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The AP (12/14) reports US District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans this week “approved a $525 million settlement between BP PLC and the Securities and Exchange Commission over statements the company made during the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.” The settlement was one that was announced in November at the same time as “a separate but related deal to resolve criminal charges stemming from the April 2010 explosion of the rig Deepwater Horizon off the Louisiana coast.”

        In the “E2 Wire” blog in The Hill (12/14, Colman, 21K) Zack Colman writes that Barbier ruled BP has to “pay the fine in three payments within 20 months.” Thursday in a statement Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) said, “There is no statute of limitations or protections for a crime against the environment, and BP should immediately hand over any and all information related to this new chapter in their oil spill disaster. BP can’t hide these new oil sheens from the American people, and they shouldn’t be allowed to hide the information about what’s going on at the bottom of the ocean.”