WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether any criminal or civil laws were violated in the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the biggest U.S. spill on record, said Attorney General Eric Holder.
“We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, anyone who has violated the law,” Holder said. “This disaster is nothing less than a tragedy.”
Holder announced the investigation today at a news conference in New Orleans, the same day President Barack Obama called the spill “the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history.” The president said, “My solemn pledge is that we will bring those responsible to justice.”
The spill began after an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, which London-based BP leased from Vernier, Switzerland-based Transocean Ltd. to drill its Macondo well in the Gulf. Houston-based Halliburton Co. provided oilfield services on the well.
A criminal probe likely will examine whether BP or other companies violated some of the same laws as Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, said David M. Uhlmann, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor. He is former chief of the Justice Department’s environmental crimes section.
The government probably will examine whether there were violations of the Clean Water Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Refuse Act, he said. In the Valdez case, Exxon and a shipping unit of the company pleaded guilty to those charges.
“They’re very likely to bring criminal charges against BP and other companies involved,” Uhlmann said in an interview.
Negligence
To prove a misdemeanor Clean Water Act violation, he said the government would need to show that BP or other companies were negligent by acting without the care that would be expected of a reasonable person under the circumstances.
Internal BP memos and interviews with employees may be used by the Justice Department to help make a criminal case, said Roger J. Marzulla of Marzulla Law LLC in Washington, in an interview.
“The environmental crimes section would look at memos from BP employees raising safety concerns,” said Marzulla, a former assistant attorney general overseeing the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division who isn’t involved in the BP matter.
The New York Times reported on May 30 that internal BP documents showed “serious problems and safety concerns” with the rig prior to the explosion that triggered the spill.
Marzulla said the government also may investigate whether BP or other companies lied to the government by submitting false reports to regulatory agencies.
Eight Senators
Lawmakers have been urging a criminal investigation. A group of eight Democratic senators, led by Barbara Boxer of California, asked Holder to investigate possible criminal and civil wrongdoing.
They wrote in a letter last month to Holder that they had questions about whether BP made “false and misleading statements to the federal government regarding its ability to respond to oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Efforts by BP to stop the leak haven’t been successful. Relief wells, the first of which is scheduled for completion in August, may be the best hope to stanch the leak, Carol Browner, energy adviser to Obama, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
BP has spent $990 million on the spill response, according to a statement today.
BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward’s effort to stop the leak and clean up the spill is becoming more urgent as the Atlantic Basin hurricane season starts today.
The April 20 blast killed 11 workers and triggered leaks that, according to an estimate by a government panel, spewed 12,000 barrels to 19,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean.