Company sued over 2004 oil spill

An environmental watchdog group filed a lawsuit today against the company it blames for an oil spill that began in 2004, 11 miles off the coast of Louisiana, claiming oil has been flowing into the Gulf of Mexico for more than seven years with few details divulged about what’s being done to stop it. Waterkeeper Alliance claims hundreds of gallons of oil are leaking every day from the site where an offshore platform and 28 oil wells owned by Taylor Energy Co. were damaged by a seafloor mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. By comparison, the 2010 blowout of BP’s Macondo well spewed more than 200 million gallons total, for an average of about 2.35 million gallons a day, according to government figures. The New York-based alliance says they’ve filed the federal lawsuit in New Orleans because Taylor Energy and government regulators refuse to answer basic questions about their spill response. Taylor Energy and a spokeswoman for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement didn’t immediately respond to calls today seeking comment. The suit accuses the New Orleans-based company of violating the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation Recovery Act and seeks civil penalties of up to $37,500 per day. Read the full story here.