Feinberg
The person in charge of a $20 billion BP oil spill compensation fund said Tuesday that claimants will have the opportunity to receive twice their damages from 2010 from "final payments."
Kenneth Feinberg's announcement came with the release of a new claims calculation process that will pay claimants for documented losses and prospective future losses.
Feinberg also said that oyster harvesters will receive double their 2010 losses, and that they'll receive damages for oyster beds killed when fresh water was diverted to fight the spill.
The announcement came on the same day that U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier issued an order stating that Feinberg is an agent of BP. The order was issued in the multidistrict litigation (MDL) involving the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The new guidelines were put in place after extensive studies and discussions about the state of the Gulf Coast ecosystem and economy, Feinberg said.
Citing a report by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi professor John Tunnell Jr., Feinberg said the he expects Gulf Coast blue crabs, shrimp and fish should recover to their pre-spill levels by 2012.
Feinberg has stated that the general public will be allowed to submit comments on the new claims calculation methodology by e-mailing MethodologyComments@gccf-claims.com or by sending print mail to the GCCF at P.O. Box 9658, Dublin, Ohio, 43017-4958.
Federal MDL 2:10-md-2179