Former BP Executive Acquitted of Charges from 2010 Oil Spill

‘On Friday, June 5, former BP executive David Rainey was found not guilty of one count of lying to federal investigators about the true extent of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The acquittal of Rainey, the only executive charged with a crime over the spill, means not a single BP executive will be held to account for the worst environmental disaster in American history, which left 11 oil rig workers dead and devastated the Gulf’s ecosystem.

From the beginning, BP executives systematically underreported the true extent of the spill and were aided and abetted by the Obama administration. The company initially claimed, without any evidence, that only 1,000 barrels per day were flowing from the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig.

When this figure came under sustained criticism, BP and the Obama administration later settled on the somewhat higher figure of 5,000 barrels per day, based on a faulty government study. The actual estimated figure turned out to be an order of magnitude higher, at approximately 62,000 barrels per day, for a total of 4.9 million barrels. The resulting oil slick spanned 2,500 square miles and could be seen from space.’

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