For the last 29 months, I've been chronicling the widespread and still-very-much-ongoing fallout from BP's gross negligence -- "a corporate culture of recklessness," as U.S. government lawyers called it -- that killed 11 people and spewed an astronomical 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, BP, arm in arm with the class action lawyers (Plaintiff's Steering Committee, or PSC) who are set to make 600 million dollars for less than two years of work if the settlement is approved, are racing ahead in a push to get a federal judge in New Orleans to give his speedy approval to an $8.7 billion settlement of the legitimate claims that thousands of Gulf Coast residents and business owners have lodged against the oil giant. The settlement would allow the company to sweep most of its massive liability to average citizens for the Deepwater Horizon disaster under the rug and get back to its business of making billions of dollars of profit in exploiting the world's addiction to fossil fuels. The State of Louisiana hired incredibly competent private counsel who, unlike the vast majority of the class action lawyers in the PSC, are extremely respected, top-notch environmental lawyers. Like the Federal Government ...
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