{"id":909,"date":"2010-06-01T23:59:02","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T23:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=909"},"modified":"2010-06-01T23:59:02","modified_gmt":"2010-06-01T23:59:02","slug":"florida-oil-spill-law-crist-appoints-former-bp-lobbyist-to-spearhead-florida%e2%80%99s-legal-response-to-bp-oil-spill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2010\/06\/01\/florida-oil-spill-law-crist-appoints-former-bp-lobbyist-to-spearhead-florida%e2%80%99s-legal-response-to-bp-oil-spill\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Oil Spill Law: Crist appoints former BP lobbyist to spearhead Florida\u2019s legal response to BP oil spill"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.floridaoilspilllaw.com\/crist-appoints-former-bp-lobbyist-to-spearhead-floridas-legal-response-to-bp-oil-spill<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Jim Smith\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With Louisiana\u2019s shoreline turning blacker by the day, an elite team of two former attorneys general is cautiously laying the groundwork for Florida\u2019s legal response to BP\u2019s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.<\/p>\n

Gov. Charlie Crist appointed the political odd couple \u2013 Democrat Bob Butterworth and Republican Jim Smith \u2013 almost two weeks ago to spearhead what could be the biggest and most complex lawsuit ever attempted by the state. So far, the beaches remain clear and a state lawsuit, if there ever is one, is nowhere in sight.<\/p>\n

BP has paid out more than $2 million to Floridians for individual lost-income claims, and kept most of the cases open for future payment. That\u2019s on top of the $50 million it gave the state for emergency preparations and a tourism promotion campaign.<\/p>\n

So far, that\u2019s good enough for Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, I\u2019m satisfied that BP is trying to do the right thing,\u201d Smith said. \u201cMy sense is that this thing is still unfolding. Nobody could really even assess damages at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not good enough for environmentalists who see only foot-dragging and politics as usual. They complain that Smith wasn\u2019t a good choice to direct the legal charge because he was a registered BP lobbyist on and off between 2001 and 2005.<\/p>\n

Smith acknowledges that his lobbying firm, one of the largest and most influential in the state, represented BP, but that he had no personal involvement with that client and has no loyalty to it today. He said he only registered as a BP lobbyist out of an abundance of caution.<\/p>\n

The environmentalists want the state to haul BP into court now, and force it to pay for more booms and skimmers so Florida will be better prepared than Louisiana if and when the devastation rolls ashore.<\/p>\n

The $25 million BP paid to help local governments prepare area contingency plans is a drop in the bucket, the critics charge. They also point out that last week, when BP CEO Tony Hayward traveled to Louisiana, he acknowledged that the company didn\u2019t do enough to protect the beaches.<\/p>\n

Special thanks to Progress Florida<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.floridaoilspilllaw.com\/crist-appoints-former-bp-lobbyist-to-spearhead-floridas-legal-response-to-bp-oil-spill Jim Smith\u00a0 With Louisiana\u2019s shoreline turning blacker by the day, an elite team of two former attorneys general is cautiously laying the groundwork for Florida\u2019s legal response to BP\u2019s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Gov. Charlie Crist appointed the political odd couple \u2013 Democrat Bob Butterworth and Republican Jim Smith \u2013 almost two weeks ago … Continue reading Florida Oil Spill Law: Crist appoints former BP lobbyist to spearhead Florida\u2019s legal response to BP oil spill<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":910,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions\/910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}