The Gulf Deepwater Drilling Moratorium Litigation: While Merits Still Pending, Already Significant Practical Effect?

摘要

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon well operated by BP exploded, killing 11 and injuring many more workers, as it began spewing "endless gushes of crude oil" into the Gulf of Mexico 50 miles south of the Louisiana coastline at a depth of 5,000 feet. Besides these immediate "senseless" worker deaths and injuries, "horrible losses" were sustained by the families and loved ones of the dead and injured crew, the broken pipe on the floor of the sea gushed crude for nearly three months afterwards, and the oil muck "spread across thousands of square miles and persists in damaging sensitive coastlines, wildlife, and the intertwined local economies."