CategoryClaims

“The people who live along the Gulf Coast know the truth”

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It was gratifying to see that the editorial board of the New Orleans Times-Picayune has picked up on the issue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its treachery against the small- and mid-sized business owners of the Gulf Coast. As you’ll recall, last week we spotlighted how the inside-the-Beltway-based national Chamber — which receives the bulk of its support and is increasingly...

The revolt against the U.S. Chamber’s stunning betrayal of Main Street America

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It’s an idea that boggles the mind: America’s largest, most powerful and best-known business organization siding AGAINST tens of thousands of its own members — small- and mid-sized business owners in the U.S. heartland whose very survival is on the line. The only thing that could make that scenario involving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce even more staggering would be if the...

For Gulf fishermen, BP continues to add insult to injury

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At this stage, some 54 months after the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, BP must been thinking that this would all go away. Surely, in their posh boardroom somewhere in the glass skyscrapers over London, overpaid executives imagined that by 2014 the beaches that BP wrecked with its crude oil would be free of tar balls, that the damaged marshes would spring back to life, and that visitors to the...

It’s time for arrogant BP to pay up…now, not later

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I’ve been an environmental attorney for a while now, and at this stage of my career it takes a lot to shock me. But in the last four years, the arrogance of BP and its actions after devastating the Gulf of Mexico with its 5-million gallon oil spill fiasco has continually stunned me, time and time again. Sometimes, the British oil giant is so out there with its arrogance on full display that...

HUGE NEWS: Judge finds BP was “grossly negligent” in 2010 spill

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If you’ve been reading this blog regularly for the last four years, the notion that BP was grossly negligent in its actions linked to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe won’t come as a surprise to you. It’s a well-established fact, by this point, that the British oil giant ignored a series of looming problems in its offshore deepwater rig. The Big Oil icon nevertheless...

Slammed twice by BP, shipper says “I’m not going to give up”

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Earlier this summer, I told you about an outrageous breech of promise by BP — how the oil giant was abruptly closing down an internal-claims program that was intended to help business owners who wanted to resolve their claims from the 2010 oil spill, quickly and fairly. This was supposed to be an alternate route for those who didn’t want to go through the burden of dealing with the...

In-depth: BP’s callous disregard for the Gulf and its people

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This is the third and final installment in my in-depth report on how the Gulf is still suffering from the impact of BP’s recklessness. You can read the first two parts of the series here and here: Former Sarasota motel owner Dave Arnsby feels that he’s been victimized by BP – not once, but twice. When the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe spewed some 5 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf...

BP keeps hitting new lows

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In a weird way, you have to give credit to BP. Every time that you think the British oil giant has hit a new low in trying to back out of its commitments to the people of the Gulf Coast — after destroying our most precious natural resources –, they manage to drill down a little lower. Just think about it: In recent months, we’ve seen BP go into court to try to undo the same...

BP’s desperate, pathetic attack

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There’s a new stench hovering over the Gulf Coast, and once again BP is responsible. This time, however, it is the sour smell of desperation.  I’ve told you several times in recent months that BP — after arguing strenuously and winning approval for an $8.7 billion Deepwater Horizon  settlement with Gulf residents and small business owners — is trying just as hard to renege...

Outrageous BP seeking to welch on settlement

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BP has got to be the most un-self-aware company in the history of global capitalism. The recent criminal trial in federal court here in New Orleans exposed the very worst of the British oil giant’s corporate culture: A firm that is desperate to delay, obfuscate, and cover up the true facts of its bad behavior from the people of the Gulf Coast. It was back in the first few days after the...

Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
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