BP’s Massive Settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice

On July 2, the U.S. Department of Justice and BP—one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies—announced that they had come to terms on a historic $18.7 billion settlement over damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. By any metric, this is an enormous sum of cash; for example, it is more than the gross domestic product of 83 countries, according to the World Bank. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced in a statement that, if ultimately approved, this restitution “would be the largest settlement with a single entity in American history”—appropriate considering that the spill was one of the worst environmental disasters to ever occur in the United States.

Yet, is almost $19 billion enough to liberate the Gulf of Mexico’s economy and environment after BP’s “gross negligence” led to the dumping of more than 3 million barrels of oil into its waters and onto its shores? Where will the money go? And, at the end of the day, is it a good deal for Gulf Coast residents and American taxpayers?

For more on this idea, please see:

• The True Value of BP’s $18.7 Billion Settlement by Michael Conathan