Short, who spent much of his career with NOAA coordinating the agency's efforts in response to the Valdez, notes that that earlier spill claimed an estimated 3100 marine mammals and 100,000 birds.
He downplayed the illnesses of cleanup workers and the environmental consequences of the spill, claimed there was no underwater oil plume and, said the article, "started to look increasingly arrogant".
"Our state and local leaders have been so quick to declare that the beaches, seafood and Gulf Coast are doing fine that we may have screwed up the chances of the remaining outstanding BP oil spill claims to be paid," Rick Outzen, publisher of the Independent News, an alternative weekly in Pensacola, Fla., wrote on his blog.
Now that the media's moved on, Enbridge is dropping the act and bringing in the lawyers: Attorneys representing Enbridge are reportedly gearing up to fight claims made by victims of the spill, claiming that the perpetually leaky company was not responsible because it had followed all relevant laws and regulations.
Mr. Feinberg said that the oil spill claims were different in several ways from others in his experience.
Meanwhile, Ken Feinberg, America's "oil spill claims tsar" has taken charge of the $20 billion fund set up by BP to compensate victims of its mishap in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP's board met on Monday to consider a White House demand that it establish an account to pay spill claims, as investors and officials raised questions about the company's long-term financial strength.
But, buoyed by the strong price it has obtained from Apache, and driven by the necessity of paying for spill claims which could hit $30bn or more, it has decided to widen the net.
BP can no longer call the administrator of its $20bn£12.5bnbn) Gulf spill claims fund "independent", a US federal judge ruled last night, which could hamper the company's attempts to cap its liabilities following the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
And while Democrats have pounced on Mr. Barton for accusing Mr. Obama of conducting a "shakedown" by demanding that BP set up a $20 billion fund for oil spill claims, a number of Democratic lawmakers — especially those from oil-producing Gulf states — have struggled to balance their criticism of BP with support for the industry.
But there is something new on offer to workers totting up their recent losses: signs are popping up saying "Spill Claims Denied?"It has been a year since the blowout at Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico some 50 miles from south-east Louisiana.
