BP Spill Cost Is Now $3 Billion; Now Hitting All Gulf States

The cost of the Gulf oil spill hit $3 billion, climbing half a billion dollars in just the past week.

London-based BP PLC released its latest tally of response costs Monday. The total of $3.12billion was up from $2.65billion a week earlier. The figure does not include a $20billion fund for Gulf damages BP set aside in June.

And now, tar balls have been found on a Texas beach, evidence that all Gulf states have been affected.

A Coast Guard official said it was possible that the oil hitched a ride on a ship and was not carried naturally by currents to the barrier islands of the eastern Texas coast, but there was no way to know for sure.

The amount discovered is tiny in comparison to what has coated beaches so far in the hardest-hit parts of the Gulf coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. It still provoked the quick dispatch of cleaning crews and a vow that BP will pay for the trouble.

Of course, you’ve got folks like Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour who says the moratorium on drilling is worse than the spill itself, and Alaska Congressman Don Young who says it’s not an environmental disaster.  Good luck pushing those themes.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.