Five years after the worst oil spill in history, the company that caused it has agreed to an historic $18+ billion settlement with the five Gulf States that were affected by the environmental disaster. The total also includes $5.5 billion in Clean Water Act penalties.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill killed eleven BP workers (whose bodies were never found) and spilled approximately 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, destroying wildlife and damaging beaches and wetlands. Local economies took a big hit as well, with the fishing industry losing jobs and the states’ tourist industries losing dollars.