The fund set up for victims of BP Plc’s oil spill last year paid $5.5 billion to more than 213,000 claimants in every U.S. state and 38 nations, according to Kenneth Feinberg, who runs the compensation program.
The Gulf Coast Claims Facility receives about 2,270 claims a week, Feinberg said in testimony prepared for the House Natural Resources Committee today. State officials and residents have criticized the fund, which began making payments in August 2010, for inefficiency and for paying less than victims sought.
The numbers of new applicants is “proof positive that we are doing something right,” Feinberg said. The totals in his testimony are current as of Oct. 21.
BP set aside $20 billion for the fund last year and named Feinberg as manager after negotiations with the Obama administration over damages to homes and businesses from the April oil spill.
About one million claims have been received, seeking either payments to cover immediate losses or lump-sum final payments that bar victims from suing BP and other companies in the spill. Claims have come from fishermen, shrimpers, hotel owners, real estate agents, dentists, veterinarians, chiropractors as well as businesses based thousands of miles from the spill, Feinberg said. About 95 percent of claims have been processed.
The facility has settled 213,000 claims, or 60 percent of the total, seeking final checks or interim payments, which don’t require victims to waive their legal rights, he said.
The Federal Oil Pollution Control Act lets claimants appeal any Feinberg decision to the U.S. Coast Guard, which has so far rejected all 1,359 requests to overturn the decision, Feinberg said.
