THE United States government recently announced an $18.7 billion settlement of claims against the oil giant BP in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in April 2010, which dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Though some of the settlement funds are to compensate the region for economic harm, most will go to environmental restoration in affected states.
Citation
Paul Glimcher & Michael A. Livermore, What Is Nature Worth to You?, New York Times SR10 (August 9, 2015).