Jim Smith
With Louisiana’s shoreline turning blacker by the day, an elite team of two former attorneys general is cautiously laying the groundwork for Florida’s legal response to BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Gov. Charlie Crist appointed the political odd couple – Democrat Bob Butterworth and Republican Jim Smith – almost two weeks ago to spearhead what could be the biggest and most complex lawsuit ever attempted by the state. So far, the beaches remain clear and a state lawsuit, if there ever is one, is nowhere in sight.
BP has paid out more than $2 million to Floridians for individual lost-income claims, and kept most of the cases open for future payment. That’s on top of the $50 million it gave the state for emergency preparations and a tourism promotion campaign.
So far, that’s good enough for Smith.
“At this point, I’m satisfied that BP is trying to do the right thing,” Smith said. “My sense is that this thing is still unfolding. Nobody could really even assess damages at this point.”
That’s not good enough for environmentalists who see only foot-dragging and politics as usual. They complain that Smith wasn’t a good choice to direct the legal charge because he was a registered BP lobbyist on and off between 2001 and 2005.
Smith acknowledges that his lobbying firm, one of the largest and most influential in the state, represented BP, but that he had no personal involvement with that client and has no loyalty to it today. He said he only registered as a BP lobbyist out of an abundance of caution.
The environmentalists want the state to haul BP into court now, and force it to pay for more booms and skimmers so Florida will be better prepared than Louisiana if and when the devastation rolls ashore.
The $25 million BP paid to help local governments prepare area contingency plans is a drop in the bucket, the critics charge. They also point out that last week, when BP CEO Tony Hayward traveled to Louisiana, he acknowledged that the company didn’t do enough to protect the beaches.
Special thanks to Progress Florida