Judge: BP not to pay oil industry losses from moratorium
A federal judge ruled that BP does not have to pay for economic losses other businesses suffered when the federal government shut down deep-water drilling in the wake of BP’s catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans issued his ruling late Thursday. The Obama administration imposed a six-month drilling ban in the Gulf to prevent another disaster. The offshore industry called the moratorium a costly mistake. Barbier’s ruling came in a lawsuit brought by six companies involved in offshore drilling, but plaintiffs’ lawyers said thousands of similar claims worth billions of dollars would be affected by the ruling. The case centered on whether BP was liable under the Oil Pollution Act for the loss of business caused by the moratorium. Barbier sided with BP and said the law relates only to damages caused by the spill. The judge said Congress never intended for the Oil Pollution Act “to go so far” as to hold a polluter liable for government steps, like a moratorium, “aimed at preventing similar tragedies in the future and which broadly affect an entire industry.” The Oil Pollution Act was passed in 1990 after the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and it is the principal law covering oil spills. At issue was whether BP should be made to pay for damages that were “not a direct result of an oil discharge,” Barbier wrote. Barbier said “there can be no doubt” the moratorium was imposed because the blowout occurred, but the judge said the shutdown was designed to deal with “the risk of possible future blowouts and oil spills from wells other than Macondo and was motivated by perceived weaknesses of industry-wide safety measures.” BP declined to comment Friday on the ruling. The spill has cost the company $55.5 billion, according to a recent BP regulatory filing. Brent Coon, a Texas plaintiffs’ lawyer who represents clients with moratorium claims, said in a statement Friday that the ruling was a setback. Coon’s statement said the ruling “bodes poorly for yet another massive block of claims that have been waiting for years” for compensation. In April 2010, a well being drilled by BP and its contractors blew out and led to the sinking of the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon, killing 11 workers. The blowout caused more than 130 million gallons of oil to leak into the Gulf. In 2012, BP entered into a settlement with businesses and individuals claiming losses from the spill expected to cost BP over $10 billion. Last year, BP reached an $18.7 billion agreement with governments in the five Gulf Coast states affected by the spill. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama business roundup: Headlines from across state – 3/11/16 edition
How to Alabama property taxes rank compared to the rest of the county? How will the Walmart pay increases affect Alabama metros? Which Alabama city is nearing a record-high in their exports? Answers to all of these questions and more in today’s business roundup: AL.com: A look at how Walmart’s pay increases will affect major Alabama metros The world’s largest retailer by revenue is providing pay increases to more than 33,000 Walmart and Sam’s Club employees in Alabama. Earlier this week, Walmart said it would raise wages today as part of its largest single-day, private-sector pay increase, which affects more than 1.2 million associates in the U.S. Here’s how the pay bump will impact some of Alabama’s largest metros: Birmingham area: more than 7,900 employees Huntsville/Athens/Decatur area: More than 4,700 Montgomery area: More than 2,300 Mobile area: More than 4,400 Tuscaloosa County: 1,060 Anniston/Oxford/Gadsden/Jacksonville/Talladega area: More than 2,300 This month’s pay changes include: All associates hired before Jan. 1, 2016, will earn at least $10/hour. New entry-level associates hired after Jan. 1 will continue to start at $9/hour and will move to at least $10/hour after successfully completing the company’s new retail skills and training program known as Pathways. Associates already earning more than $10/hour will see their annual pay increase in March rather than waiting until their anniversary date. Walmart is raising the starting rate of its non-entry level hourly pay bands. Anyone earning below the new minimum will automatically move up to the new minimum. Associates at or above their pay band maximum will receive a one-time lump sum payment equal to 2 percent of their annual pay. Click here to learn more about the pay raises. In January, Walmart shut down nine Alabama stores, cutting 500 to 600 jobs in the process. About half of the positions were from the Supercenter in Fairfield. Neighborhood Markets in Auburn, Phenix City, Montgomery, Theodore and Huntsville launched the same month, followed by a second Montgomery store March 2. A location in Dothan is expected to open March 16. The company is hiring 300 workers for its new Supercenter on Winchester Road in Huntsville. The store should open around June. Alabama Newscenter: First Alabama-made Airbus aircraft shows off JetBlue colors The first Alabama-made Airbus A321 is sporting JetBlue colors. Airbus said Friday that painting of its maiden U.S.