BP to Pay Record Fine for Gulf Spill; Florida Is Safe From Drilling (for Now)
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It was announced Thursday that BP is to fork over $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government because of its devastating 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This also includes the biggest criminal penalty in American history, with almost $1.3 billion in criminal fines, including manslaughter charges over the 11 deaths in the explosion of the oil rig that triggered the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
The BP spill triggered fears here in Florida over offshore drilling in recent years, and this latest ruling is just another reminder that more drilling is always possible in our own backyard.
Particularly, the fear has been over Cuba's insistence on drilling for oil with a Chinese-built offshore drilling rig. Cuba claimed the underwater areas it was looking at held up to 20 billion barrels of oil.
But thankfully, it turns out the wells were empty, and the island nation decided to abandon their plans to drill.
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