BP Will Be Paying for Many Years for Their Most Recent Accident

BP has agreed to pay a record $20 billion to resolve all federal and state claims against the company over its role in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Under the terms of the finalized deal announced by the Justice Department on Monday, BP won’t have to pay all the money at once. Softening the hit to its cash flow, the company is able to spread out payments over a 15-year period. The last installments are due in 2031, more than 21 years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 crew members and caused the largest oil spill in U.S. waters.

The two biggest pieces of the settlement* are the $5.5 billion in Clean Water Act penalties and the $7.1 billion that BP agreed to pay to the U.S. and Gulf Coast states to cover long-term environmental damages.

Here are the payment schedules for both categories, according to the consent decree filed in federal court in New Orleans on Monday:

Department of Justice

Department of Justice

 

Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the deal “a strong and fitting response to the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.” BP officials, as WSJ’s Devlin Barrett notes, have said previously the agreement provides the company, and the Gulf region, “a path to closure,” resolving the largest legal exposure and providing more certainty in terms of costs and payments.

 

* Total settlement figure also includes $1 billion that BP previously committed for early restoration projects; up to $700 million for any later-discovered injuries or losses or to pay for adjustments to restoration projects; $4.9 billion to five Gulf States, plus another $1 billion to localities, to settle economic-damage claims; and $600 million to settle other claims, including reimbursement for response and removal costs.

Injured At Work? Let Jim Vander Linden Help Call Today 612-339-6841!! How Common Is An Injury At Work?

Seven occupations had rates greater than 375 cases per 10,000 full-time workers: transit and intercity

bus drivers; police and sheriff’s patrol officers; correctional officers and jailers; firefighters; nursing assistants; laborers and freight, stock and material movers; and emergency medical technicians and paramedics. transit and intercity bus drivers; police and sheriff’s patrol officers; correctional officers and jailers; and firefighters. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers had the highest number of days-away-from-work cases in 2012 with 63,690 cases (primarily in private industry). 

Private sector incidence rate for days-away-from-work cases decreased to 102 per 10,000 full-time

workers in 2012 from 105 in 2011. Despite the overall decrease, four occupational groups had increases in their incidence rates in 2012 including: computer and mathematical occupations; community and social service occupations; personal care and service occupations; and transportation and material moving occupations. The number of cases for these four broad occupation groups also increased. Transportation and material moving occupations had the highest incidence rate (258, up from 251 in 2011) of all occupation groups.

Transit and intercity bus drivers had an incidence rate of 852 cases per 10,000 full-time workers for

all ownerships. The majority of injuries and illnesses to bus drivers occurred in local government

with a rate of 1,026—statistically unchanged from the previous year. For private sector bus drivers, the incidence rate increased to 417 from 342 in 2011. Three other occupations with high rates and at least 0.1 percent of full-time equivalent employment occurred primarily in local government or state government: police and sheriff’s patrol officers; correctional officers; and fire fighters.

• Musculoskeletal disorder cases (388,060) accounted for 34 percent of all injury and illness

cases in 2012. Both the incidence rate and case count remained unchanged from the

previous year; however the median days away from work increased by 1 day to a median of 12 days.

Laborer and freight, stock, and material movers had the highest number of MSD cases and an

incidence rate of 164 per 10,000 full-time workers—up from 140 in 2011.

Occupation
 

Seven occupations had rates greater than 375 cases per 10,000 full-time workers: transit and intercity

bus drivers; police and sheriff’s patrol officers; correctional officers and jailers; firefighters; nursing

assistants; laborers and freight, stock and material movers; and emergency medical technicians and

paramedics. Injuries and illnesses to four of the seven occupations occurred primarily to state and local government workers: transit and intercity bus drivers; police and sheriff’s patrol officers; correctional officers and jailers; and firefighters. Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers had the highest number of days-away-from-work cases in 2012 with 63,690 cases (primarily in private industry) and an incidence rate of 391 (up from 367 in 2011).Only occupations that had at least 0.1 percent of full time employment are included in the list of high rate occupations.

For all occupations, the incidence rate for the public sector was over 71 percent higher than in the

private sector. The public sector rates were more than two times greater than private sector rates for

laborers, freight, and material movers, janitors and cleaners, and landscaping and grounds keeping. 

Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand 63,690 10 Overexertion and bodily reaction (44%),

Contact with object or equipment (33%)
Nursing assistants 44,100 6 Overexertion and bodily reaction (55%),

Falls, slips, trips (18%)

Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers 41,840 18 Overexertion and bodily reaction (36%),

Falls, slips, trips (29%)

Janitors and cleaners, except maids and

housekeepers 38,610 11 Overexertion and bodily reaction (41%),

Falls, slips, trips (30%)

Police and sheriff's patrol officers 32,190

Violence and other injuries by persons or

animals (27%), Transportation incidents

(20%), Overexertion and bodily reaction

(20%), Falls, slips, trips (20%)