Federal judge approves final settlement for 2010 BP oil spill

BP has reached a final settlement for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and spilled hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of months.

The 2010 disaster was the biggest offshore oil spill in US history; scientists are still trying to figure out just how much damage it caused.

On Monday a federal judge in New Orleans gave final approval to the settlement which requires BP to pay $20.8 billion dollars to the US government and five gulf coast states over the course of 16 years.

Florida stands to receive more than $3.25 billion dollars from the settlement.

Of that almost $2 billion dollars for its economic loss claims, twice the amount of the next closest state and more than 40% of the total economic loss recovery.

That is mostly for lost tax revenue after the oil spill almost shut down the Gulf coast tourist industry.

Florida will also receive more than $1.25 billion from the natural resource damage claims and through the provisions of the RESTORE Act under the agreement.

That money would be used to restore damage caused by the oil spill – Franklin county already has a RESTORE council formed to help decide the best uses for any RESTORE money that comes to the county.

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