Lessons from the BP Oil Spill

Authors

  • Daniel Farber Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. University of California, Berkeley.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/rechtd.2014.63.01

Abstract

The BP Oil Spill of 2010 was one of the largest in history. Although the lessons of the BP Spill are most immediately relevant to the United States, they have broader implications for Brazil and other countries. It is no secret that the regulatory system functioned poorly in the era before the spill, providing little incentive for industry to exercise care. Post-spill reforms should be an improvement. The U.S. government took the spill seriously and sought major penalties. These penalties are measured in billions of dollars. In the meantime, a multi-billion dollar class action settlement has also resulted from the spill. Actions to recover for harm to natural resources and ecosystems are still in preparation. Hopefully, the lessons learned from this deplorable event will be instructive not only for the United States but for other nations such as Brazil that are involved in deepwater oil drilling.

Keywords: Environmental Law, Disaster Law, oil drilling.

Author Biography

Daniel Farber, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. University of California, Berkeley.

Sho Sato Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Co-Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. Professor Farber serves on the editorial board of Foundation Press. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Life Member of the American Law Institute. He is the editor of Issues in Legal Scholarship.

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Published

2014-08-03

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 3 (2014): October/December

Section

Articles

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