BP Plc (BP/) and lawyers suing the company won preliminary approval of their proposed settlement of claims over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP in March agreed to pay an estimated $7.8 billion to resolve most private plaintiffs’ claims for economic loss, property damage and spill and cleanup-related injuries. The settlement establishes two separate classes, one for economic loss and the other for physical injuries related to the spill or the cleanup.

via Fuel Fix » BP oil spill judge tentatively approves $7.8 billion pact.

GULF SHORES, Alabama — Fear of the unknown. That's the biggest concern two years after the BP oil spill.

The largest spill in U.S. history also served to tell the world about south Alabama's sugar white sand beaches, city officials said, and that exposure was priceless.

via Fears remain two years after BP oil spill on Gulf Coast | al.com.

GULF SHORES, Alabama — Fear of the unknown. That’s the biggest concern two years after the BP oil spill.

The largest spill in U.S. history also served to tell the world about south Alabama’s sugar white sand beaches, city officials said, and that exposure was priceless.

via Fears remain two years after BP oil spill on Gulf Coast | al.com.

Two years ago, when I viewed the Gulf Coast from a helicopter window, I was devastated to see oil in the water, on many beaches and in fragile marshlands, and humbled at the thought of the cleanup job that lay ahead.

via BP exec: After two years, grandeur of the Gulf is returning (Op-ed) | al.com.

EXCEPT FOR the 10,000 or so errors, Ken Feinberg’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility did a good job of compensating victims of the 2010 BP oil spill.

via Rejected claims deserve another look (Editorial) | al.com.

MOBILE, Alabama — The new Gulf oil spill settlement offer released this week provides a way for nearly every group affected by the BP spill to receive a monetary award for losses attributed to the spill.

Everybody except recreational fishermen.

In the settlement, provisions are made to compensate businesses, commercial fishermen, oystermen, shrimpers, people who lost the use of waterfront property, people who lost wages, and a group described as “subsistence fishermen.”

via No BP oil spill settlement for recreational fishermen | al.com.

MOBILE, Alabama — While the Gulf oil industry is back to drilling at full steam, critics ranging from former government regulators to members of President Obama’s Oil Spill Commission say little has changed when it comes to the ability to fight or prevent another major spill.

Two years after the start of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, even as the Obama administration pushes ahead with plans to open the Atlantic and more of the Arctic to drilling, many fear the nation’s attitude toward oil exploration has slipped toward complacency.

via Gulf of Mexico still vulnerable to another oil well blowout | al.com.

Two years ago, when I viewed the Gulf Coast from a helicopter window, I was devastated to see oil in the water, on many beaches and in fragile marshlands, and humbled at the thought of the clean-up job that lay ahead.

Last week, however, when I led a group of journalists on a series of flyovers of the Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines, I was struck by the remarkable contrast between those early scenes and the view today.

via Gulf looking better, but BP still on job | The Montgomery Advertiser | montgomeryadvertiser.com.

MOBILE, Alabama — Ken Feinberg pledged during his tenure as the Gulf Coast oil spill claims czar that he would be more generous to victims of the disaster than the legal system. Soon, the opening of a court settlement will reveal whether he was right.

via Feinberg promised to be more generous than the courts, but was he right? | al.com.

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – The Gulf Oil Spill in 2010 changed the lives of many people along the Gulf Coast. The disaster began with an explosion aboard the BP's Deepwater Horizon Rig on April 20.

The explosion killed eleven men on the rig. Two days later, the rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico.

via Two years passed Gulf Oil Spill | Fox10tv.com.

MOBILE, Alabama — Mobile County, Baldwin County, Dauphin Island and Bayou La Batre filed lawsuits in federal court today against BP PLC over the 2010 oil spill, even though settlement negotiations are continuing, according to a lawyer for the local governments.

Rick Kuykendall said the lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in Mobile to avoid going beyond a two-year statute of limitations for damage claims under Alabama law.

via Mobile, Baldwin counties file lawsuits against BP over oil spill | al.com.

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama — “The day I got on CNN was the day I started getting my phone calls returned” from BP, said Tony Kennon, mayor of Orange Beach.

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft agreed: “It didn’t take long to figure out we weren’t going to be able to depend on BP or government entities. We were going to have to do it on our own.”

via Auburn book puts human face on man-made BP oil spill | al.com.

GULF SHORES, Alabama — Early restoration of more than 55 acres of dune habitat on the Gulf Coast could start soon after the two-year anniversary of the BP oil spill, according to state and local officials on Thursday.

“We want to restore the dunes after all the activity on the beach from the cleanup,” said Jereme Phillips, manager of the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge on Fort Morgan. The dunes migrate seaward, but with all the traffic from ATVs and heavy equipment, they have been prevented from growing seaward, according to Phillips. He works for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which oversees the refuge.

via Gulf Coast dunes to be restored in aftermath of BP oil spill | al.com.

Two years after the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, scientists say they're finding trouble with sick fish that dwell along offshore reefs and in the deep waters – especially in places where the oil spill hit the hardest.

via Scientists: Sick Fish Where Oil Spill Hit | WKRG.

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan push to set aside billions in fines from the BP oil spill for Gulf of Mexico restoration remains stalled in Congress as the disaster’s two-year anniversary nears.

The RESTORE Act would send 80 percent of any Clean Water Act civil penalties assessed in connection with the April 20, 2010, disaster to the five Gulf Coast states, where it would be distributed for economic and environmental restoration projects and scientific research.

Despite being a slam-dunk in the minds of its proponents and having support of many environmental and business groups alike, election-year politics in Congress have left the bill in a state of legislative limbo.

“I’m disappointed there hasn’t been movement,” said Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., co-chair of the Congressional Gulf Coast Caucus. “I thought this would be a no-brainer.”

via Fuel Fix » Congress stifles bill to funnel spill fines.