With
billions of dollars at stake, BP is using every legal weapon at its
disposal in federal court in New Orleans. The central question is: how
much oil actually entered the Gulf of Mexico between the time the
Deepwater Horizon Well blew out on April 20, 2010 and its final capping
on July 15? With fines of $1,100 per barrel for simple negligence and $4,300 per barrel for
gross negligence, the federal government has a strong financial
interest in maximizing the estimate of the amount of oil spilled.
As part of the BP oil spill trial preliminaries now being heard in federal court in New Orleans, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) researchers Christopher Reddy and Richard Camilli have been ordered by the court to surrender private e-mails regarding internal debates regarding the validity of their estimates of the flow rate from the BP Deepwater Horizon Macondo 252 well. They were so offended at being forced to document their work that they wrote an op-ed for the June 3 edition of the Boston Globe protesting this as an assault on their "academic freedom." The federal court was not sympathetic to their complaints.
The researchers neglected to mention that while WHOI is a private non-profit institution, it receives much of its funding from the National Science Foundation (i.e., the American taxpayers) and could be in line for increased funding, supplied at least in part by the fines paid by BP, to carry out research in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem if BP is found liable in the trial.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/06/academic_scientists_forced_to_reveal_private_emails_in_bp_trial.html#ixzz1xTeFbg25
As part of the BP oil spill trial preliminaries now being heard in federal court in New Orleans, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) researchers Christopher Reddy and Richard Camilli have been ordered by the court to surrender private e-mails regarding internal debates regarding the validity of their estimates of the flow rate from the BP Deepwater Horizon Macondo 252 well. They were so offended at being forced to document their work that they wrote an op-ed for the June 3 edition of the Boston Globe protesting this as an assault on their "academic freedom." The federal court was not sympathetic to their complaints.
The researchers neglected to mention that while WHOI is a private non-profit institution, it receives much of its funding from the National Science Foundation (i.e., the American taxpayers) and could be in line for increased funding, supplied at least in part by the fines paid by BP, to carry out research in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem if BP is found liable in the trial.
Late last week, we reluctantly handed over more than 3,000 confidential e-mails to BP, as part of a subpoena from the oil company demanding access to them because of the Deepwater Horizon disaster lawsuit brought by the US government. We are accused of no crimes, nor are we party to the lawsuit. We are two scientists at an academic research institution who responded to requests for help from BP and government officials at a time of crisis.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/06/academic_scientists_forced_to_reveal_private_emails_in_bp_trial.html#ixzz1xTeFbg25
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