The new import bans on Russian goods, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, will deprive Moscow of an additional €7 billion ($6.7 billion) in revenue. In addition, new prohibitions on the export of key technology used for the army, such as aviation products, electronic components and specific chemical substances, are incorporated.

In announcing the sanctions, von der Leyen noted that “some developing countries still need some supplies of Russian oil, but at low prices,” and therefore the G7 countries agreed to introduce a price cap. of Russian crude.

“This is why the G7 has agreed in principle to introduce a cap on Russian oil prices for third countries. This cap will, on the one hand, help reduce Russia’s income and, on the other hand, keep global energy markets stable,” Von der Leyen said, adding that the current sanctions package lays “the legal foundation for this cap on oil prices”.

Members of the Group of Seven (G7), made up of the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan, have already agreed to introduce caps on Russian oil prices on September 2.

The cap on the price of Russian oil is in line with the political agreement reached by the G7 leaders, proposing that the transport of Russian oil and its derivatives be only allowed globally if the products are sold below a certain amount.

The prohibition for EU citizens to be part of the boards of directors of companies is designed to avoid possible cases such as that of former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who worked for Gazprom.

“Russia must not benefit from European knowledge and its experts,” said von der Leyen.

The high representative of the EU for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, revealed that the number of natural and legal persons subject to the bloc’s punitive measures will amount to about 1,300, and among them there are individuals and entities that contribute to that the “territorial integrity of Ukraine” is undermined.

The sanctions will target Russian individuals and authorities in Russian-controlled areas who organized referendums on joining Russia in two republics of Donbass and the Kherson and Zaporozhie regions.

In addition, Borrell proposes to appoint the top officials of the Russian Defense Ministry responsible for supporting the country’s army in Ukraine with weapons and equipment, as well as the declared mobilization of 300,000 reservists.

In the category of economic actors, people, not necessarily Russians, who participate in the circumvention of sanctions will be included, Borrell said.

The European Commission’s announcement comes after the leaders of Lugansk and the Kherson and Zaporozhie regions asked Vladimir Putin to join Russia after holding referendums on accession, which took place from September 23 to 27.

Moscow: Russian oil only for countries operating under market conditions
From the Kremlin they warned that Moscow will send its crude only to countries that “operate under market conditions”, and that supplies that do not go to nations that support price limits will go to “alternative destinations”.

The cap on the price of Russian oil is in line with the political agreement reached by the G7 leaders, proposing that the transport of Russian oil and its derivatives be only allowed globally if the products are sold below a certain amount.

EU countries will stop importing Russian oil by pipeline from December 5.

Leaders of Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye ask Putin to join Russia
The leader of the Lugansk People’s Republic (PLR), Leonid Pásechnik, the head of the Regional Civil-Military Administration of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, and the representative of the Zaporozhye region, Yevgueni Balitski, addressed this Wednesday to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, with the request to incorporate the territories into Russia.

“Since the population of the republic approved the decision in the referendum, I ask you to consider the possibility of the Lugansk People’s Republic becoming part of Russia as a constituent entity of the Russian Federation,” said the LPR leader.

In his speech to Putin, Passechnik noted that the RPL is aware of its historical, cultural and spiritual ties with the people of Russia.

The senior official denounced that “for eight years, residents of the Lugansk People’s Republic have been subjected to brutal bombing and genocide by the kyiv regime.”

“In their impotent rage at their unsuccessful attempts to invade the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic and their failures in open combat with the republic’s defenders, the neo-Nazis have only intensified their terror and bombardment of civilian infrastructure. and industrial, destroying schools, hospitals and nurseries,” he said.

According to Pásechnik, most of the world is “silent” about what is happening in Donbass.

“Not a single state or international organization has condemned kyiv’s actions in Donbass,” he continued, adding that only Russia “has provided and continues to provide extensive assistance to the population of Donbass.”

For his part, Saldo stressed that “the people of Kherson province have decided courageously and unequivocally that the only path they want to follow is that of union with Russia as an integral part of their multinational people.”

