BP’s major role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been deemed as a result of “gross negligence” by a Louisiana federal court.
This decision likely means BP will paying billions more dollars in fines as a result of the company’s catastrophic mistake.
Estimates are that the damages could cost BP as much as $18 billion with the gross negligence ruling since fines can quadruple, as opposed to the absence of gross negligence, which under the Clean Water Act would have resulted in charges upwards of $1,100 per barrel of oil spilled.
BP has already paid $4.5 billion in fines previously, not to mention the immense amount of money the company has poured into the clean up effort.
These new charges will specifically cover the Clean Water Act, which unfortunately for BP is where the company caused a huge amount of damage.
