HOUSTON
Owners of small hotels on the Florida and Texas Gulf coasts say a proposed settlement unfairly excludes thousands in the tourism industry who suffered economic damages in the 2010 oil spill.
The Asian American Hotel Owners Association says the settlement between BP and a committee representing claimants sets arbitrary geographic boundaries including the entire coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, but only portions of the Texas and Florida Gulf coasts. Several hundred hotel owners marched on BP's Houston headquarters Aug. 23 to protest the geographic provisions of the settlement.
"Throughout the Gulf Coast there are business owners that have been impacted by the spill," said Nash Patel, who is on the board of the association that estimates its members own 60 percent of the 1,280 hotels affected by the spill but not covered in the settlement.
BP officials acknowledged the protest but declined to meet to discuss the settlement.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of New Orleans, who is overseeing the massive tangle of claims and counterclaims arising from the spill, has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 8 to determine whether the BP settlement provides reasonable compensation for the class.
