BALTIMORE (June 22, 2010) – Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler Monday announced that he, along with Attorneys General from 10 Atlantic Coast states, sent letters to BP and its affiliated companies as the first step to protect Maryland interests from the potential effects of the Gulf oil spill.
“As the lawyers for our respective states, we have closely followed the events following the Gulf oil spill in late April,” said Attorney General Gansler. “Although the chance of oil reaching our coasts is small, especially with respect to those of the more northern states, we all need to be prepared for that possibility. We are taking the necessary steps now to ensure that the interests of Maryland’s citizens, natural resources, and economy are not negatively impacted.”
In the letters, the Attorneys General asked BP, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron to:
-- memorialize public statements and provide assurances regarding payment of all legitimate claims stemming from the oil spill;
-- assign an individual to serve as point of contact to help ensure that each of the attorney general offices can quickly and effectively communicate with BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and Cameron;
-- preserve any and all documents, data compilations, including electronically recorded and stored data, tangible objects or other information relevant to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the resulting oil spill that began on April 20, 2010, and the response and clean-up effort in any form in which they currently exist until further notice.
Erin Fitzsimmons, Attorney General Gansler’s special assistant for the environment, coordinated the dissemination of the letter to the Atlantic Coast attorneys general and will serve as the point of contact for Attorney General Gansler and the companies.
RELATED INFORMATION:
The letters to BP, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron can be found at:
-- http://www.oag.state.md.us/Press/bp.pdf
-- http://www.oag.state.md.us/Press/cameron.pdf
-- http://www.oag.state.md.us/Press/halliburton.pdf
-- http://www.oag.state.md.us/Press/transocean.pdf