The Gulf of Mexico could be largely recovered from the effects of the massive BP oil spill by 2014, the Obama administration’s point man in charge of the firm’s $20 billion victims’ compensation fund said Wednesday.
“We have concluded that a two- to three-year gradual recovery period seems reasonable in light of all information available,” said Kenneth Feinberg, the Boston lawyer chosen by the White House and BP to oversee the Gulf Coast Compensation Fund (GCCF). “But predicting the future of the Gulf is not an exact science.”
Mr. Feinberg made his remarks following the release Wednesday of a new report that included a more optimistic assessment of the Gulf’s environmental recovery and outlined a proposed new methodology for calculating claims for individuals and businesses along the coast.
The report, based in large part on work done by Wes Tunnell, a marine biologist at Texas A&M’s Harte Research Institute in Corpus Christi, lays out for the first time a methodology for calculating final settlements for those whose livelihoods have been harmed by last year’s unprecedented spill.
Full Story: Gulf of Mexico seen as recovering by ’14 – Washington Times