What bothers me as much as anything about the damned oil spill is this

[SoCalDem]

the damage to the environment will be longlasting & expensive to deal with (and deadly to so many innocent wild critters), but the oil companies seem to "own" the profits and back away from the obligation for the harm that they have done.

I know that accidents do happen, but as part of any profit-contingency, they should be required to maintain a HEFTY "accident escrow" account.

the Coast Guard (FEDERAL AGENCY) is out there busting-ass, trying to do what they can, and the oil companies involved seem content to issue press releases that seriously underestimate the volume of leaked oil, and they seem to act as if the goo "may or may not" even reach the shore.. #^%^$#@!$
Once on-shore, the various state agencies & individual people will then have to spend time & money to try & clean things up.

Their lawyers will be working overtime to try & avoid complicity, but the people and other living creatures along the coast will be living with and or dying from this nightmare for a long time to come, and people of Alaska can attest to the fact that little if any "compensation" will ever reach them.

Oil companies have been raking in INSANE profits for a very long time, and yet every time there is a refinery accident or something like this,they just tack on any expense they incur onto their price and rake in even MORE profits..

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I so agree with you.

This makes me livid.

K&R

:mad:

[IndianaJoe]

2. Very good point n/t

[greencharlie]

3. seriously... I hope they have armies of volunteers...

to help clean the oil from the birds and sealife around the beaches...

[SoCalDem]

5. I'm sure people are mobilizing right now, but it still irks me to see that

volunteers will be spending their time, money & energy to clean up a mess made by bazillionaires who only try to walk away from it & pretend that it's "no biggie", while raising prices even more, so they can protect their profit.

Anyone who thinks that pumping oil through water is a safe procedure , is nuts., There will always be "accidents", and BEFORE they are even allowed to do it, they should be forced to have a clean-up plan with money to back it up..in place and available.

Mom always said "Clean up after yourself!".

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Imagine Shell Oil doing this kind of offshore drilling

in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off Alaska's north coast, as has been approved by the administration. We wouldn't even KNOW if there was a spill of any magnitude because it couldn't be seen under the ice, and even if we did know, how could they clean it up? At least they took Bristol Bay off the chopping block.

This offshore drilling at these depths is just too dangerous to continue.

[NCarolinawoman]

20. My veterinarian told me today, she has been put on the alert.

She and her husband, who is a professor at N.C. State School of veterinarian Medicine, belong to a network of veterinarian volunteers. His specialty is in fish, turtles, and marine mammals. Her sub-specialty (she is my cat's vet) is in avian medicine.

She told me today that she would start riding a bicycle to work if it would keep them from drilling off the North Carolina coast.

By the way, this group of volunteers work on their own dime.

[greencharlie]

31. good for them... true heroes IMHO. nt

[depakid]

4. A rather stark example of externalizing costs

onto other businesses (not to mention the overall environment and health and safety of the citizens of the region).

[Blue_In_AK]

6. A jury awarded the plaintiffs in the EXXON VALDEZ case

$5 billion. By the time Exxon appealed and appealed and appealed, the Supreme Court whittled that award down to $500 million, which according to my calculations equals one percent, or a penny on the dollar.

I fear the same thing will happen with this spill. There is now precedent for basically letting the oil companies off with a slap on the wrist for this kind of massive damage. It's pathetic.


edited to correct my mistake -- 500 million, not 500 thousand. Still, a penny on the dollar is not much.

[kaiden]

7. Exxon appealed long enough for John Roberts to become Chief Judge.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. And long enough for 28% of the plaintiffs to die.

We will never forget.

[alstephenson]

23. Disgusting.

I hate the big oil companies.

[SoCalDem]

8. And all that "legal" money should be in a "Clean-up Account"

They should just be made to accept the fact that there WILL be accidents & spills, and be required to have a special account (totally off their books as far as assets are concerned) that draws interest and is there to be tapped when they have an "oops".

It it exceeds a pre-set amount, perhaps THAT could be given back to them.. Hell, it might encourage them to be more careful if they were on the hook.

It could be likened to the "Medical Savings Account" idea the right wingers seem to love so much :evilgrin:

[Junkdrawer]

11. Great scam to diffuse public anger....

I'd bet 99% of people asked "What did Exxon pay for the Exxon Valdez case?" would guess billions because THAT was headlined for years. The appeals? Page 23.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. They even appealed whether they'd have to pay interest

on that measly $500,000. Somewhat surprisingly the Supreme Court said yes. I guess they figured they had to throw some kind of a bone to all the fishermen who lost their livelihoods and Native villages that lost their subsistence.

Miss Quitty Pants forgot so much that she couldn't even name the EXXON v. Baker case as one of those Supreme Court decisions with which she disagreed.

Alaska would have a hard time financially, I guess, if we didn't have the oil, but I'm sure we could come up with SOMETHING to keep ourselves going. Maybe all the Texans and Oklahomans that moved up here during the Pipeline days and changed our politics would go back to where they came from and we could return to our Democratic progressive roots.