-built passenger jet has been completed in its paintshop at the company’s new, $600 million facility at Mobile Aeroplex. The aircraft emerged wearing JetBlue livery. “This latest milestone shows that the first aircraft to be produced at the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility is progressing well on its route to first flight and delivery in spring 2016,” Airbus said in a release. The aircraft left the production floor at the Airbus Alabama campus last month for the paintshop, which is operated by Ireland-based MAAS Aviation. Airbus’ Alabama workforce started assembling the first aircraft shortly after the plane’s major components arrived at the Port of Mobile last June via cargo ship from Europe. Airbus plans to assemble four to five aircraft per month at the Alabama facility once production ramps up. The manufacturing operation will eventually support 1,000 jobs in Mobile. Also on Friday, another shipment of major aircraft components arrived at the Airbus campus. Dothan Eagle: Alabama’s near record exports include products made in Dothan Wiregrass companies competing in new and expanding markets were among companies that helped fuel exports from Alabama to a near-record level in 2015. The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Alabama exports totaled $19.37 billion last year, which was just below the all-time record of $19.58 billion set in 2012. According to information compiled by the Alabama Department of Commerce, exports have grown 25 percent since 2010 and 78 percent since 2005. Total exports from the U.S. were $2.23 trillion in 2015, according to the national commerce department. The top five markets for Alabama exports in 2015, according to the department, were Canada, China, Mexico, Germany and the United Kingdom. The major export categories with gains included vehicles, primary metals, machinery, paper, plastics and rubber products. The 2015 totals did mark a .36 decline from the $19.44 billion in Alabama exports in 2014. In Dothan, the value of exports in 2014 amounted to $334 million. A breakdown of exports in metropolitan areas of the state was not immediately available for 2015. Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Parker said factors including workforce availability, transportation/logistics, available natural raw resources, business infrastructure and leadership lead to the area’s strength in exports. “Our companies have the ability to compete internationally because we have several key factors in place,” he said. “Our chamber remains committed to assisting Wiregrass businesses sell their products worldwide.” Dunbarton, which manufactures and distributes metal bifold doors, mirror bifold doors and metal door frames, is among local companies that export across all 50 states and globally. The company also sells ready-to-install hollow metal doors and frames, wood doors and complete prehung door units. Jill Riley, The Dunbarton Group’s vice president of sales, said Dunbarton has exported to Puerto Rico for more than 30 years and to both Canada and Mexico for about 15 years. The company employs about 150 people in the Dothan location and 15 in its location in Camden, Tennessee. Riley said the company had around 250 employees before the recession in 2009 and has had as few as 114, but the company’s workforce is growing. She said several employees have been with Dunbarton for more than 40 years, with the large majority working there for more than 20 years. “This year we will celebrate our 70th anniversary and are very proud of the fact that we are ‘made in America,’” Riley stated. “…The building industry is back in high speed and our business is growing respectively. …We have currently added a second shift and are looking to potentially add a third shift in the very near future.” Glasstream Powerboats, one of Dothan’s newer manufacturing companies, also exports globally. Company marketing director Ashley Strong said the company, which manufactures more
On morning shows, Marco Rubio projects optimism
With the Florida Primary four days away, Marco Rubio has reasons to project optimism. His debate performance Thursday night was a bounce-back showing. Some polls are showing him closing the gap with Donald Trump. On a host of morning shows Friday, Rubio was on message. That message was he’s the one Republican who can beat Trump and unify the GOP. On CBS “This Morning,” Rubio noted that he did well in the “policy debate” that he’s wanted for a while. “It was a policy debate and I think they went in with that goal and everything was about policy. Other debates, I know they are all different, but other debates have been – I think last week, I was asked eight out of 13 questions or whatever were about Donald Trump. I think last night, voters hopefully got to see that I knew on these issues what I would do as president. I don’t think Donald did that, but I will let voters make that assessment,” Rubio said. On “Good Morning America,” Rubio hit the theme that he can unify the party. “The majority, almost two-thirds, of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee. If you have someone who’s your front-runner and your nominee who has a significant percentage of the party rejects, you are not going to win a general election. I think I’m the only candidate left in this race who can unite the Republican Party and also grow it and so I think that is the reason why ultimately we’re going to be the nominee,” Rubio said. On CNN, he revisited his “we are the children of the Reagan Revolution” theme: “I’m also the only one running on an agenda that says it is time to turn the page. The 21st century is here. We have an economy, we have a world that is very different than the world we are leaving behind. We need to take our conservative principles and apply them to the challenges of the 21st century. That’s what my campaign has offered from day one. If they elect me as president, this generation is going to confront and solve our problems.” On Fox News, Rubio came closest to expressing frustration with the showmanship the process seems to require this time out, saying, “When I had the opportunity, I tried to explain why Donald’s answer on an issue was not the right approach. But there’s no winning here, right? If you have a debate where everyone is going after each other, people say they don’t like it. If we have a debate that we’re debating issues people say it’s too boring. The bottom line, this is not a sport, this is not entertainment. Debates are not about entertaining people, but about informing people.” Rubio differs from Francis Underwood in “House of Cards” with that final insight. Underwood said in the most recent season, “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but politics is no longer just theater it’s show business. So let’s put on the best show in town.” Tuesday will be the tell of whether Rubio or “House of Cards” scriptwriters are right, when it comes to politics in 2016.
