MARITIME LAWYER NEWS

Archive for the ‘Florida Maritime News’ Category

WASHINGTON — Louisiana appears to be the frontrunner in a senate compromise proposal of the plan to distribute Clean Water Act fine money and is likely to get the biggest chunk of remaining money, which is largely reserved for environmental restoration.

Mary Landrieu, D-Senator from Louisiana, announces compromise on oil spill fine legislation.

Negotiations, which have stalled over the past several months on how to distribute billions of dollars in expected oil spill fine revenue largely over a fight among the states in order to get as much money as possible, appears to have reached a conclusion. ... Read Full Story

PENSACOLA, FL – It is 15 months after the devastating Gulf oil spill that occurred April 20, 2010 as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and Florida residents are still hurting economically.

Florida’s top agriculture official, Adam Putnam, said that an untold number of residents whose livelihoods were disrupted have not yet been compensated by BP. ... Read Full Story

NEW ORLEANS, La —  BP Oil Company filed a 29 page document with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility on Friday, July 8, arguing that most Gulf Oil Spill victims should not receive anymore payouts for future losses.

The oil company’s argument is that the hardest-hit areas are recovering and the economy is growing. ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON — A Senate hearing before the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee will be held in Pensacola on July 11, 2011 where business leaders from Florida’s Panhandle will describe the region’s economic and environmental recovery from last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, requested and helped organize the hearing to evaluate what’s needed for long-term recovery and what role Congress can play.

Witnesses at the hearing will include Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll; Collier Merrill, chairman of the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce; Capt. Bob Zales, president of the Panama City Boatmen Association; Joe Gilchrist, co-owner of the Flora-Bama Lounge on Perdido Key and Issac Duren, owner of Panama City Beach Summer Camps. ... Read Full Story

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The chancellor of the Louisiana State University law center, Jack Weiss, has appointed a 25 member panel to hear appeals from claimants who were dissatisfied with the way the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) established by BP handles their claims.

The GCCF was formed after the Deepwater Horizon disaster on April 20, 2010 which resulted in the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ... Read Full Story

PENSACOLA, FL – Wade Jeffrey, a University of West Florida (UWF) biologist with the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation, presented crucial research to an oil task force that convened in Pensacola Florida. The findings found that the chemical sprayed in the Gulf to break up the BP oil spill may not have been effective and could be damaging the ecosystem more than the oil alone.

BP dumped almost 2 million gallons of a chemical dispersant called Corexit to clean up the Gulf oil spill which saw more than 172 million gallons after the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Wade told the task force that when mixed with oil, Corexit is  a chemical that is toxic to both phytoplankton and bacteria which are crucial elements in the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile food chain. ... Read Full Story

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Relatives of oil rig workers who perished in the explosion and fire of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010 are being flown over the site of the disaster one year later.

Transocean, Ltd, the company who owned the ill-fated oil rig has invited up to three members of each family to attend the flyover. A helicopter was used to transport them to the spot where the disaster occurred in the Gulf. It was expected that the helicopter would circle the site a few times. ... Read Full Story

JACKSON, MS – The Mississippi Attorney General, Jim Hood has asked a District Judge to intervene on behalf of claimants in the $20 billion BP Oil Spill fund causing some friction with the fund administrator, Kenneth Feinberg.

BP Oil Spill fund administrator, Kenneth Feinberg

In New Orleans, U.S. District Judge, Carl Barbier has been asked by attorneys general from four states (Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi) to monitor the administration of the BP Oil Spill fund. ... Read Full Story

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Due to “scheduling conflicts oil spill claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg will not attend the Senate Agriculture Committee meeting Monday as stated in a letter will not attend the Senate Agriculture Committee meeting Monday.

“You have my promise that during my next visit to Florida I will schedule a meeting with you and the committee members,” he wrote.

In February, a House committee criticized his leadership of a national facility that oversees $20 billion in relief. ... Read Full Story

NEW ORLEANS, La. – In order to ward off fraud and justify payments for thousands of Gulf oil spill claimants, Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of BP’s compensation fund, is requiring proof of losses in order to process claims.

Feinberg has been criticized for delays in handling some claims but in thousands of cases claimants have not provided enough documentation to prove losses. ... Read Full Story