SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2015
WASHINGTON, DC
The U.S. government is appealing a federal court ruling that
reduced the potential penalty BP Plc must pay for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil
spill by almost $4 billion.
The appeal, which was filed on Friday in U.S. District Court
in New Orleans, challenges a January decision by U.S. District Court Judge Carl
Barbier that set the size of the spill at 3.19 million barrels. The appeal did
not detail what aspects of Barbier's ruling it was challenging.
The government had estimated the size of the spill at 4.09
million barrels and BP at 3.26 million.
BP could have been fined a maximum of $17.6 billion under
the Clean Water Act but Barbier's ruling on the spill size lowered the potential
figure to $13.7 billion.
BP has incurred more than $42 billion of costs for the
spill, including for cleanup, fines and compensation for victims. About 810,000 barrels were collected during
the cleanup.
Source: www.reuters.com