Federal government launches criminal investigation of Gulf Coast oil disaster

The federal government has launched a criminal and civil investigation
into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a sign of the increasingly
confrontational posture it has adopted toward BP as the oil giant’s
damaged well continues to leak.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Justice Department is reviewing whether laws were broken in connection with the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent spill. Administration officials have called it the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

“We will make certain that those responsible clean up the mess they have made and restore or replace the natural resources lost or injured in this tragedy,” Holder said. “And we will prosecute to the full extent any violations of the law. As our review expands in the days ahead, we will be meticulous, we will be comprehensive and we will be aggressive. We will not rest until justice is done.”

{mosads}The attorney general’s remarks follow a personal vow by President Barack Obama earlier in the day to pursue charges if they are warranted.

“If our laws were broken, leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledge is that we will bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe and the people of the Gulf region,” Obama said in a statement from the Rose Garden.

Holder said that Justice Department lawyers are reviewing the Clean Water Act — which allows both civil and criminal penalties — as well as the Oil Pollution Act, endangered species laws and other “traditional criminal statutes.” He noted that 11 workers on the oil rig died.

“There is one thing I will not let be forgotten in this incident: In addition to the extensive costs being borne by our environment and by communities along the Gulf Coast, the initial explosion and fire also took the lives of 11 rig workers,” he said. “Eleven innocent lives lost. As we examine the causes of the explosion and subsequent spill, I want to assure the American people that we will not forget the price those workers paid.”

Holder surveyed the spill site Tuesday and met with state and federal prosecutors in the Gulf Coast region.

The announcement of the probe, which Holder said began “some weeks ago,” follows calls by numerous lawmakers — including some of Capitol Hill’s toughest oil industry critics — for criminal inquiries.

In a letter sent last month, eight members of the Environment and Public Works Committee asked Holder to probe whether BP made “false and misleading statements to the federal government regarding its ability to respond to oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.”

On Tuesday, one Louisiana lawmaker, Rep. Charlie Melancon (D), also suggested that federal regulators had acted criminally in granting BP waivers from required environmental inspections.

Holder did not specify the targets of the probe. But a Justice

Department official said last month that it has told BP, rig owner Transocean and other companies to preserve “potentially relevant information.”

BP vowed to work with Justice Department investigators. “BP will cooperate with any inquiry that the Department of Justice undertakes, just as we are doing in response to the other inquiries that are already ongoing,” spokesman Robert Wine said.

The Obama administration’s increasingly hard line with BP sets up something of an unusual situation: In short, one branch of the federal government is probing potential crimes while other branches work with the party being probed to clean up the spill.

“It is very awkward,” said University of Vermont law Professor Patrick Parenteau, who has represented environmental groups and also in the past served as counsel to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The inevitable consequence is that the relationship becomes extraordinarily complicated. On one hand they are sharing information; on the other hand they are conducting a criminal investigation,” he said.

But Frank Maisano, an expert on energy and crisis communications with the firm Bracewell & Giuliani, maintained that the two sides will be able to work together, noting that actions under environmental statutes are not unexpected.

“If you are BP, you always had to know that this day was going to come. At some point they were going to pursue this type of restitution,” said Maisano, who represents utilities and oil refiners. “You can still work in a cooperative manner and have those negotiations and still try and resolve this issue.”

Still, there are disagreements. Over the weekend, White House climate and energy adviser Carol Browner accused the company of low-balling the size of the spill to protect its financial interests. Some of the company’s fine will be based on the amount of oil that has spilled.

“It is important for people to understand [that] BP has a vested financial interest in downplaying the size of this,” Browner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” noting that the federal government has its own experts monitoring the issue.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is overseeing the spill response, confirmed Tuesday that he would no longer conduct press briefings along with BP officials, a clear sign that the administration wants to distance itself from the firm and send a singular message — its own.

“We need to be communicating to the American people through my voice as the national incident commander,” he said at a briefing in Louisiana.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Tuesday evening applauded the announcement of the probe.

“What is happening in the Gulf — 11 people dead and an entire ecosystem and the jobs that depend on it at risk — justifies a thorough criminal investigation. The Justice Department is doing the right thing for the people of this country and for the people of the Gulf Coast,” she said in a statement.

Michael O’Brien and Sam Youngman contributed to this article.