Judge Carl J. Barbier of Federal District Court in New Orleans, who is overseeing federal litigation related to the spill, issued an order in response to protests by lawyers for plaintiffs suing BP.
"If they were to be a responsible corporate citizen, they'd just cut a check on Friday and be done with it," Rick Steiner, the marine biologist who has spent much of his career studying oil-spill issues, said of Exxon Mobil.
"We've got so much going on -- the economy, the oil spill, defense issues, whatever," he said.
"While useful in the event of being lost in the woods, the Starter Emergency Kits will not help community members mitigate the damage of Enbridge Pipeline's leaks or spills," said a press release issued by ASAP.
It was hoped that extensive revisions to offshore-drilling regulations, prompted by the spill and issued in April 2016, would mitigate the likelihood of future disasters.
The board of the London-based company will discuss the idea and other spill-related issues -- including a brewing controversy over a big dividend for shareholders coming due this summer -- at an emergency session on Monday, company officials said.
Venice-based, health advocate Kindra Arnesen of the Coastal Heritage Society of Louisiana said post-spill, medical issues remain significant, and she hopes the government won't lose sight of them.
Or if we were engaged in critical conversations about oil spills, ethical issues in Congress, greening our communities, how we end these wars, or how we help our American soldiers coming home.
The government's own BP oil spill commission issued a recent report stating that the Obama administration underestimated the size of the BP oil eruption and then overestimated how much of it had gone away after the well was finally capped 220 million gallons later.
Each side seems determined to channel public outrage over the Gulf of Mexico spill into local issues and larger ideologies.
