While BP PLC has pledged to fight a federal judge’s ruling that it acted recklessly in the fatal 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill, Thursday’s decision may ratchet up pressure for it to pursue a different tack: settle. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier found BP took irresponsible drilling risks and failed to recognize danger signs preceding the deadly accident, leaving the company open to up to $18 billion in federal Clean Water Act penalties for polluting the Gulf of Mexico. BP has called the ruling of gross negligence “erroneous.” Expecting the court to find it merely “negligent”—a determination that would have cut its liability by about a fourth—BP had set aside just $3.5 billion for Clean Water Act penalties. If the ruling stands, any final penalty will be based on how much oil is determined to have been spilled and what the court decides BP did to mitigate the […]