Gulf oil spill: New agency to take over claims payments on Monday

Documents released Friday about how claims will be paid from BP's $20-billion fund to deal with the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oll spill show that how close a person or business is to the spill will play a key role.

The claims process is shifting from BP to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility effective Monday. It will be run by Washington attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who also handled claims from the 9/11 terror attacks.

The new rules govern emergency claims that can be made between Monday and Nov. 23. Claimants will not give up their right to sue BP and other spill-related companies in return for the emergency money, but final settlements coming later this year are to include a waiver of the right to sue.

The documents say claimants must show how the spill caused damage or economic loss, including their geographic proximity to the disaster and “dependence upon injured natural resources.” That could leave out many people and businesses -- such as a real estate agent who lost sales, or a restaurant supply company miles from the gulf whose customers stopped buying.

The losers could, however, still file a lawsuit seeking damages or become part of an existing class-action case.

Some attorneys representing fishermen, property owners, hotel operators and others say the lawsuit waiver to be included in the final claims phase will force many people to make a difficult choice: take a potentially lesser claim now or wait for a possibly larger payout later through court action. It could also protect BP from huge damage awards in some cases.

"They realize that small payments will be grabbed by some, and then in the future they will have no access to justice. Which is sad but true," said Jere Beasley, a plaintiffs attorney in Montgomery, Ala.

More than 300 lawsuits have been filed against BP and the other companies involved in the April 20 blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that triggered the massive oil spill. BP said earlier this week it has already paid more than $368 million in claims.

-- Associated Press

Comments

[Frank Hummel]

I certainly HOPE that the beast has indeed been driven back down into the bowels of the Earth --- and that indeed the oil-eating bacteria in the warm waters of the Gulf ARE in fact able to digest the suspended oil expeditiously. (It surely makes sense that they OUGHT to be able to operate more quickly in this situation than might have been possible in the much COLDER waters of Prince William Sound.)

But it seems to me there is a "whole 'nother dimension" of this spill that DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE BEEN “PICKED UP ON” IN THE GENERAL POPULAR CONSCIOUSNESS --- and I’m afraid that IT SURELY OUGHT TO BE. I refer to all the METHANE that has PRESSURIZED the flow of this gusher to the extent of having DRIVEN that whole spill of 4.9 million barrels of oil. I have heard one figure stated that 40% of that was methane (no, I don’t know whether by weight or by volume).

I point out to people that methane (CH4) is a VERY "EFFICACIOUS" GREENHOUSE GAS! (meaning, of course, that IT TOO, just like the CO2 about which many folks now generally understand, operates like a "blanket" that "holds in" the energy of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, photons of which EASILY PASS THROUGH the atmosphere COMING IN, but then interact with the atoms of the Earth that they eventually strike and end up being converted to LOWER FREQUENCY photons of INFRA-RED energy. To THESE, such gases are OPAQUE, so that the resulting "heat" energy CANNOT THEN RE-RADIATE FREELY BACK OFF OUT INTO SPACE --- so it "PILES UP", and THE EARTH GETS HOTTER!)

But CO2 is NOT THE ONLY such "greenhouse gas"; METHANE is evidently MUCH WORSE than CO2! Furthermore, lest people imagine that it too (like the OIL) has been dispersed into the water, BE ADVISED: METHANE IS NOT WATER-SOLUBLE! Presumably however much of it has been released I WOULD THINK MUST HAVE BUBBLED UP THROUGH THE WATER AND, except for the 10% or so of everything that was “burned off”, MUST HAVE NOW GONE OFF INTO THE AIR!!

"We" LONG ago already realized that this stuff (being FLAMMABLE, and indeed EXPLOSIVE) needed to be "disposed of". And years ago one would see FLARES burning in the vicinity of oil refineries --- which at least served to "convert" methane into carbon dioxide, which IS NOT flammable and explosive. We don't do THAT any more (at least not on LAND, in "developed" countries); rather "we" CAPTURE the stuff. (It is USEFUL AS A FUEL!) And indeed, nowadays every lousy LANDFILL is outfitted with a system of gas-collection wells to CAPTURE the methane that is inevitably given off in the course of the decomposition of complex organic material. (I have seen one figure [thanks to Bobthemoose] suggesting that where methane IS FLARED to CO2 the relative benefit vis-à-vis the greenhouse effect is as much as 96%!)

But if such a release occurs A MILE UNDER WATER --- EVIDENTLY NOBODY EVEN BOTHERS TO THINK ABOUT THE WHOLE SUBJECT! I submit that now, if the flow IS indeed finally quelled, it IS high time to think about that! I, for one, wonder whether perhaps there might be a dimension of the damage of "our" initiatives to drill deep under water THAT IS SIMPLY BEING IGNORED HERE! --- being in essence considered to ostensibly be "trumped" by all the "ECONOMIC disruption" about which so many are (perhaps foolishly?) TOO concerned when there may be EVEN LARGER concerns!

SOME amount of methane leakage must be INEVITABLE in drilling down to highly pressurized deposits of oil and/or natural gas. But when an accident occurs A MILE UNDER WATER, it would seem that "remediation" is SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE!

So now --- HOW ABOUT SOME ACTUAL EXPERTISE BEING DEVOTED TO CONSIDERING THIS DIMENSION OF THIS AND OTHER "BLOWOUTS" AS WELL!! Any ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS out there care to COMMENT?? And how might THIS dimension of the whole debacle enter into the “financial resolution” of things that is supposedly to be dealt with by the “trust fund”? Might not WE ALL perhaps file claims predicated on AN INCREASE IN GLOBAL WARMING RESULTING IN ALL MANNER OF DISRUPTION OF ALL SORTS OF THINGS??!

[MissMarple]

They will not only give up their right to sue BP, but their right to sue all the other defendants. They have to figure out what their damages will be in the future, and who can know that? Nobody knows how long the damage will go on, maybe for a life time. People must ask for enough damages as if they will never be able to work again, their business is totally destroyed, and they won't have a business to pass on to their children. They won't get it. They will be offered some pittance. They should join one of the law suits with the Bob Kennedy Jr., Michael Pappantonio law firm in Fla. They are the only firm that has held these people accountable before. Who does Kenneth Feinberg work for? He works for BP! He doesn't work for the Government. He doesn't work for the people who have been injured. He works to dole out BP's money. He Works For BP! Don't trust him!