patrick.net

Sounds great in theory, the only problem is that the plaintiff has the burden of proof that the oil caused the decrease in property value. I'm sure BP has at least one attorney who will point out the property values dropped well before that. BP should only be liable for whatever drop in value they caused.

Exactly how does a oil drenched beach get cleaned up?

Just don't go collecting it yourself.

THAT'S OUR OIL! THIEF!

Their property is dirty and unsafe. What about the people 1 block away from the beach?

The beach is often a dirty and unsafe place to be. You always have some living, dead, and man made materials floating.

They will clean it up or lose their oil leases.

As the weeks go by BP is showing its cards, and it ain't pretty. 5 glaring errors in judgement to put cost above safety. It shows what they're made of, and now they've given a golden excuse to kick them out of the gulf.

in the history of Ocean oil spills, less than 8% has ever been recovered.

It's natural as much as it is a screw up.

What is disastrous is the dispersant that has a massive Oil Plume trapped under sea.

Now we're in new territory. Who knows what crap will be in seafood for years to come.

1/3 of BP is in the Gulf. I think we're about a week away from seeing our big 3 oil companies start circling for position. Obama is determined to drive a wedge between us and England.

doubleup says

Exactly how does a oil drenched beach get cleaned up?

They don't clean it up. They just scrape up as much they can and bury it elsewhere. They will scrub the rocks clean if they're too big to move easily or if they got the right equipment, other wise they treat it the same way as the oily sand.

knewbetter says

1/3 of BP is in the Gulf. I think we’re about a week away from seeing our big 3 oil companies start circling for position. Obama is determined to drive a wedge between us and England.

Dude you're just parroting a repub talking point. One made by hilariously corrupt repubs at that.

BP makes billions in pure profit each quarter. Its not unusual for them to make nearly $15-20 billion a year. They'll be fine. They're just gonna have to set aside a couple of billion each quarter for the next few years or so to pay for clean up, while still making nearly $4-8 billion in profits yearly.

If you think reducing, not eliminating, a companies' multi billion profits for a few years to pay for their own screw up, which BTW was caused by their negligence and greed is gonna cause a huge international dispute then you're delusional.

I dont think BP will commit to its words in long term ... because people forget about in another 3 to 4 weeks, if some other news pops up.....

British ruled india for 400 years ... what did they do ... ruined the country right.

shrekgrinch says

And, the ObamaCommies are bought and paid whores to the trial lawyers.
After all, hell hath no fury like 12 Louisiana jurors deciding both compensatory as well as punitive damages in a class-action lawsuit after hearing the sweet BS uttered from a John Edwards clone.

What in the world are you talking about? Are you totally unacquainted with some the crap BP pulled to cause all this mess or what? They screwed with and screwed up the BOP, they tried to use water instead of mud to support the column just to save a few hundred thousand dollars, and they screwed up the cementing job on the liner.

All of these things could be described as grossly negligent.

No Obamacommies or biased jurors or whatever are going to be the cause of BP's troubles, that is all BP's own fault. They deserve what is coming to them.

shrekgrinch says

Still, Congress might try to pass new legislation that gives a special cap for BP, though.

That would be political suicide for them. They're willing to give a few choice quotes to the press (sometimes they even have to retract those since people are getting so angry at BP) and circulate talking points and that is about it.

shrekgrinch says

That $20 billion ‘escrow’ fund sure is a nice pork-barrel honey pot that makes it worth it to flip the bird to the trial lawyers in this particular case. The key will be whether enough RINO sell-outs in the Senate help the ObamaCommies defeat a filibuster attempt to stop it. And then there is the fact that the class-action might take 20 years to go through the courts, as well. Stay tuned.

The various class action lawsuits that you hear about are from private parties (ie. BP shareholders, LA restaurant owners, etc.). The Federal lawsuit against them for negligence would be separate and there won't be much BP can do to try and drag that out. Too much of a paper trail involving BP execs for them to squeak out.

Sure the CEO and board will be fine. At most they'll lose their jobs, but not a dime of their own money.

Don't worry, our valiant Big Oil Congressmen will protect their pals, and see to it that innovation and the spirit of capitalism are not crushed. We must at all costs protect the right of Big Oil to cut safety margins right to the bone, in order to bring you cheap(er) petroleum products.

From the first day Obama has had a problem with England. I think its because Afganistan is much more importaint to Europe than Iraq, and Saddam was already playing ball by selling his oil for Euros istead of dollars. What was his gift to the prime minister? A set of DVDs from the White House gift shop.

Personally, I'm completely in favor of handing off-shore leases back to American companies. BP didn't just mess up, or get unlucky. They simply screwed the pooch, and then tried to hide it. They may be able to pay now, but that's treating futre oil revenue as guaranteed revenue.

knewbetter says

From the first day Obama has had a problem with England. I think its because Afganistan is much more importaint to Europe than Iraq, and Saddam was already playing ball by selling his oil for Euros istead of dollars. What was his gift to the prime minister? A set of DVDs from the White House gift shop.