“Today, when freedom of thought, expression, conscience and religion is in danger of being eradicated in favor of centrally imposed values ​​that are often contrary not only to reason but also to nature itself, we, the people of Zaporozhie For the sake of our common goal of guaranteeing peace and security, the rule of human rights and freedoms, we want to become a single state with the Russian Federation”, says Balitski’s petition to the Russian president.

In the referendums, which took place from 8:00 a.m. (local time) on Friday, September 23, to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 27, the voters of the people’s republics of Donbass and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhie voted for Please join Russia.

93.11% of voters in Zaporozhie and 87.05% in Kherson voted yes to being part of Russia. In the Lugansk and Donets republics, 98.42% and 99.23% of voters voted affirmatively.

The process of integrating new regions into the Russian Federation can take some time, as it requires the approval of the president and parliament.

However, last Friday the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, was convinced that the necessary steps will be taken “quickly enough”.

Russians withdraw from the Dakar 2023 due to the demand to condemn their country
The Russian team KAMAZ-Master will not participate in the next Dakar rally after announcing that it will not sign the documents that would force it to “denounce” its own country.

Thus, for the first time in 24 years, the famous annual competition will not have Russian representation.

In a statement published on the KAMAZ-Master website, the 19-time rally-winning team criticized the decision of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which allows the Russians to participate neutrally, but on the condition to sign certain documents that include statements about the conflict in Ukraine.

“The participation of Russian athletes in the Dakar rally is conditioned by the need to sign the FIA ​​questionnaire denouncing the Russian special operation in Ukraine. In our opinion, the content of this document is of a political nature and violates the principles of equal conditions for athletes.

“We consider that it is impossible for us to sign those documents and participate in the competitions in those conditions,” the message reads.

The drivers indicate that their position “is clear: always be with the country, especially when it finds itself in a difficult situation.”

Last March, the FIA ​​required Russian and Belarusian drivers to sign a declaration of commitment to the principles of peace and political neutrality that includes a clause of solidarity with Ukraine.

The move was announced amid broader restrictions imposed on Russian sport by various sports federations, which followed a stern rebuke of Russia by the International Olympic Committee.

Earlier this month, Russian drivers Sergei Karyakin and Anastasia Nifontova condemned the requirement, announcing that they will not take part in the 45th edition of the Dakar to be held in Saudi Arabia between December 31, 2022 and January 15, 2023.

Meanwhile, co-driver Konstantin Zhiltsov chose an alternative option by changing his sporting nationality and will participate in the Dakar under the Israeli flag, evading the restrictions.

(With information from EFE, AFP and RT in Spanish)

Yirmara is not going to like this chronicle, but I have to write it. I have forced myself to do it. Naive me, who believes that a text can be at the height of a journalist like her.

If someone talks about Yirmara Torres, immediately there will be someone who says “teacher”, “news chief”, “president of the Union of Cuban Journalists in Matanzas”, “reporter to all”. To this we must add that Yirmara is a journalist at the foot of danger, and she showed it to us —in case anyone doubted it— in the coverage of the worst fire in the history of Cuba, which occurred at the Matanzas supertanker base.

She served as president of the provincial Upec, worrying about the journalists who suffered burns when she blew up the first tank and the fire wanted to devour the first thing in front of it. She visited them, called them. She had coffee with them.

And, because humility also lies in not wanting perks when she holds a position, she Yirmara put the transportation of the Upec de Matanzas based on the coverage of the fire. I will always repeat, wherever I stop, that Cubadebate owes the coverage we did to Yirmara Torres.

I don’t know how she manages it, but in addition to providing us with her house for a few hours of sleep for almost a week, and in addition to taking care of her work as president of Upec, Yirmara did not fail to report the incident even one single day

On Monday, August 8, at three in the morning, one of the explosions caught us at her command post, very close to the area of ​​the fire. It was the first time I felt fear, the heat hit you in the face and my hands were shaking. Yirmara noticed. She was serene. There is nothing more rewarding than in moments like that, someone telling you that everything is going to be alright. That was Yirmara.

