Gulf Spill Update: Confusion Reigns Over BP Compensation Fund

Brandon Stewart / July 01, 2010

Although it hardly seems possible, there has been a heightened level of confusion surrounding the government’s handling of the oil spill in the Gulf this week. After being forced to create this escrow account, the White House appears to be maneuvering to force BP to use this new account to pay damages to competitors who have lost jobs as a result of the President’s decision to continue to his oil drilling moratorium. During an interview on Monday, Kenneth Feinberg, the “pay czar” who has been tasked with overseeing the BP compensation fund, told CNN that his authority had grown to include paying damages to those affected by the President’s moratorium. As The Times-Picayune reported on their website:

“Yes, I now have discovered — I didn’t realize this until yesterday — that the moratorium claims will fall under my jurisdiction,” Feinberg said in an interview Monday on CNN.

“That’s a huge development, and we didn’t know that before?” replied the CNN reporter.

“I didn’t either,” Feinberg said.

Feinberg’s claim that he would pay claims to rig workers and other related companies affected by the moratorium from the $20 billion escrow fund set up by BP was met with resistance by the energy giant who said that this latest claim was outside the scope of their original agreement with the White House:
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