A rice mill around 40 miles (64km) north of Louisiana's Gulf Coast received $21m. A construction firm in northern Alabama that does no business along the Gulf Coast got $9.7m. They obtained those payouts from a settlement fund set up by BP to compensate businesses harmed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010-yet both businesses did better in that year than in previous ones. On July 8th BP argued to a federal appeals court that these awards, and many others like them, stem from a misinterpretation of the settlement's compensation formula. It is supposed to reimburse businesses for "loss of income, earnings or profits suffered" as a result of the oil spill. To determine damage the settlement asks businesses to compare the variation in a crude measure of profit-revenue minus corresponding expenses-between three or more consecutive months from May to December 2010 (the spill began on April 20th) and a "benchmark period", for which a claimant may choose either 2009, the average during 2008-09 or the average in 2007-09.
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