When BP was forced to pay up for causing the massive 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the funds were set aside to clean up the spill and deal with its aftereffects. Does a beachfront luxury hotel fit into that category? Well, that’s what some politicians seemed to believe.

Which is why Earthjustice won a lawsuit co-filed with the Gulf Restoration Network against several Alabama and federal agencies. Earthjustice represents more than a thousand organizations, and is America’s largest nonprofit environmental law organization.

The environmentalists sued when they realized that the government had 58.5 million dollars of BP “natural resource restoration” funds to build a new hotel and a conference center in an Alabama state park. Senior Judge Charles R. Butler Jr. issued the ruling. Earthjustice’s managing editor, Jessica Knoblauch, noted that the BP oil spill had damaged about “600 miles of beach, dune and barrier island habitat.”

The toll on the marine animals in the region has been utterly horrific; she notes that the spill has so far ended the lives of “four billion oysters, 50,000 birds and trillions of fish larvae. Certain whale and dolphin species were harmed so badly that populations are likely to take decades to recover—if they recover at all. And, about 600 turtles were found dead during the oil spill response.”

Earthjustice’s actions have ensured that the funds get used for their stated purpose, and repair the damage done to the environment and the lives of people affected by the spill.

Sources: Earth Justice

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