Yirmara was also the one who came with teary eyes to give me the best news she received that day. In a voice message from her, a young firefighter told her: “Honey, I’m the boy you interviewed, I’m alive.” If there is one thing a journalist cannot lack, it is sensitivity, and Yirmara has more than enough, just as she had the courage to approach danger and keep an entire country informed.

There is one thing we all agree on. Yirmara doesn’t like to talk about herself, she prefers —and it’s nice that she does— to highlight the work of others. For this reason, I am sure, Yirmara will not like this chronicle.

(By: Andy Jorge Blanco/ Cubadebate)

US troops are “stealing” Syria’s natural resources, taking dozens of tanker trucks loaded with national oil out of the Arab country, reports the SANA agency.

The “thefts” have intensified in recent days, and only this Sunday morning a convoy of 137 trucks took the hydrocarbon from the oil fields of the Jazira region, in the northeast of the country, to the US military bases in Iraq. .

The news agency denounces that the looting of crude oil is being carried out in complicity with the opposition militias of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have the support of Washington.

They act “like pirates”SANA previously reported that on August 16, the US “occupation forces” removed another 65 tanker trucks loaded with oil from that same region. In addition, until that date, in the course of a week, crude oil would have been taken to the US bases in Iraq aboard 398 heavy vehicles.

US troops illegally control territories in northern and northeastern Syria, where the largest oil and gas fields in the Arab country are located. The Syrian government has repeatedly asked Washington to leave its territory, denouncing that US forces act “like pirates” by looting its oil wealth in the region.

In December 2019, the former US president, Donald Trump, declared that “the only soldiers” that the North American country has in the area are those that “control” the crude, so “we have the oil and we can do with him whatever we want.”

The Syrian authorities, including the president himself, Bashar al Assad, have repeatedly condemned the looting of their resources by Washington without ruling out taking legal action against them.

(Taken from RT in Spanish)

By: Andy Jorge Blanco, Irene Pérez

As soon as he enters the helicopter cabin, the pilot Aniel Santiesteban Alberteris puts on a life jacket and establishes communication with Bahía Control, from where he directs each air operation at the scene of the incident.

–Control Bay. H-141 taking off from the platform for the water intake.

Next to him, co-pilot Dairon González Espinosa signals to the flight instructor. Emerson Infante García has already checked the working parameters of the aircraft, engines, temperature, gases, oil. The blades of the MI-17 of the Air Force begin to turn and cause the grass, from where the machine rises, to move incessantly, raising the dust of the esplanade, like a whirlwind.

A bambi bucket hangs below the helicopter, an accessory with a maximum capacity of 2,500 liters of water. Since the fire broke out at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, several aircraft of the Revolutionary Armed Forces have flown over the area of ​​the incident. While firefighters attack the fire from various points on the ground, Cuban helicopters do it by air, pouring water. They come and go from the fire to the bay, from the bay to the fire.

Pilot Aniel Santiesteban. Photo: Irene Pérez/ Cubadebate.

Lieutenant Colonel Aniel Santiesteban explains how they carry out each of the operations:

“On the ground there is a pointer, who directs aviation and is a vital task. They send you in or out. Hold on. Watch out for the left. Caution on the right. An obstacle. They have a tank up front. an antenna. And they give you all that information.

“Riding in this type of exercise is very complex. We approach a meter from the water. The aircraft has an air power that creates a whirlwind. All the windows fog up. Practically the operation is carried out according to the instructions given by the technician to start the ascent or to descend a little more. The bambi bucket is operated and prepared by a weapons engineer who is also part of this type of preparation.

“That bucket has to reach the bay, make contact with the water, turn, fill and hang vertically to start the ascent, and then throw the water on the fire.”

Within two hours and thirty minutes, when they land at the Army General Staff, the crew will have made 30 emissions above the flames, which is equivalent to 75 tons of water in just one morning to put out the fire.

***

On Friday night, Aniel, Dairon and Emerson received a call from headquarters with the mission of extinguishing the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base. Aniel celebrated that day the 30 years of his wedding with Rebeca and had to get ready to go out first thing on Saturday.

