Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 rig workers and released 206 million gallons of crude into the ocean. And while the oil spill undoubtedly hurt many Florida businesses, including Gulf resorts and fishing trawlers, we in Miami spent last summer having nightmares of tar balls washing up on South Beach.
Today, however, is also the last day to file claims in next year's lawsuit against rig owner Transocean.
So dust off that "mental anguish" evaluation and dial your lawyer: It's time to get paid -- because the companies responsible for the spill sure as hell haven't learned their lesson.
Case in point: Earlier this month, the New York Daily News reported that Transocean execs received raises and massive bonuses despite their role in the largest environmental disaster in the history of the world.
In a filing with the SEC, Transocean lamented the "tragic loss of life" but added that it "recorded the best year in safety performance in our company's history, which is a reflection on our commitment to achieving an incident free environment, all the time, everywhere."
At least we've now stopped drilling for oil so deep beneath the ocean that it takes robots months to fix our mistakes, right?
Not for long. Earlier this month, BP announced an agreement with the U.S. government to reopen ten oil wells in the Gulf.
So maybe today won't be your last chance to sue over a devastating oil spill after all.
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