Special to CNN: Make BP pay to restore Gulf

David Yarnold, President, National Audubon Society

This story was originally posted on CNN. 

By David Yarnold, President, National Audubon Society

Special to CNN
Updated 8:01 AM EST, Tue March 5, 2013

(CNN) — BP showed up in court last week, finally, nearly three years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the hell it unleashed on the Gulf Coast. It’s a huge, high-stakes trial, and BP is taking the beating it’s earned. Here’s what’s at stake for America if there is a judgment: potentially tens of billions of dollars that will be used to create jobs while restoring some of our most productive and vulnerable natural places.

Whether the trial results in a decision or a settlement, the outcome will send a signal about how serious this country is about enforcing its common-sense rules that guarantee clean air and waters.

BP and its partners have already confessed to criminal negligence in the 2010 blowout that killed 11 men and gushed nearly 5 million barrels of oil. Every part of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, from the deep-sea corals to dolphins to migratory birds, was… (continue reading on CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/05/opinion/yarnold-bp/index.html).