From Military Unit 3710 of the Eastern Army Air Force, in Holguín, he took off the crew at dawn, and in the first light of day he surprised them while they were flying over Varadero. A few minutes later they arrived at the General Staff in Matanzas, enabled the aircraft and left on the first flight to the fire.

At 35 years old, the oldest Dairon González Espinosa confesses that reality always surpasses any image:

“When we fulfilled that first mission, we realized that the magnitude that we imagined was too small compared to the flames. There were columns of smoke that reached 3,000 meters in height. And a wingspan of about a kilometer. And the flames soaring. A very great experience. Seeing all the fire trucks that were buried there, debris on the flames, that’s something hard, unforgettable.”

Major Dairon Gonzalez Espinosa. Photo: Irene Pérez/ Cubadebate.

A thick column of black smoke made it difficult for them to maneuver in the air and, at times, reduced visibility. The chemical substances that emanated from the combustion of crude oil penetrated into the cabin. That same day, the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA) reported that there were approximately 3,200 particles in the air. The cloud of smoke contained sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, among other substances that were concentrated five kilometers high. The helicopters of the Cuban Air Force passed through there.

In the afternoon, a WhatsApp message moves me: “I am aware of everything and I hope this will end soon. My dad is over there too, he’s one of the helicopter pilots. Aniel is called, like me. I’m with the balls in the throat, but pa’lante. If they are there, risking it, you have to be strong”.

Nobody knows at that time, but when the Holguín crew returns to the Eastern Army base, they will have carried out more than 135 flight missions over the flames of the most important fuel reservoir in all of Cuba.

***
Lieutenant Colonel Aniel Santiesteban points out that, in order to face a scenario as complex as the one experienced in Matanzas in the first days of August, the crew receives prior preparation: “This is one of the exercises that requires the most professionalism and experience, since the water intake is carried out at very low heights above the surface of the sea and the launch is over areas with very complex situations, fires and the presence of chemical substances”.

He immediately adds that it is a team and that it is unfair to mention only the pilots or heads of the ship. “Emerson is the flight instructor, who tells us ‘launch, go down, go down, go down’, with the water there, a meter away. If this machine flies, it is thanks to a team that is on the ground, made up of technical assurance, engineers and aviation, who prepare and get the machine ready with all the liquids and fuel”, he says.

After filling the bambi bucket that hangs from aircraft H-141, the machine ascends to approach the flames.

Emerson Infante García es instructor de vuelo. Foto: Irene Pérez/ Cubadebate

Instructor Emerson Infante García indicates where to launch according to the points that, from the ground, the pointer needs. There are more than four Revolutionary Air Force helicopters doing the same job. At times, the flames exceed 100 meters in height. And you have to go down, with the fire almost touching the landing skids.

Multiple aircraft fly over simultaneously. Each one of the crews observes the airspace constantly. “The one that goes ahead alerts us, the one that goes behind also and in this way we help each other. We give each other feedback,” says Aniel.

***

On Thursday afternoon, 144 hours after the explosion of the first tank at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, Aniel, Dairon and Emerson’s aircraft landed in Holguín. On the networks I see a photo of the older Dairon, kissing his wife and his two-year-old girl. Hours before concluding his mission in Matanzas, he had told us about his three children, the eldest who turned 12 on Monday and who asked him about the fire and if he was putting on the gas chamber. He had told us about the other boy, five years old, and the youngest, two, whom he carries in one of the photographs.

I also see another image, of the two Aniel, father and son.

–I saw that the old man is already in Holguín –I write to him.

– He just landed. Here I am with him – he answers and sends me another photo of the two of them, embracing.

The Chargé d´affaire of Cuba in Austria, Marieta García Jordán, and the general director of that entity, Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish, signed the document.

The OFID head reiterated the support of that organization to Cuba and explained that the soft loan granted, of $45 million USD, is aimed to contribute to the modernization and diversification of the Cuban energy matrix, by increasing the installed capacity of renewable energy sources, in this case, solar energy.

The project, she said, will increase energy generation and optimize the country’s electricity system, through the use of domestic photovoltaic elements and solar water heaters for industrial and household use.

