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Matt Sepic
St. Paul, Minn.

Minnesota sues BP for double dipping into state fund

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The state of Minnesota is suing oil giant BP over alleged double dipping into the state's petroleum tank cleanup fund.

The Petrofund, as it's known, helps gas station operators pay cleanup costs when their underground storage tanks leak.

Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman says BP received more than $25 million from the fund between 1988 and 2012 for decontamination work at 1,407 service stations.

Rothman says BP denied having insurance to pay for the cleanup but in fact received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of insurance claims.

"We investigated it, we tried to settle with them, and they won't. So we decided to sue to get the money back to the state of Minnesota," Rothman said.

In a statement, BP spokesman Jason Ryan said the company acted in good faith and plans to defend itself against the allegations.

Last year the commerce department settled similar allegations with Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips for a total of $7.425 million.