When BP recovers oil from the water, does that get subtracted from the total spill numbers?
Sort of. The law doesn’t mention oil that is sucked out of the ocean, so in principle the civil fines are based on whatever gets spilled, regardless of the cleanup. That said, judges can—and often do—reduce the size of a penalty based on what’s been recovered, the level of fault involved, and damages the defendant has to pay under other provisions. So BP will likely get some credit for the recovered oil and won’t have to pay $258 million per day in civil fines. Who gets the final say on how much oil was spilled? A federal judge, probably. When the EPA files its suit against BP, it will include an estimate of the total oil spilled as part of its penalty calculation. The government’s asking price is sure to be astronomical, in light of public sentiment, so an out-of-court settlement seems unlikely. If the case goes to trial, BP’s experts will argue with government scientists over the number of barrels of oil that were released into the Gulf. The judge will have to pick a side or come up
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