There is a profound difference in how Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood and ours , Pam Bondi, are handling BP and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Hood requested that Judge Barbier. the federal judge assigned all the BP lawsuits, have an independent audit conducted on the entire $20 billion dollar fund, and determine how much has actually been paid out to date.
Mr. Hood also requested public hearings so that Kenneth Feinberg, BP’s representative in charge of the oil spill claims distribution fund, could explain to his state’s citizens why so many of their claims have been denied, and when they were paid, why so many of them received far less than they expected.
David Pitofsky, who Kenneth Feinberg, head of the GCCF, filed a court document that stated “The court, under the power granted it in the Oil Pollution Act, does not have the right to act on any of the state’s attorney generals request.“
Pitofsky later added, “Even if Judge Barbier did have the legally authority, which he does not, to have the court administer the Gulf oil spill claims fund, that it would divert capital from the people that need it the most. In addition, it would slow down the entire process, because their staff would be constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering what the judge would make of their decisionsâ€.
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