Alaskans’ pain set stage for Gulf spill victims’ gain

As a federal judge considers whether to approve a huge civil settlement in the 2010 oil spill, thousands of Gulf Coast residents owe their day in court to a law that arose from the Exxon Valdez disaster 23 years ago. The litigation over the spill from BP’s Macondo well is the biggest test so far of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and economic victims of the Gulf spill likely will fare better than those who suffered from the 1989 tanker accident in Prince William Sound, Alaska. While some plaintiffs have expressed frustration that the settlement process has taken two years, legal experts tell the The Houston Chronicle that one of the biggest benefits of the oil pollution legislation has been how it has helped move along the resolution process, sidestepping much of the legal fighting that bogged down the Valdez negotiations. Under the act, liability for an oil spill falls to the operator of a project—BP—and co-owners of the Macondo well, in the case of the Gulf spill. “With Exxon Valdez, there were decades of litigation about fault and responsibility, but the Oil Pollution Act makes it very simple,” says Martin Davies, a maritime law professor at Tulane University. Check out the complete story here.