public about the oil spill disaster.
An analysis published last week of the BP oil spill’s impact on the Gulf Coast’s tourism industry concluded that the effects of the massive oil spill could last up to three years and cost up to $23 billion. The study, conducted for the U.S. Travel Association by Oxford Economics, found that perception is a wildcard in how extensively the oil spill will damage tourism revenues along the popular vacation coast.
An Alabama charter boat captain, distraught over the oil slick that is causing large-scale destruction of fish and marine wildlife along the Gulf coast, has apparently taken his own life. William Allen Kruse, 55, of Foley, Alabama, was found dead on his boat with a gunshot to his head Wednesday morning around 7:30 a.m.
As BP Senior Vice President Bob Fryar attempted to placate officials and residents in the Orange Beach, Ala., area June 5, he was lambasted by the angry crowd. Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennan said he’s been begging for a BP representative to visit the endangered – and now oil-besmirched – area since the beginning of May, with no response. Now, as huge globs of tar spoil the once-pristine white sand beaches and a sheen of oil desecrates the waters just offshore, platitudes just aren’t good enough. The Wall Street Journal quotes Kennan as saying, “We just climbed out of a hole from two hurricanes and a two-year recession. This was going to be a banner year, and BP killed it.”
Today beaches on Grand Isle, Louisiana, were closed until further notice as oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill has washed ashore. Government officials closed the beaches at noon, and are working with the state Wildlife and Fisheries Department to also close the waters off the island. The closure feeds the fears of other Gulf Coast communities that the summer season will be lost to the oil spill.
Executives from BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and other corporations tied to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today trying to explain why their “failproof” systems failed, creating an unprecedented threat to the wildlife, industries and communities along the Gulf Coast.
