State Senator Dave Aronberg (District 27) is demanding that not only BP be held responsible for the oil spill, but two other corporations whom he says should share in the burden, with all three establishing a $1 billion fund.
Aronberg, who is in the race for Florida Attorney General, in a letter to Gov. Crist today, stated that the Deepwater Horizon rig owner and operator, Transocean Ltd., and Halliburton should also share in the clean-up and recovery cost.
“The $25 million BP has offered to our state is a start, (but) it is by no means sufficient”, Aronberg wrote. “We are looking at financial consequences of devastating proportions, to say nothing of the potential costs to our wildlife and environmental damages.”
Aronberg’s letter urges Crist to call on the three companies to accept greater financial responsibility and to commit more resources.
“Florida should be insisting that an interest-bearing escrow account be established….with each responsible party in this disaster committing a share to total $1 billion.”
Halliburton was performing cement work on the well just 20 hours prior to the blast. That company was also the cementer on a well that suffered a major blowout in Australia last year and from which tens of thousands of barrels of oil leaked for well over 10 weeks before it was capped, Aronberg wrote.
