Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Group wants probe of BP spill case

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 12, 2008 at 12:51 AM

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- An environmental group claims the U.S. Justice Department may have moved too quickly to close its prosecution of BP for an oil spill in Alaska.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility urged the department's inspector general Monday to investigate the action, McClatchy Newspapers reported. BP pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor last year and paid a $20 million penalty for two spills at Prudhoe Bay, including one in 2006 that leaked more than 200,000 gallons of oil.

The group filed the complaint on behalf of Scott West, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency investigation of the spill. West has left the EPA and now works for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Jeff Ruch of the public employee group said there has been a pattern of "low-ball" settlements for corporate environmental crimes. He said BP, when it agreed to the settlement in the North Slope spill, also settled an explosion in Texas in 2005 that killed 15 people for $50 million and added another $303 million for price manipulation in the propane market.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 30
Valentine's Day Ramallah, West Bank
View Caption
fark
"No, your honor. It's just a social club. That hangs out in the woods. With high powered rifles....
New SI swimsuit cover girl is Republican congressman's niece
Can't sleep. Must eat Pope in woods. And wear his hat. Or something
What booty calls, prostitutes, cigars, the Village People have in common? They are all things FBI...
Remembering the first USAAF casualty in WW2: a nude-sunbathing, polo-playing risk-taker who once...
The government didn't regulate banks, and the economy fell. If the government decides to regulate...