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Friday, July 15, 2011

Oil / Oh, You Kids! BP Tries to Weasel Out of Oil Spill Payouts to Businesses, Families...

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 12:28 PM

Citing this year's strong tourism season along the Gulf Coast and a "too generous" settlement formula. From the NYTimes:

Last Friday, in a court filing that included a detailed list of indicators of “the strength of the gulf economy,” BP argued that “there is no basis to assume that claimants, with very limited exceptions, will incur a future loss related to the spill.”

But cities, businesses, and families in the affected zone argue that recovering from a 4.9-million-barrel oil spill is more nuanced than having one successful summer tourism season:

...one concern about the future is raised more than any other.

It was the topic of another document sent out last week, this one to state and local officials from the command center of the spill cleanup operation in New Orleans. It is a draft version of a “decision matrix,” a list of several factors to consider in deciding when and when not to remove submerged mats of oil that are still being found, some even in recent days, sitting just offshore.

The prospect of not removing a mat for just about any reason is unacceptable to Taylor Kirschenfeld, an environmental officer for Escambia County, Fla. If a tropical storm or hurricane comes through and whips up those mats, sending tar patties onto the beach, “it could be the whole thing all over again."

Go read the whole thing.

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Comments (2) RSS

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Yeah wait for the next hurricane to kick up all that oil at the bottom of the gulf and suddenly the payouts wont seem so extreme at all.

What BP is trying to do is race to settle at a lower amount, before the next hurricane hits the area.

Posted by Kinison

on July 15, 2011 at 1:19 PM

Whenever there is the mention of BP, or ExxonMobil, or JPMorgan Chase, or BofA, etc., it would actually make a bit of sense to attempt to ascertain who really owns these businesses.

When one constantly and consistently rails against these amorphous mega-corporate blobs, like they are some phantom giant jellyfish, it is easy to ignore all such diatribes.

But when it is personalized, and when people begin (assuming there are still enough Americans with the attention span beyond a gnatt) to grasp that the same ones who deal ill health and death are the same ones who later profit from it (oil companies, arms companies and pharmaceutical companies routinely owned by the same interests and families, etc.), some real progress might finally come about.

I realize that the typical reader has the brainpower of a demented 12-year old, and the typical writer not much higher, still it may be worth raising the bar a bit?

Posted by sgt_doom on July 15, 2011 at 2:26 PM