Garcia Jordan thanked and highly appreciated the support received from this international organization during two decades of close cooperation relations.

Thanks to these links, she remarked, thirteen loan agreements were adopted for projects of economic and social impact in the sectors of agriculture, the rehabilitation of electrical networks and of the aqueduct, sewerage systems, and renewable energies, in several provinces of Cuba.

(Prensa Latina)

(Granma)

(Published Global Research)

The objective of the war against Libya is not just its oil reserves (now estimated at 60 billion barrels), which are the greatest in Africa and whose extraction costs are among the lowest in the world, nor the natural gas reserves of which are estimated at about 1,500 billion cubic meters. In the crosshairs of “willing” of the operation “Unified Protector” there are sovereign wealth funds, capital that the Libyan state has invested abroad.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) manages sovereign wealth funds estimated at about $70 billion U.S., rising to more than $150 billion if you include foreign investments of the Central Bank and other bodies. But it might be more. Even if they are lower than those of Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, Libyan sovereign wealth funds have been characterized by their rapid growth. When LIA was established in 2006, it had $40 billion at its disposal. In just five years, LIA has invested over one hundred companies in North Africa, Asia, Europe, the U.S. and South America: holding, banking, real estate, industries, oil companies and others.

In Italy, the main Libyan investments are those in UniCredit Bank (of which LIA and the Libyan Central Bank hold 7.5 percent), Finmeccanica (2 percent) and ENI (1 percent), these and other investments (including 7.5 percent of the Juventus Football Club) have a significance not as much economically (they amount to some $5.4 billion) as politically.

Libya, after Washington removed it from the blacklist of “rogue states,” has sought to carve out a space at the international level focusing on “diplomacy of sovereign wealth funds.” Once the U.S. and the EU lifted the embargo in 2004 and the big oil companies returned to the country, Tripoli was able to maintain a trade surplus of about $30 billion per year which was used largely to make foreign investments. The management of sovereign funds has however created a new mechanism of power and corruption in the hands of ministers and senior officials, which probably in part escaped the control of the Gadhafi himself: This is confirmed by the fact that, in 2009, he proposed that the 30 billion in oil revenues go “directly to the Libyan people.” This aggravated the fractures within the Libyan government.

U.S. and European ruling circles focused on these funds, so that before carrying out a military attack on Libya to get their hands on its energy wealth, they took over the Libyan sovereign wealth funds. Facilitating this operation is the representative of the Libyan Investment Authority, Mohamed Layas himself: as revealed in a cable published by WikiLeaks. On January 20 Layas informed the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli that LIA had deposited $32 billion in U.S. banks. Five weeks later, on February 28, the U.S. Treasury “froze” these accounts. According to official statements, this is “the largest sum ever blocked in the United States,” which Washington held “in trust for the future of Libya.” It will in fact serve as an injection of capital into the U.S. economy, which is more and more in debt. A few days later, the EU “froze” around 45 billion Euros of Libyan funds.

The assault on the Libyan sovereign wealth funds will have a particularly strong impact in Africa. There, the Libyan Arab African Investment Company had invested in over 25 countries, 22 of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and was planning to increase the investments over the next five years, especially in mining, manufacturing, tourism and telecommunications. The Libyan investments have been crucial in the implementation of the first telecommunications satellite Rascom (Regional African Satellite Communications Organization), which entered into orbit in August 2010, allowing African countries to begin to become independent from the U.S. and European satellite networks, with an annual savings of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even more important were the Libyan investment in the implementation of three financial institutions launched by the African Union: the African Investment Bank, based in Tripoli, the African Monetary Fund, based in Yaoundé (Cameroon), the African Central Bank, with Based in Abuja (Nigeria). The development of these bodies would enable African countries to escape the control of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, tools of neo-colonial domination, and would mark the end of the CFA franc, the currency that 14 former French colonies are forced to use. Freezing Libyan funds deals a strong blow to the entire project. The weapons used by “the willing” are not only those in the military action called “Unified Protector.”

(Published in Al Jazeera)

BP announced on June 1, 2010 that they were instituting a $20bn compensation fund to aid those affected by the oil spill, although residents complain they can't access the money [EPA

The owner of a charter fishing business, he had always supported the oil industry in his home state of Louisiana.

