we will speak to antonia juhasz. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. house lawmakers in south carolina have passed a measure

for more, we go to reporter antonia juhasz in san francisco. rolling stone story is headlined, "bp 'got off cheaply' with $18.7 billion settlement." her report in the may issue of harpers magazine is, "thirty million gallons under the sea: following the trail of bp's oil in the gulf of mexico." she is also author of, "black tide: the devastating impact of the gulf oil spill." you have been reporting on this for years. did bp get off cheaply? what were the costs and what are they ultimately liable for? >> good morning. unfortunately, bp did. as you said in the introduction, this is certainly a historic settlement. it is a very large figure, $18.7 billion will stop that bp also caused the largest oil spill in world history, the largest offshore oil drilling and roll history. with that, it was found to be a crime. bp had to settle 12 criminal charges and bp was found grossly negligent in causing the disaster. with those crimes in a grossly negligent behavior comes a historic fine if you apply our laws. and our laws are supposed to account for the