Monthly Archives: August 2010
Alabama leaders say they knew nothing about BP claims meeting
BP PLC’s incoming CEO told reporters Sunday that the company would meet Monday with top state officials to confer about Alabama’s oil spill damages — but state leaders said they knew nothing about it. When the news story appeared, “that was the first I’d heard of that,” Attorney General Troy King said Monday. Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for Gov. Bob Riley added: “We’re not aware of any meeting.” Company officials [...]
Read More »MOBILE, Alabama — As of Monday afternoon, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility — which took over oil spill damage payments Aug. 23 from BP PLC — had written about 1,900 checks for $9.7 million. Almost 29,000 people had filed claims, according to the statistics. By comparison, eight days after BP started its claims process, about 2,700 claims had been filed, and the company had written 122 checks worth $631,000, according [...]
Read More »FOLEY, Alabama – Financial victims of the Gulf oil spill say Kenneth Feinberg is not keeping his promise regarding a more efficient and effective claims process. In Feinberg’s first week as claims commander, nearly 19-thousand claims were filed…but less than two-thousand people actually received a check. “I’m just going to re-send it and see what happens,” says Charles Phillip, who owns a seafood restaurant in Daphne. Phillip says he’s lost [...]
Read More »MOBILE, Ala. – The administrator of the oil spill claims operation graded its first-week performance as “not acceptable.” Ken Feinberg, who spoke to the Press-Register by phone Monday from Massachusetts, also said that every individual claim filed with his Gulf Coast Claims Facility last week had been reviewed, and that claimants should, by today, receive either a check or a message explaining why their claim hadn’t been verified. Feinberg said [...]
Read More »Ben Raines of the Press-Register in Alabama today is quoting what I consider to be a very credible source contradicting the government’s claim that dispersant wasn’t used near the coastline. That source happens to be me. Here’s a quote from today’s Register: “I personally saw C-130s applying dispersants from my hotel room in the Florida Panhandle. They were spraying directly adjacent to the beach right at dusk,” said Smith. “Fishermen [...]
Read More »We’ve always questioned the leadership of retired Adm. Thad Allen…ever since he backed BP on the now-infamous “5,000 barrel per day” flow rate. He went on to shield BP in a variety ways as this catastrophe unfolded, repeatedly siding with BP over the public good. Allen’s ability to lead independently as National Incident Commander has eroded almost completely as we hit Day 133 of the worst environmental disaster in our [...]
Read More »Lumpy, degraded oil collected in the Mississippi Sound has tested positive for several of the main ingredients in the Corexit dispersant used in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to scientists working for a New Orleans-based lawyer. Officials with the federal government and BP PLC have maintained throughout the oil spill that no dispersant products have been used near shorelines in Alabama or Mississippi. “It is difficult to [...]
Read More »MOBILE, Ala. — The number of residents reporting oil-related health effects from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to rise in coastal Alabama. At least 197 people have gone to local emergency rooms, clinics and urgent care centers since May 14 complaining of ailments thought to be related to the oil spill, Alabama Department of Public Health officials reported today. That compares with 78,427 patients treated for non-trauma care [...]
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