BP Still Feeling the Burn From Gulf Oil Spill

BP suffered a major PR disaster and image hit back in 2010 when its Deepwater oil well dumped nearly five million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and wreaked havoc on the ecosystem.

While the birds and fish and other living things in the ecosystem that were killed and affected in all sorts of negative ways don’t have lawyers, many of the humans impacted do, such as a number of BP fuel dealers who claimed that the spill hurt their brand and business in general, aren’t winning the love of one particular judge.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, a U.S. District judge ruled Tuesday that the dealers don’t have a case against the oil giant. The same judge also ruled that Gulf Coast homeowners “who claim the spill hurt their property values even though no oil physically touched their property and they haven't sold their homes” don’t have a case, either, the Sun reports.

Another group that doesn’t want BP’s money but would rather use any fines paid by the British company to help rebuild and protect the Gulf ecosystem are sportsmen and women, the Sun Herald reports. In a poll by Chesapeake Beach Consulting, 81 percent of the sportsmen and women living in the region interviewed “believe BP should be held accountable and fined the maximum amount allowed for the 2010 Gulf oil disaster and that those funds should be used exclusively to restore the fish and wildlife habitat of the Gulf of Mexico and its hunting and fishing heritage,” the paper notes.

Meanwhile, the BP Gulf disaster still continues to impact the region. “The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating an oily sheen spotted in the Gulf of Mexico last month near the site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Samples of the water are being tested to see if it is Deepwater-related.

BP has troubles elsewhere, too. In Russia this week, an oil refinery that it controls caught fire. And in Alaska, the word is out that state Senate candidate Bob Bell’s engineering firm made more than $1 million (of $7.7 million in overall revenue) last year from BP, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Bell told the paper that he had rejected money from a few oil companies when he was in the Anchorage Assembly back in 1996, but his revenue from big oil companies in the last year will bring up conflict-of-interest accusations, the paper notes, and will certainly make those who pay attention to Alaska politics more wary of how he votes on oil-related issues.

Whatever happens, BP will continue operating and rolling in money. Even after the Deepwater fiasco, BP pulled in $386.46 billion in 2011. And Britain’s gas production is about to go up now that BP has opened up its Devenick North Sea gas field, Reuters notes.

So while the two candidates for president in America dicker over just what’s going to happen with the energy future of the United States, BP is still keeping on keeping on, seemingly no matter how many fires or massive oil spills occur. And it doesn’t look like that’s changing anytime soon.