BP PLC faces a maximum fine of $13.7 billion after a U.S. judge ruled that the company dumped 3.2 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 — about 75 percent of what the U.S. calculated.
The government’s 4.2 million-barrel estimate of the spill size was rejected by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, decreasing the potential maximum fine from $18 billion. BP estimated the flow at 2.45 million barrels. The maximum possible fine would still be the largest U.S. pollution penalty.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.