THE VERDICT:
TOTAL-LY GUILTY
PARIS (AP) — A court on Wednesday convicted Total SA in France's worst oil spill and ordered the petroleum giant and three other defendants to pay $285 million in compensation — the first time a French court has awarded damages for harming the environment.
The ruling found Total guilty of maritime pollution for shipping fuel in a rusty tanker that broke apart in a 1999 storm and stained 250 miles of coast with oil. Compensation was ordered paid to 101 civil parties, mainly associations involved in the clean-up or ecology groups.
The ruling found Total guilty of maritime pollution for shipping fuel in a rusty tanker that broke apart in a 1999 storm and stained 250 miles of coast with oil. Compensation was ordered paid to 101 civil parties, mainly associations involved in the clean-up or ecology groups.
Read the entire AP article here.
Total should have done some cost analysis: $9 million USD for a brand new oil tanker, or $285 million in compensation for sinking an old rust-bucket and coating 250 miles of French coast with oil. Poor Total... it just doesn’t pay to cut corners anymore.
Shoutout to the courts of France for holding big business accountable for their actions, and to the ecology groups who cleaned up the mess.
No comments:
Post a Comment