[SoCalDem]

16. The Oil-Patch desperados who flooded into Alaska will be staying

They saw it as their Xanadu.. a beautiful place where there were few if any rules..and they were far enough away from everything else to do pretty much whatever they wanted.. they got to live out their cowboy-dreams, even though it had to be in a parka & their horse would now be a sled dog team :)

[Blue_In_AK]

17. You're probably right, unfortunately.

I just hate their attitudes, though. That goes for ALL the developers up here, oil & gas, mineral, etc. They have very, very little regard for the people who actually live here, especially Native villagers. A spill of this kind of magnitude up north would wipe out a way of life that's thousands of years old. They always promise a lot of local hire to placate the people, and then they bring in workers from Outside who take the money and run. It ALWAYS happens that way.

Speaking of potential disasters, are you aware of the proposed Pebble Mine? http://www.renewableresourcescoalition.org/pebble_mine.htm The potential for disaster with this ill-conceived project is mind-boggling. NOBODY here wants it, and yet the permitting goes on. The opponents of the mine have even been running ads here saying, "It's okay to oppose the Pebble Mine. It doesn't make you a Greenie or a tree hugger. You can be for development and still want to protect Bristol Bay's salmon." It's sad that it's come to this, but "environmentalist" is a curse word to some people here.

[southern_belle]

13. Smell oil just out of New Orleans

We live 15 miles out of New Orleans and we just had to close our windows for the strong smell coming from the south. Bad for the asthma sufferers and the like. This is going to be bad!

[Junkdrawer]

19. Bad for many reasons....

Bad smell...

Soot from the "controlled" burns...

And the wind from the southeast is blowing the oil onshore...

:(

[SoCalDem]

22. and hurricane season is just a month away

:grr:

[Junkdrawer]

24. I remember a while back that oil was offered as a possible way to stop hurricanes...

Oil on troubled waters may stop hurricanes

Sailors who traditionally dumped barrels of oil into the sea to calm stormy waters may have been on to something, a new study suggests. The old practice reduces wind speeds in tropical hurricanes by damping ocean spray, according to a new mathematical "sandwich model".

As hurricane winds kick up ocean waves, large water droplets become suspended in the air. This cloud of spray can be treated mathematically as a third fluid sandwiched between the air and sea. "Our calculations show that drops in the spray decrease turbulence and reduce friction, allowing for far greater wind speeds - sometimes eight times as much," explains researcher Alexandre Chorin at the University of California at Berkeley, US.

He believes the findings shed light on an age-old sea ritual. "Ancient mariners poured oil on troubled waters - hence the expression - but it was never very clear what this accomplished," says Chorin. Since oil inhibits the formation of drops, Chorin thinks the strategy would have increased the drag in the air and successfully decreased the intensity of the squalls.

...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7726-oil-on-troubled-waters-may-stop-hurricanes.html

[BeFree]

36. Interesting

If the spill continues, however, it might be alleviated somewhat by a hurricane
pushing to oil up on land and being dissipated. The theory about pollution is that
"dilution is the solution".

We may, oddly, soon be praying for a hurricaning.

[Kablooie]

14. How many teabaggers are complaining about what this will cost taxpayers?

[SoCalDem]

15. Probably not many..but then their solution would be to cut taxes more

to teach the oil companies a lesson :eyes:

[Feron]

18. The media will also help by minimizing the disaster.

Fishermen, dead animals, and dying wetlands aren't as interesting as Tiger Woods, Britney Spears, and Lindsey Lohan.

People will move on to the next shiny toy in two weeks only to remember us when a hurricane is pointed in our direction. :(

[southern_belle]

21. Unfortunately thats probably true n/t

[harun]

28. They already started. First report I saw on it had them talking about

how oil leaks in to the Ocean's from seabeds every day. That the it will be absorbed. Others have shown "how pretty" the satellite pictures of the spill are, with rainbow colors.

With our Corporate Media, even destroyed eco-systems are picture taking tourist destinations.

[cilla4progress]

25. They need to nationalize BP

[SoCalDem]

26. The whole "energy" industry needs to be nationalized

coal..natural gas..oil..
and even the set-up of wind/solar

It's to vital to our economy & safety to entrust to "the market".

[cilla4progress]

29. Agreed!

I've always said, education, housing, medicine and food should not be part of our capitalistic system. Who cares about yachts and boats - that can be entrusted to the market.

I'd go along with you and add energy to my list!

[onethatcares]

27. what do you think you get charged if you send an SOS

and need the Coasties to rescue you? I do believe they file to get some back.

[proudohioan]

30. Big K&R!!!!! n/t

[blindpig]

32. Expropriate without compensation. n/t

[ecstatic]

33. They need something similar to what Wall Street is getting

A fund just for these sort of incidents.

[madokie]

34. I'd much rather have someone who our President appointed

calling the shots as the directors of halliburton etc. That is all

[merkins]

35. Exxon Mobil posts 38% Profit Rise in First Quarter

Would imagine BP had quite a nice profit for the 1st quarter as well

[The Stranger]

37. "Sue, baby, sue!"

[progressoid]

38. If only we had some sort of Agency the could Protect the Environment.

Nah, never mind.

[alarimer]

39. The government needs to shut down BP, confiscate their assetts

And use the proceeds to fund the cleanup and compensate the fishermen whose livelihoods are now gone, as well as anyone else affected by this.

BP will get away with this, just like Exxon did, by tying it up in court for years.