Feds Fine BP Big Time—For Alaskan Spill

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced an unprecedented fine against BP’s Alaskan division for spilling 5,078 barrels of oil from a pipeline in 2006. Yes, that other big oil spill problem BP had before they trashed the Gulf of Mexico. The fine—$25 million—is the highest civil per-barrel penalty to date.

It works out to $4,923 for each barrel of oil the company spilled—which is higher than the standard penalty, the EPA explains, because it also includes fees for violating both the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. The maximum fine is usually $4,300 per barrel for Clean Water Act violations, imposed when a company is found grossly negligent for a spill. The agreement, hashed out by the EPA, the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, also requires BP to set up a $60 million system-wide pipeline integrity management program.

The question for me is whether this fine sets a precedent for BP’s other big spill. The company dumped 4.9 million barrels of crude if the Gulf. If the company is deemed grossly negligent in the disaster, BP could face up to $21 billion fines for Clean Water Act violations alone. Then there’s the Natural Resources Damage Assessment process, in which the feds survey the damage to ecosystems and levy a fee for restoration to the responsible party. That’s on top of the $20 billion in compensation for residents and businesses that BP already agreed to put into an escrow account.

All told, it could add up to quite a bit for BP if the government is aggressive in its penalties. But whether the government will be is still an open question.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate