Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 11:45am EDT
Crist creates oil spill recovery task force
South Florida Business Journal
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Gov. Charlie Crist has issued an executive order creating an economic recovery task force whose job will be to help Florida businesses and industries recover from losses associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig leased by BP PLC, killed 11 crewmembers before it sent oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.
The task force will be responsible for monitoring BP’s efforts in providing financial relief to those businesses that may suffer losses, coordinating efforts to gather economic loss data, making sure there’s a marketing plan in place to let people know that Florida is open for business, and developing a Web site to disseminate information and communicate with businesses and industries.
The task force will have to provide the governor with a written report of its accomplishments every month.
Members, who will be appointed by the governor, will serve without pay.
On Tuesday, the governor also said he expects to call a special legislative session in the next couple of weeks that would focus on a constitutional amendment to ban offshore oil drilling. Last week, Florida CFO Alex Sink, along with several state lawmakers, called for the creation of such an amendment.
In the meantime, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has launched a Web site to provide Floridians with a central location to obtain information about how the state is responding to the spill.
The site includes maps and projections for the oil spill’s location and potential movement, as well as information citizens can use to protect themselves from fraud and the hotline number for filing recovery claims.
McCollum also has been preparing for potential lawsuits that may be filed to recover damages.
On Tuesday, Congress began hearings on the oil spill. On Monday, BP said it has spent $350 million so far on its efforts to clean up the spill. It is estimated that 5,000 barrels a day are leaking.
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