On Thursday, 2/19, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier declared that BP should face paying up to $4,300 in fines for each barrel of oil spilled during the Macando well blowout that spilled oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days in 2010. This is the result of an attempt by BP to lower the fines they face from this catastrophic event to $3,000 per barrel, the amount set by the Clean Water Act in 1990. Barbier agreed with federal prosecutors that this amount should be adjusted for inflation.
In prior rulings, Judge Barbier declared that BP acted with “gross negligence” and that 3.19 million barrels of oil were spilled. BP faces a maximum of $13.7 billion fines.
For more details, see this article in the Tampa Bay Times.