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    Bus - BP Must Pay Oil Spill Costs

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    Edson Roberto Oliveira
    BBC Learning English Words in the News

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    Bus - BP Must Pay Oil Spill Costs

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    Edson Roberto Oliveira
    14 views2 pages
    BBC Learning English Words in the News

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    Bus - BP must pay oil spill costs

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    BBC Learning English Words in the News

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    14 views2 pages

    Bus - BP Must Pay Oil Spill Costs

    Uploaded by

    Edson Roberto Oliveira
    BBC Learning English Words in the News

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    BBC Learning English

    Words in the News


    14th May 2010
    BP 'must pay' oil spill costs

    US President Barack Obama is pressing for a law that would force British Petroleum to pay
    the full cost of the oil leak off the Gulf of Mexico. The bill could run into billions of dollars.
    This report is from Mark Mardell:

    Five thousand barrels of oil a day continue to spew into the Gulf of Mexico threatening five
    states. The investigations into the accident are far from over but United States senators have
    heard evidence from the companies involved that it might have been caused by a combination
    of faulty wiring, a leak in the equipment designed to prevent blowouts and even a dead
    battery.

    President Obama has written to Congress saying he will spare no effort trying to help those hit
    by what he calls a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.

    Mr Obama's letter says the government will aggressively pursue full compensation and as
    part of that he wants the limit lifted on the amount oil companies are liable to pay after a spill.
    At the moment it's capped at 75 million dollars and although the president doesn't suggest a
    new figure some politicians are talking about raising it to at least 10 billion dollars.

    This is not just about the clean up itself. The new law would make the companies pay for
    unemployment benefit for those, like fishermen who are put out of work, emergency aid for
    them, agencies to help them find new jobs, increased safety inspections and even more
    frequent checks to make sure fish from the gulf are safe to eat.

    The new law would be retrospective. British Petroleum has said it will pay all costs. United
    States officials are making it clear they will interpret "all" to mean every last cent.

    Mark Mardell, BBC News, Washington

    Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2010


    Page 1 of 2
    bbclearningenglish.com
    Vocabulary and definitions

    to spew to flow out with a lot of force

    evidence details about what happened

    faulty wiring electrical system that is broken or was not made correctly

    blowouts an occasion when oil or gas suddenly escapes from a well

    a dead battery a piece of equipment that is dead is no longer working

    full compensation payment of the total amount of money needed to pay for
    everything related to the oil spill

    liable to pay legally responsible for paying for damage or injury caused

    capped at limited to

    unemployment benefit money provided by the government to people who lose


    their jobs

    retrospective a retrospective law is a law that applies to the past, before


    the law was made

    More on this story:


    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8676341.stm

    Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2010/05/100514_witn_oilspill.shtml

    Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2010


    Page 2 of 2
    bbclearningenglish.com

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