He previously trusted BP, and the rest of the oil industry, to do the right thing in case an accident happened. But not any more. “I’m seeing people starving to death and BP won’t pay them,” said Lambert.

His business drop of 94 per cent in the last year has cost him more than $1.1mn, he told Al Jazeera, “They won’t pay me, they owe me well over a million dollars just for last year, and all they do is send more papers to fill out.”

He continued:

They know what they did is wrong and they still won’t pay me. I’m done playing their games. All they are doing is starving people out and trying to get them to take the one-time $25,000 payment and give up their right to sue. I know thousands of people in the fishing industry, and I don’t know one person who has been made whole yet.

In the aftermath of BP’s disaster that began on April 20 of last year, the oil giant promised those whose livelihoods had been damaged that they would be made “whole” and fully compensated for their losses.

On June 1, 2010, upon the announcement that they were instituting a $20bn compensation fund to do this, BP board chairman Henric Svanberg stated: “[President Obama] is frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people.”

Lambert vehemently disagrees.

“I want the entire country to know, you cannot trust what BP or [what] the oil industry promises you. I’m most definitely taking up litigation against BP,” he added.

Criminally negligent

Lambert is not alone.

The Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD) is a group that uses the law to protect the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive. CBD has an unparallelled record of legal successes, with 93 per cent of their lawsuits having resulted in favourable outcomes. And, now they are suing BP for $19bn.

“We have sued them under the Clean Water Act,” Kieran Suckling, the executive director and founder of the CBD told Al Jazeera. “The way the Act works is it levies a fine based on the number of gallons [of oil] spilled and how malicious or criminal BP was acting when the spill occurred. So a big part of the suit is about determining how many barrels were spilled, and BP’s level of negligence.”

Suckling explained that, depending on BP’s level of negligence, the fine they face per barrel of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico, “could range from $1,300 to $4,300 per barrel if they are found criminally negligent.”

CBD believes BP released 5.5 million barrels of oil, and is awaiting the official estimate from the federal government, which has not been released yet.

“BP will try to low ball the amount,” Suckling added. “They are currently trying to argue that rather than being charged per barrel, they want to be charged per day of the spill, and they’ve come up with a ridiculously low number for that. If they have their way, their fine will be in the millions rather than the billions.”

So far, CBD has filed eight lawsuits and six notices of intent to sue to make sure BP and the federal government are held accountable. The fact that it’s the largest environmental disaster in US history strengthens their case further.

“The big issue will be what position the feds take, since we filed this suit because we do not trust the Obama administration to hold BP’s feet to the fire,” Suckling said, “so ultimately we will be fighting both of them.”

Blown out of the water

Cyn Sarthough is the executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), an environmental group active in all of the states that have a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico. GRN, like CBD, sues companies and government organisations that violate environmental laws, and has had much success in doing so over the years.

“Much of our litigation is against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), the group that was formerly the Minerals Management Service (MMS),” Sarthough told Al Jazeera. “There is also a challenge to BP’s original oil spill response plan. We are engaged in this with several other claimants because what they had in place was inappropriate and failed to meet safety requirements because it grossly exaggerated BP’s response capabilities.”

This month the CBD released a report titled, A deadly toll: The Gulf Oil Spill and the unfolding wildlife disaster.

“]

BP's oil disaster has caused anger and destruction across the Gulf [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera

One of GRN’s lawsuits involves what Sarthough says is the failure of federal agencies, like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as BP, to comply with the Endangered Species Act.

“If you believe you are going to harass or injure them [endangered species] you have to get an Incidental Take Permit,” she explained. “In the past, MMS would go in and get a sort of regional Incidental Take Permit that would cover the oil and gas industry. But in this instance, for reasons we are not clear on, there was no Incidental Take Permit agreement between the federal agencies, thus BP did not have one.”

This means that any harassment, injury, or death of an endangered species is in violation of the law.

“We believe there should be compensation for this paid by BP, in fines,” Sarthough said, “and this money is then put into restoration of the species that were impacted.”

