WASHINGTON - January 4 - Yesterday, the Justice Department announced a $1.4 billion settlement of criminal and civil charges against Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig responsible for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. 

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune release the following statement in response:

“Just a month ago the Sierra Club called on the Obama Administration to hold BP and their contractors fully accountable for the largest environmental disaster in American history. The settlement announced yesterday, like the $4 billion settlement of BP’s criminal charges last month, is wholly inadequate to the damage these companies caused – the loss of human life and the disruption of the entire Gulf ecosystem and economy. With these weak settlements, Gulf communities, families and businesses are being sold out to Big Oil for pennies on the dollar. BP and their contractors must pay the real cost of this disaster, no less than $60 billion, and be held accountable for their careless and illegal operations that created this disaster.”