Has BP made it right? Company still has work remaining to right wrongs of oil spill

Even while oil was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, British Petroleum, which was ultimately responsible for the rig that exploded, bought TV ads that claimed it would “make it right” for the people and the environment of the Gulf Coast.

BP now is running ads saying, in effect, that it has.

Let us be clear: BP has done more than many expected it would. It set aside $1 billion for coastal restoration and (with pressure from the White House) allocated $20 billion to compensate those who can show they were damaged by the spill. So far, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has paid out $6.3 billion collectively to nearly 200,000 claimants.

While some criticize how this has been carried out, others believe that when everything is settled, this will become a model for dealing with the effects of man-made environmental disasters.

But don’t believe the latest ads. BP has done a great deal, but it has not made it right — not yet.

Alabamians who go to the Gulf Coast generally go to the region known as the “Redneck Riviera,” the beaches and bays that hug the coast from Mobile Bay east to Panama City. As anyone who was there when the oil was coming in knows, the area was hit hard. As anyone who has been there recently knows, to the naked eye it looks like the spill never happened.

In that regard, BP has made it right.

However, to the west, between Mobile Bay and Texas, BP still has a way to go.

Oil remains in the marshes, some areas are still closed to fishermen and shrimpers, and despite claims that tourism is better than ever, people are not coming back to the Mississippi coast the way they are returning to the Alabama and Florida beaches.

True, the impact of the spill was not as great as some scientists and environmentalists predicted it would be, but neither has it been as easy to clean up as BP suggests it has been.

Shrimp harvests are still down, and studies are showing that the oil (and, in some cases, the dispersal agents used to break it up) may have caused long-term damage to fish and fauna.

George Crozier, former head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, wishes that BP’s ads were “a little more apologetic and a little less triumphant.”

So do we.

BP has done a great deal to “make it right,” and that should be recognized. But there is more to do. Remember that when you see the ads.

Read more: Anniston Star - Has BP made it right Company still has work remaining to right wrongs of oil spill