BP claims that $357 million in oil spill compensation payments have been made to more than 12,300 Louisiana residents, enough to cover their losses through the 2013 fishing season.
The payments were made to fisherman who catch fish, crabs, shrimp and oysters for a living, all industries that were pounded when BP’s Gulf Coast oil rig began spilling oil into the ocean around the area.
According to the report the average payout to local fishers was more than $29,000, approximately $5,000 more than the average spill pays out to residents around the world.
In the meantime the process isn’t being hailed as perfect by any means, many local fisherman are taking “quick” final payments of just $5,000 for individuals or $25,000 for businesses just so they can pay their bills, a payment that stops them from further compensation in the future. According to statistics 81 percent of the areas 13,100 paid fishing claims were quick payments which required only minimal documentation to receive six-month payments last fall.
In the meantime there has been vast criticism of the company’s $20 billion trust fund they set up at the request of President Barack Obama last fall, according to reports that money is being used to pay court judgments, damage claims from state and local governments and spill-response costs, none of which were originally meant to be covered with the fund’s money.
Do you believe BP should have to pay back the money used from the $20 billion fund which was meant to protect businesses and not their own interests?
