Question 1Gulf of Mexico oil spill (2010)

The oil spill in the gulf of Mexico in the year 2010 from an oil rig belonging to the British petroleum company. Cameras used revealed that the pipeline was leaking natural gas and oil. This oil spill is arguably the worst ever in the US history and by the time it was contained close to 5 million barrels of oil had been spilled into the ocean CITATION Joe14 l 2057 (Bourne, 2014).

The oil spill formed a massive oil patch that covered 16,000 square miles affecting the coasts of Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. Even though the oil spill occurred four years ago, its effect is still felt up to this day with long-term effects to marine life and people living along the coastline.

Many steps were taken to combat the adverse effects of the oil spill with chemicals being used to break down the giant oil patch into smaller oil patches for easy dispersal. Many scientists were appointed to investigate the effects of the spill and the US government set up a 20 billion dollar budget to be used in rapid response in case of future oil spills. The BP has also been charged for negligence in the events leading to the explosion of the rig that led to the death of 11 BP workers and astronomical losses. In a recent court hearing a US district court judge said that BP faced a possible penalty of up to 18 billion dollars for the role it played in the oil spill CITATION Cam14 l 2057 (Robertson & Krauss, 2014)Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bourne, J. (2014). Gulf Oil Spill. National Geographic.

Robertson, C., & Krauss, C. (2014, September 4). BP May Be Fined up to 18 billion for Spill in Gulf. Newspaper article . New York: New York Tomes.