Lawyers, company agree on documents in ongoing Gulf oil leak
Environmental attorneys and a New Orleans energy company agreed Thursday to work out differences over the confidentiality of documents related to an ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil leak from an offshore site damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Environmental groups including Waterkeeper Alliance, Apalachicola Riverkeeper and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network agreed in federal court with Taylor Energy to negotiate supplemental language for a 2015 settlement agreement over how and when to release information on Taylor’s response to the leak. At issue are volumes of documents that Taylor Energy says include confidential information about oil spill containment technology developed for the company. A 2015 Associated Press investigation revealed evidence that the leak was worse than the company or the federal government had earlier reported. Government experts believe oil is still leaking at the site where waves whipped up by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 triggered an underwater mudslide, toppling a Taylor Energy-owned platform and burying a cluster of its oil wells under mounds of sediment. Last year, regulators estimated the leak could last a century or more if left unchecked. Taylor Energy has said nothing can be done to completely eliminate persistent slicks from the site. The company has said the sheens sometimes seen off Louisiana’s coast are coming from residual oil oozing from sediment on the seafloor. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Gulf oil leak records cannot be kept secret, U.S. judge says
A federal magistrate judge has rejected a company’s bid to preserve the confidentiality of numerous emails and reports about its failed efforts to halt a Gulf of Mexico oil leak 10 years ago. The documents could be evidence in a lawsuit that environmental groups filed against Taylor Energy Co., which owned a platform that toppled during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. An Associated Press investigation recently revealed evidence that the leak at the site of the toppled platform is worse than Taylor or government regulators had publicly reported. U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Wells Roby rejected arguments Wednesday by Taylor lawyers who said the documents contain valuable trade secrets. Taylor can ask to a district judge to review Wells Roby’s ruling. The AP has filed a public records request for some of the same confidential records. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
