I don’t understand the law all that well, but it appears that back in 1986 the oil companies bought Congress themselves a maximum liability of $75 million for damages related to any oil spill. They are responsible for cleaning up the mess, but who knows what that means when oil has destroyed 40% of the coastal wetlands in the country and most of its fisheries. I don’t think this geyser of oil will ever be cleaned up and so it would take an infinite amount of money for BP and the other responsible companies to meet their legal obligations. So, my solution is to just take everything BP owns and make it the property of the American people. All of us will get a dividend check each year from the proceeds of BP’s oil profits. This program can be modeled on Sarah Palin’s socialist Alaska Permanent Fund. Alaska, after all, is the only socialist state in America, and it was even socialist prior to the Exxon Valdez catastrophe. By why limit this to Alaska. Sarah Palin shouldn’t be the only one who gets to spread the wealth around. Let us all own a piece of British Petroleum. Then, maybe, we’ll want to let you drill offshore again.
No, not all of us should get that dividend – just the affected Gulf states.
On the other hand, they’re all republican small government “state’s rights” states, right?
Let them deal with it their own Galtian uberselves.
Schadenfreude, much?
This.
The Gulf states shouldn’t get a dime. Whatever amount BP can’t cover, they should cover through sky-high state taxes paid to the affected people on the east coast. They voted for that nasty shit, and they can live with it and pay the real cost.
The Atlantic states should own BP.
Then maybe the inbreds on the Gulf will think it through a little more next time.
That, or the rest of us should just get together, call it a day, and finally just burn Louisiana and Mississippi to the ground.
The rig was in federal water and was regulated and inspected by the federal government.
Your willingness to consign entire states to oblivion for their exploitation by the Republican Party isn’t pretty.
I’m well aware that they’re federal. They voted for the people who pushed this. Other states didn’t want it and now have to deal with the consequences. The shortsightedness of Gulf-state politicians and voters is now going to destroy economies well beyond the Gulf.
As for exploitation by the GOP, at what point do we stop making excuses for these people? They got what they wanted here.
It isn’t like they haven’t been warned.
Oh – and I don’t want to see any civil lawsuits from people down there. Because those are all “frivolous”.
It’s rough out there for Oil companies. You’re just trying to make an honest 6-20 bill. annual, and through no fault of your own and a truly ludicrous series of implausible failures, you accidentally kind-of sort-of dropped an extinction level event on most of the gulf coast and possibly even the Atlantic seaboard.
Here’s where I recommend you put your public relations energy in the coming weeks and months:
I predict this argument will be successful… the affected region doesn’t have much economic diversity. Fishing and shrimping will be out for years, tourism and gambling will be hurt. Oil is what’s left.
So says the house organ of the establishment. This is what serious people know.
Off topic and onto financial regulation (the nationalization thing reminded me of banks), the FDIC is urging the Senate to reject a large portion of Lincoln’s derivative language.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bair-derivatives-20100502,0,7157282.story
All I can say is, good 🙂
I just added below comment to my diary – read the entire linked article from WSJ. It is a distinct possibility that this device could have stopped the blow-out – the workers who were in the area of the platform where the regular Blow-out Preventor (BOP) could have been activated are among those that died in the explosion. It is not known if they were able to activate the BOP.
Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device
(bold added)
I found this sentence in the article interesting:
Are there any limits on fines and civil penalties?
What are the grounds for civil penalties? How many instances can be itemized for separate civil penalties to add up to a substantial penalty against the company? Can civil penalties be assessed against suppliers like Halliburton? What are the limits on that? Is there sufficient evidence to pierce the veil of corporate liability and hold individual decisionmakers accountable?
Well, you see if the government issues laws placing legal responsibility for oil spills on the oil companies, they will complain that it is too risky to develop new sources. Ah, shortages, supply and demand, bubbles, and higher gas prices. If we ever want to see dollar a gallon gas again (or even maintain the two fifty a gallon as it now is), the government will have to absorb that risk, and in the end the American people will have to pay for it.
There’s no free lunch is what it comes down to, except for CEOs of companies like BP.
If we own the risk, we ought to own a comparable portion of the profits.
No argument here. And energy seems to be somewhere between government run services (socialism) and consumer products such as autos (capitalism). Might work.
“Then, maybe, we’ll want to let you drill offshore again.”
Sadly enough, that’s exactly what would happen.
I’m not disagreeing but the track record for this happening is not so good.
Booman – you should read up on the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The Act states that the oil company is liable for $75M + “removal costs” after a spill. Also, BP can get sued using state law, which would expose BP to potentially unlimited damages, depending on the state and the Supreme Court’s willingness to cap punitive damages (which has been a serious problem lately). BP could go bankrupt, although that’s unlikely.
A summary of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 is here:
http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/lawsregs/opaover.htm
What about Cameron, the company that provided the blowout preventer, and Halliburton, the company that was cementing around the well? Is their liability limited?