State Senator Dave Aronberg, a Democratic candidate for Attorney General, was in town yesterday. He spent part of his day at the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center. Aronberg got to meet with British Petroleum’s pretty face for Pensacola, Liz Castro. Castro told Aronberg that they had paid out over $100,000 in claims – $5000 at time. Aronberg asked if Castro if any claim checks were handed out for more than $5K. She didn’t know. She couldn’t speak to that.
Castro also bragged that BP has accepted full responsibility for the oil spill. To which, Aronberg asked then why did BP officials point the finger at Haliburton and Transocean in House hearings. Did she see the hearings? “Yeah, I saw that.”
Finally we’re starting to see some outrage from state officials. Aronberg is worried that BP will be gone once the Deepwater Horizon well is capped…leaving the federal, state and local governments paying all the bills. He agrees with Escambia County Commissioner Grover Robinson that the $25-millon block grants from BP shouldn’t be divided equally among Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. “These grants are to be passed on to the counties along the coast,” said Aronberg. “Mississippi has three counties on the Gulf of Mexico and Alabama has two. We in Florida have 16 counties that could be impacted.”
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