Jackson Free Press

BP's Letter to House Speaker Billy McCoy

Attorney General Jim Hood detailed his plans to sue British Petroleum over damages from the Gulf oil spill in an abbreviated legislative hearing today.

"We're going to file our lawsuits over damage to our public trust tidelands, for cleanup costs, for replacement costs. … sales tax, from our tourism tax money, loss of income tax," Hood said. "We'll have all these claims. It'll take a while to ever figure out how much it is."

Hood reiterated the warning he gave at a Congressional hearing last week, that attempts by BP to remove oil spill lawsuits to federal court would keep affected citizens from getting fair compensation.

"What's a federal judge in Texas going to think about a brown pelican in Mississippi's waters?" Hood said. "If I can keep this case in state court, we will get our claims settled, and I'll fight for every dime we're owed."

House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, announced the hearing two weeks ago to help Gulf Coast representatives and relevant committee chairs in the House share information with state agency heads. McCoy had originally called for a second day of hearings tomorrow, but the absence of representatives from British Petroleum (BP) led Conservation Committee Chairman John Mayo, D-Clarksdale, to adjourn the hearing after one day.

In a letter sent to McCoy today, BP officials apologized for being unable to send a representative to hearings today or Thursday. BP spokeswoman Marti Powers told the Jackson Free Press that the appropriate staff were en route to Washington, D.C., for Congressional hearings on the oil spill.

"We have participated in several discussions since we arrived in Mississippi with state officials, the Governor's office, several of the counties, and we want to continue to do so," Powers said. "Unfortunately Congress also called some hearings going on this week and the folks that we would've sent to Jackson are now in D.C. or on their way to D.C. to prep for the Congressional hearings."

"We want to make sure we've got the right level of leadership and the right technical experts that can really give them information that is valuable," Powers added. "We want make sure we are sending the right people for those conversations."

The BP apology did not satisfy some of the hearing's attendees.

"They could've sent someone," Mayo told the Jackson Free Press. "We weren't going to fry them."

Rep. Brandon Jones, D-Pascagoula, said that BP wasted an opportunity for good publicity.

"It's a great chance for BP to show what they've been doing," Jones said. "For them not to come is a real show of bad faith."