Florida’s winner-take-all primary could kill Marco Rubio’s chances
Florida’s winner-take-all Republican presidential primary was supposed to help former Gov. Jeb Bush or Sen. Marco Rubio. That was the thinking when the GOP-dominated Legislature changed the state’s primary date to the third Tuesday in March – the earliest date it could hold an election that will award all 99 Republican delegates to one candidate. But that was before Republicans here even dreamed of – or had nightmares about — businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump possibly winning the state. It was before Bush went from front-runner to dropout and Rubio began losing whatever momentum he had after poor debate performances. Now the very plan to wrap up the nomination for a favorite son could be the one that kills his campaign. “There’s no question that the decisions that were made were made to benefit the two main Florida sons – Bush and Rubio,” said Joe Gruters, vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida and co-chair of Trump’s Florida campaign. “I’m sure they weren’t expecting the Trump movement to be so strong. This is exactly the opposite of what they wanted. Instead of giving a crushing blow to everybody else, it’s delivering a crushing blow to the very people it was meant to help the most.” Florida defied the national GOP in 2008 and 2012 and held its presidential primary on the last Tuesday in January in an effort to push its candidate of choice forward before most other states voted. It worked. Florida helped propel Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to nomination in those years. But Florida was faced with losing all its delegates if it broke national party rules again, and in 2013 the Legislature moved the primary date to the first Tuesday in March. Last year, as Rubio and Bush were preparing to run, the Legislature voted to move the date again to make the contest winner-take-all, which the state GOP approved after Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill into law. Not everyone thought it was a good idea, including the Florida Federation of Republican Women. “The Republican women had looked at trying to do the delegates by congressional district, and we were just told there wasn’t even a starter on that conversation,” said Cynthia Henderson, the group’s past president. “I was told from very high up that we were not talking about that.” But she also said, with a sigh and a big roll of her eyes, that it might not matter at this point because of Trump’s lead in the race. “My guy’s not in it, so I don’t care who wins,” said Henderson, who was supporting Bush. Gruters pointed out that Trump, who has a home in Palm Beach and several business ventures here, is hardly an outsider in the state. “Donald Trump is basically a Floridian. He’s spent so much time here, he’s invested tens of millions of dollars in properties, he’s employed thousands of people. He laid the groundwork early when you think about him going to local GOP dinners since 2012,” Gruters said. “He’s really done what’s necessary to win Florida.” The winner-take-all GOP primary has some Democrats snickering at the possibility of a Trump victory that would push Rubio out of the race. The Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders will award delegates proportionally. “Republicans in the Legislature have effectively knee-capped Rubio’s chances of obtaining the nomination and they have no one to blame but themselves. Yet again, Republican legislative chicanery has backfired to their very public embarrassment,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Max Steele. “We eagerly await the strong, vocal support Florida Republicans will offer their party’s standard-bearer, Donald Trump.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Vote on ‘Right to Work’ amendment stalls in Senate
A bill, which would put the idea of cementing Alabama’s status as a “Right to Work” state in constitutional statute up for a vote, stalled in the Alabama Senate Thursday as lawmakers attempted to make progress on less contentious issues. Alabama’s status as a “Right to Work” state is already enshrined as a statute, but this legislation would secure it via constitutional amendment. HB37 from Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Birmingham) has already passed the Senate, despite efforts by Democrats to derail the bill. In fact, Democrats succeeded in voting down the bill on a day that many House Republicans were absent, but the bill was brought up for reconsideration on a day when Republicans were better represented and passed by large margins. When it was brought up on the Senate floor Thursday by Sen. Gerald Dial (R-Lineville), it was immediately opposed by Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro). Singleton railed against the legislation, saying the term “Right to Work” is misleading. “It’s says to Alabama workers that we want you to be on edge every day,” Singleton said. “The ‘Right to Work’ should be called the ‘Right to Fire.’ It is totally unfair to working class Alabamians.” Much the same argument was made by House Democrats, who said that the bill is a “union-busting” measure and overlooks the needs of Alabama workers in favor of incoming industries. But proponents argue that Alabama’s status as a “Right to Work” state has worked wonders in attracting jobs to the state, via large corporations like Polaris and Hyundai. Securing that status in the state’s oversized constitution would make it harder to upend in later years. Dial noted that the effort was part of House Republicans’ agenda. “It tells the world that Alabama is open for business,” Dial said. After a brief exchange between Singleton and Dial, Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) implored the Senators to carry the bill over so that action could be taken on other legislation. Senators agreed and a vote was delayed.
Trespassing in Alabama could soon cost you up to $6,000, one year in prison
The Alabama Senate passed legislation Thursday which will increase penalties for “criminal trespass of critical infrastructure,” thereby better protecting Alabama businesses. “Critical infrastructure” references such establishments as chemical manufacturing facilities, electrical tower substations, railroad switching yards, trucking terminals and water treatment facilities. SB217 from Sen. Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) would increase penalties for such crimes to a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $6,000 and a possible sentence of one year in prison. Previously, crimes of this nature were considered only a criminal violation, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $200 fine. “These are extremely sensitive business sites that often contain dangerous chemicals or support our utility infrastructure,” Ward said in the release. “Criminal trespass of these sites puts the public at risk and represents a huge loss in annual revenue to Alabama’s businesses and consumers.” “We applaud Senator Ward’s leadership in championing this important piece of legislation protecting Alabama’s manufactures and their partners,” stated George Clark, President of Manufacture Alabama. “Ensuring the safety and security of our state’s vital industries allow them to build their businesses and grow Alabama’s economy.” With its passage in the Senate, the bill is cleared to go before a House committee before going to the full House of Representatives.
