AmericasEnvironmentOffshore

Green group settles with Taylor Energy over ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil leak

Green group the Waterkeeper Alliance on Thursday settled its legal action against oil rig owner Taylor Energy over an 11-year-old oil leak that is still continuing offshore Louisiana, according to the Associated Press.

Under the settlement New Orleans-based Taylor Energy will release more information about its efforts to stop oil from leaking at the site where one of its offshore platforms collapsed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Critics have long claimed the company’s response was inadequate but they were denied access to information that would have confirmed that charge.

The company also will donate $300,000 to a Louisiana marine research consortium and $100,000 for research on the ecological effects of Gulf oil pollution.

In April this year an Associated Press report revealed that the spill was far worse than the company or the government had admitted over the years.

The agreement with New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance comes less than four months after May’s ruling by a New Orleans federal magistrate that Taylor Energy could not use claims of confidentiality to hide information (in e-mails and internal company reports) about the leak from the public and interested parties.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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