BP "We didn't ruin the Gulf; Bobby Jindal did" new statement

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In its latest effort to portray itself as the victim of overzealous damage claims in the wake of its 2010 oil spill off Louisiana, BP blames damage to oyster beds on Gov. Bobby Jindal's "misguided decision… to divert fresh water from the Mississippi River to the Gulf" and argues the oil giant "should not be accountable for damages caused by the acts of others."

BP spokesman Geoff Morrell wrote in an op-ed piece Wednesday in Politico Magazine that no oyster beds were oiled in the three years after the spill, but says Louisiana should bear the blame for damage to those beds caused by the fresh water Jindal released to try to keep the oil out of the state's delicate coastal marshes.

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"It is kind of humorous that they want to take advantage of what (freshwater diversions) did in keeping the oil out of the oyster beds largely … and not have to pay for potentially ancillary impacts associated with the operations of those diversions," Graham told WWL-TV.

Steve Murchie, campaign director for New Orleans-based environmental advocacy group Gulf Restoration Network, was more direct in his assessment of Morrell's argument.

"That's kind of like an arsonist blaming the fire department for the water damage to the house," he said.

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"They've deployed a strategy since the very beginning of the disaster to downplay their responsibility and to escape having the full consequences of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history," he said.

Most of Morrell's opinion piece is directly from a speech he gave last month to the Society of Environmental Journalists annual meeting in New Orleans. In that speech, Morrell urged journalists to tell the story of the Gulf's resilience and to reject "opportunistic advocacy groups" that spin scientific studies to exaggerate the spill's impact.

Morrell said then that advocacy groups "cherry-pick" negative findings from scientists, such as a report noting that three coral communities near BP's broken well were damaged, and ignore overwhelmingly positive conclusions, such as the same report finding no coral communities located more than 22 kilometers from the well suffered damage.

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