June 11 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday denied BP Plc
access to 21 emails and other documents sent among White House
and other U.S. officials related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil
spill, citing the government's need to keep them confidential.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan in New Orleans said the
federal interest in preserving secrecy, together with the public
interest in ensuring an effective response to the next disaster,
outweighed BP's need for the documents to defend itself in
litigation by the government over the spill.
"This conclusion is not altered by the role of the U.S. in
the response to the spill as well as its role as a plaintiff
against BP," Shushan added. The judge said she reviewed the
documents in private before ruling.
Scott Dean, a BP spokesman, declined to comment.
The April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon
killed 11 people and triggered several hundred lawsuits against
BP and its drilling partners, including rig owner Transocean Ltd
and cementing service provider Halliburton Co.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans has
scheduled a trial Jan. 14, 2013, to allocate blame. BP reached a
$7.8 billion settlement in March with more than 125,000 local
individuals and businesses, which awaits court approval.
Sarah Himmelhoch, a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer, had
argued in a June 5 letter that letting BP see the 21 documents
would signal that "there is no protected space for government
workers and decision makers in the midst of a national
emergency. This could chill communications during the next
disaster, harming the public by impeding the speed and quality
of the government response."
But in a June 8 letter, BP lawyer Robert Gasaway countered
that it would be "fundamentally unfair" to keep the documents
private. He said the documents were "almost certainly" relevant
to BP's defense against expected U.S. civil claims under the
Clean Water Act, because they addressed how much oil was being
spilled and BP's role in capping the Macondo well.
Among the senders and recipients of the 21 documents were
Energy Secretary Steven Chu; Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar;
and Carol Browner, former director of the White House Office of
Energy and Climate Change Policy. The Department of Energy has
said it has turned over more than 719,000 documents to BP.
On Friday, the Financial Times said BP was "hoping" to reach
a settlement of less than $15 billion with the U.S. government
to resolve all criminal and civil claims, citing a person
familiar with the discussions. Civil penalties under the Clean
Water Act alone could reach $17.6 billion.
The case is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater
Horizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, U.S. District
Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 10-md-02179.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel)
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