Yea its embarassing when he screws up stuff like that but I think you're reading way too much into things.

If he was try to go after UK interests the world over before all this, or even after BP started getting recalcitrant about paying for and cleaning up the mess then you'd probably have a argument.

knewbetter says

They may be able to pay now, but that’s treating futre oil revenue as guaranteed revenue.

Uh, it pretty much is.

That money is not guaranteed if they lose their leases. That's an easy shift to make The EPA could pull it, let alone an excecutive order from a prez behind in the polls.

The CDs weren't a mix-up. They were a deliberate insult. Not the first or the last. A way of letting him know the "special relationship" between America and UK isn't so special. There are dozens of examples splashed all over UK websites. (Soros is short the pound again. Just thinking.)

BP could EASILY go down. Not that hard. Wait untill we start pulling up some dirty shellfish stuffed with dispersants. All it will take is one sucker to blab on the coverup and say "we knew we were fucked from the first day" and there will be no peace.

Of course, if anyone here has bought BP stock during this little dip I wish you the best of luck.

crazydesi says

P>
British ruled india for 400 years … what did they do … ruined the country right.

Actually, they did ruin the country. Every time push came to shove they simply carved it up. India and Pakistan are exactly what Britan had planned for the United States of America, and the Comfederate States of America.

knewbetter says

As the weeks go by BP is showing its cards, and it ain’t pretty. 5 glaring errors in judgement to put cost above safety. It shows what they’re made of, and now they’ve given a golden excuse to kick them out of the gulf.

Hum! Guilty before any facts provided ! I do like your so calle "5 Glaring Errors"...

The next 5 dollars you spend goes to some sheiks in the Middle East who rather see you suck up to their so called God. Get your priorities straight!

knewbetter says

Actually, they did ruin the country. Every time push came to shove they simply carved it up

Gave them Common Law and Democracy. If you want to see ruined countries, economies, people ...just look at post WWII, Soviet controlled Eastern Europe.

E-man says

According to Yahoo Finance, BP’s profit (EBITA) is over $38 billion/year. They can still afford to pay a 10% dividend if they want to. Establishing a $20 billion trust fund is nothing to them. Trying to sue and get that money would take years. They should be fine in the long run.

Your forgot to add, there are people in the US governement that need their 15 minutes of fame and distortion. E-man, we have learned that the libs in Congress cant read financial statements or understand common business practices.

thomas.wong1986 says

knewbetter says

As the weeks go by BP is showing its cards, and it ain’t pretty. 5 glaring errors in judgement to put cost above safety. It shows what they’re made of, and now they’ve given a golden excuse to kick them out of the gulf.

Hum! Guilty before any facts provided ! I do like your so calle “5 Glaring Errors”…
The next 5 dollars you spend goes to some sheiks in the Middle East who rather see you suck up to their so called God. Get your priorities straight!

They are sooooooo busted. Not even close. I guess if when all the fact come out and BP can prove that everything said about them so far is just propaganda and wasn't true then I'll say I'm sorry too. Here's 8 things they did wrong. One, two things you could forgive but these guys are caught dead to rights in the act of fucking up BEFORE the spill. They were told NOT do this and NOT to do that and THIS is "HORRIBLY NEGLIGIENT" and so on and so forth.

http://theweek.com/article/index/203971/bps-8-dumbest-mistakes

BP could be subject to a $1000-$4500/barrel fine for every barrel it spills into the ocean, which explains why they've tried to lie about the size of the spill from the begining and then tried to hide it by dumping over 5 BILLION gallons of a caustic dispersant (which were banned in the North Sea) in an attempt to keep it from showing up.

"Based on the maximum amount of oil possibly spilled to date, that would translate to a potential civil fine for simple discharge alone of $2.8 billion. If BP were found to have committed gross negligence or willful misconduct, the civil fine could be up to $4,300 per barrel, or up to $11.1 billion"

I'm all for drilling oil, but I think BP is going to end up being a cash cow for other-than-shareholders.

thomas.wong1986 says

knewbetter says

Actually, they did ruin the country. Every time push came to shove they simply carved it up

Gave them Common Law and Democracy. If you want to see ruined countries, economies, people …just look at post WWII, Soviet controlled Eastern Europe.

You don't GIVE democracy to a people. It wasn't a benevolent decision anymore than the invasion of Iraq. Freedom has to be taken, otherwise you will never know if you are truly free.

thomas.wong1986 says

Your forgot to add, there are people in the US governement that need their 15 minutes of fame and distortion. E-man, we have learned that the libs in Congress cant read financial statements or understand common business practices.

You are saying you have found conservative in congress than can? Who is that?