21st-century fossil fuel regulations in the United States spill has been the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010. With the exception of Kalamazoo River (2010), all other major spills have occurred around the Gulf of Mexico. In May 2010, the United States Department of the Interior called for an end to drilling in the area of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Despite pushback from oil companies and states, the Supreme Court ruled to keep the moratorium in place until October 2010. BP agreed to financial compensation for the damage they caused, including payouts to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust. Regulations drafted after the accident required oil companies to update
Oil spill volume is a limited measure of damage or impact. Smaller spills have already proven to have a great impact on ecosystems, such as the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill because of the remoteness of the site or the difficulty of an emergency environmental response. Since 2004, between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been leaking from the site of an oil-production platform 12 miles off the Louisiana coast which sank in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan. The oil spill, which officials estimate could continue throughout the 21st century, will eventually overtake the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizion disaster as