Company Agrees to Pay Less Than 2% of Oil Spill Cleanup

Regal Stone Ltd., the owner of the tanker that spilled heavy bunker oil into San Francisco Bay Nov. 7, has agreed to reimburse the city $2 million toward the cleanup costs, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Actually, the company's insurance policy will cover the bill, which San Francisco hopes and expects is only the first of several large payments to cover the cost of the cleanup and make amends for the damage done. The cleanup alone will cost more than $100 million.

Assessing the value of damage to wildlife – oil-soaked birds, a lost crab fishing season, a black eye on the reputation of one of the nation's great estuaries – is as important as it will be controversial.

Meanwhile, Friends of Earth is fighting to ban the use of bunker fuel altogether, calling it "1,000 times dirtier than the diesel fuel."

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