BP Fought Back Against Obama Demands

BP didn’t just roll over in the face of Barack Obama’s (ahem) “shakedown.” At the negotiating table, the oil giant managed to shoot down some of the White House’s requests, the Wall Street Journal reports—for example, it refused to pay to restore the Gulf coast to better-than-prespill condition, something Obama pledged to do back in April.

And though BP is on the hook to pay $100 million to compensate workers sidelined by Obama’s drilling moratorium, it refused to pay any more, arguing that it couldn’t be held accountable for a White House policy. The deal is structured to limit BP’s liability against claims that it is. But administration officials are still pleased with the concessions they got. “A blank check was never in the cards,” says one, but the agreement “went a very long way.”