Sarthough says that the now defunct MMS had found impact statements that showed there was no specific danger to species by work being done by the oil and gas industry in the Gulf.

“They claimed there was no real risk of any significant action that would harm endangered species,” she said, “we believe this needs to be redone because it is based on an assumption that no longer holds true. The BP disaster has blown that assumption of theirs out of the water. There needs to be a focus on the species that were impacted. That’s what we want.”

Environmental effects

This March, US interior secretary Kenneth Salazar approved the first deep water drilling exploration plan since BP’s disaster, giving Shell Offshore the go-ahead to drill three exploration wells in water 2,950 feet deep, after his department’s environmental assessment plan found there was “no possibility of significant environmental effects”.

Prior to this, CBD, GRN, the Natural Resources Defence Council, and the Sierra Club filed a formal notice of intent to sue Salazar for ignoring marine-mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf.

CBD has already filed suit against Salazar for concluding that oil drilling poses no possible risk of significant environmental effects. Furthermore, for failing to assess possible impacts on the Gulf of Mexico’s endangered whales and sea turtles, his continued approval of offshore drilling plans in the Gulf without environmental review, and for his withholding emails, phone logs, and meeting notes documenting his interactions with oil-industry lobbyists since he became secretary of the interior.

About the suit CBD is preparing to file against Salazar for ignoring marine mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the gulf, Suckling is blunt:

In the wake of the beginning of BP’s disaster last year, it became apparent the Obama administration has not followed the Endangered Species Act, among other laws, so despite claims they’ve reformed the agency, they are still not following these Acts or the National Policy Act. So it’s business as usual with a little window dressing. They are still not obeying the law.

As for BP, Suckling feels the oil giant, “should be made to pay $19bn under the Clean Water Act and in so doing be found to be criminally negligent. That $19bn should be entirely new funds, not including anything they’ve already put out, and those funds should be dedicated to Gulf Coast restoration.”

“]

CBD, GRN, the Natural Resources Defence Council, and the Sierra Club intend on suing the US interior secretary for breaking marine-mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera

“And BP should be found liable for the deaths of the 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon, and that should go as high as Tony Hayward, as far as who should be held criminally liable.”

In the wake of the disaster and after a series of public gaffes that led to his ceding the CEO post to Bob Dudley, former BP CEO Tony Hayward grabbed headlines with a $17.9mn pension, $1.6mn payoff and $13mn in share options.

Death and business

The Gulf Coast-based law firm Brent Coon and Associates (BCA) is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on BP, and has successfully sued the oil giant in the past.

Brent Coon was the lead attorney in a case against BP for a 2005 explosion at their refinery in Texas that killed 15 workers. His firm forced BP to accept full responsibility and compensate the victims and their families.

BCA now represents more than 5,000 claimants from BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster, and has been appointed by the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee to head several key sub-committees relating to discovery.

“We represent a cross section of claimants, who range from people who worked within the oil industry, to shrimpers, captains, deck hands, restaurant and condominium owners,” Coon told Al Jazeera. “We want full restitution and reparations for harm done by BP.”

Coon said that in addition to BP, other companies that were involved in the disaster, like Halliburton and Transocean, need to be held accountable as well.

“From what I’ve seen, after representing thousands of people who were made sick or died from petrochemical industry hazards over the years, companies like BP, Exxon, Citgo, Shell, and others do not mind killing people as the cost of doing business,” Coon added, “even when it’s their own employees. I’ve seen it time and time again.”

“Unless you criminally prosecute these people and make them pay for their decisions, they do not have a sufficient deterrent for the way they do business,” he continued, “unless the government steps in and criminally prosecutes these bastards and hold them accountable, nothing is going to change.”

Coon, and the claimants his firm represents intend to do just that.

Lambert, the charter fisherman, plans on fighting BP to the end.

Mr Feinberg recently told Dan Rather that the people in the Gulf who talk the loudest have the most dubious compensation claims,” Lambert said.”I challenge him to see if I have a dubious claim. I’ll be the one yelling from the rooftops.”