WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican lawmaker has urged U.S. authorities not rush to settle with BP Plc under the U.S. Clean Water Act in a court case starting this month related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
David Vitter, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday that he was concerned BP "may take advantage of the overlap" between two laws "to continue intentionally slow-walking restoration efforts" under a related Natural Resources Damage Assessment, or NRDA.
After the April 2010 explosion on the Transocean rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 4.9 million barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf over 87 days. Shorelines from Texas to Florida were fouled before responders could cap the mile-deep well.