Attorney General Eric Holder says the Obama administration is pursuing criminal, not just civil, charges over BP's massive Gulf of Mexico oil gusher. Echoing earlier remarks by Obama, Holder vowed to "prosecute to the fullest extent" any person or company found to have broken the law. The federal government still needs BP to stop the leak and clean up the mess, however, so is threatening criminal charges now a good idea? (Watch Eric Holder announce the investigations into BP)
It's past time we threw the book at BP: Given BP's earlier felony convictions in connection to a 2006 spill in Alaska's North Slope, a criminal investigation "should have been the priority from day one," says Andrew Revkin in The New York Times. Presumably, federal lawyers and investigators have been sifting through the "petro-calamity" for "evidence of crimes" for weeks, but publicly turning up the heat on BP "felt way overdue."
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