Gulf States Reach $18.7B Settlement With BP Over Oil Spill
Click above to hear NPR’s Debbie Elliott report on the settlement.
Officials in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana have announced an $18.7 billion settlement with BP that resolves years of litigation over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“The BP/ Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the worst environmental disaster in United States history, and the impact to the Alabama Gulf Coast was detrimental” says Governor Robert Bentley. “We have reached an agreement in principle with BP to compensate the State for all of the environmental and economic damages suffered as a result of the oil spill. With the agreement announced today, we are taking a significant step forward in our State and will become a stronger, safer and more resilient state as a result of this terrible disaster.”
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley says Alabama’s share is more than $2.0 Billion.
“On the economic side, $1 billion will be paid to the State over the next 18 years for economic damages suffered. On the environment side, Alabama will receive approximately $1.3 billion over the next 15 years that will be used to facilitate coastal restoration projects in Alabama,” the Governor’s office said in a release Thursday morning.
The settlement announcement comes as a federal judge was preparing to rule on how much BO owed in federal Clean Water Act penalties after more than 125 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf.
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange called the settlement “A major victory for the people of Alabama who will benefit for years to come.”
BP has said its spill-related costs already exceed $42 billion – even without hte Clean Water Act fine. It’s also unclear how much BP will end up paying under a 2012 settlement with individuals and businesses claiming spill-related losses. The spill resulted from the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers.
How George Wallace and Bull Connor set the stage for Alabama’s sky-high electric rates
After his notorious stand in the schoolhouse door, Wallace needed a new target. He found it in Alabama Power.
FIFA president defends World Cup ticket prices, saying demand is hitting records
The FIFA President addressed outrage over ticket prices for the World Cup by pointing to record demand and reiterating that most of the proceeds will help support soccer around the world.
From chess to a medical mystery: Great global reads from 2025 you may have missed
We published hundreds of stories on global health and development each year. Some are ... alas ... a bit underappreciated by readers. We've asked our staff for their favorite overlooked posts of 2025.
The U.S. offers Ukraine a 15-year security guarantee for now, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday the United States is offering his country security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan.
Genre fiction and female authors top U.S. libraries’ most-borrowed lists in 2025
All of the top 10 books borrowed through the public library app Libby were written by women. And Kristin Hannah's The Women was the top checkout in many library systems around the country.
The Best Tiny Desk Concerts of 2025
Which Tiny Desk made an audio engineer question everything? Which one made a producer want to cry? Touch grass? Look back on the year in Tiny Desk, with the people who make them.
