I agree that BP needs to pay to clean up this mess, but what would be better legislation would be to require oil rigs to upgrade their safety equipment so mess would be less likely to happen in the first place. About 19 gallons or gasoline are made from a barrel of oil. So expect to pay a bit over a penny more at the pump. Not a lot, but Harry Reid's statement that the cost won't be passed on just means he still knows how to lie out his ass. I refuse to believe anyone with a brain larger than a peanut could believe otherwise.
Stricter safety regs aren't necessarily the answer, since BP's problems were caused by ignoring existing safety regs. Much better for the entire company to be sued out of existence.
As well, government regulators gave this very rig high marks for safety within the last year anyway. So more government intervention isn't necessarily the answer either.
Why do Americans freak out when there are hundreds or even thousands of off shore oil rigs near U.S. waters and the FIRST one to have a major spill occurs?
I don't know if I mentioned this elsewhere, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if this was an act of terrorism. The destruction of the well puts an immediate dent in domestic production. The spill hurts the likelihood of future offshore drilling. And, coming within weeks of Obama announcing support for more offshore exploration, it makes him look bad. All of this could point to local environmental terrorists. Add to it that this increases reliance on Middle Eastern Oil and it could point to Iranian, Saudi, or other M.E. terrorism.
If it's a tax increase that will fund this, how can it not be taxpayers footing the bill? That doesn't even make a lick of sense, even for Harry Reid.
If necessary, bankrupt every corporate entity with a hand in this until the cleanup is done and the bills are paid. Let consumers feel the burn through shortages and skyrocketing prices so they get off of their complacent asses and exert some voluntary pressure on any oil company that survives the bloodbath*. We don't help ourselves by spending money we don't have to stave off the consequences in the short term. *With one absolute exception. The irrational fucktards who shriek for any variation on the theme of "nationalize" should be ignored and shunned.
does this mean the government will take over BP too? you know i wish they took all that money they invested and just threw it into microsoft or RIM or something
The Coast Guard shouldn't hold it's breath waiting for the money either. I'm sure that fund will be raided faster than it can be put into place.
Watch the price of everything skyrocket. Food dont magically fly onto the store shelves. If anything, that would guarentee Barry is a one termer.
2 minutes of Google-fu and.... Oh look, BP again and again thsi one was mexicans an oldie Doubtless, there are a few more if one actually y'know, does some research.
Because it only takes one to cause a major environmental catastrophe. Don't pretend that this is in some way tolerable.
We'll be paying a lot more then a penny since the prices of all other goods that are made from oil will be going up in price as well.
Except it wasn't. The survivors have reported that BP and Transocean were arguing with each other over the rig and the pipeline and that the BP guy won the argument to take a shortcut in the process. The pipeline had previous "hiccups" before. The result was a disaster. If that BP guy survived he should face criminal charges.
Notice how every "major environmental catastrophe" seems to go away or be minimized within a matter of months. A year at the outside. If it was really a "catastrophe" then it should be "catastrophic", with serious ramifications lasting decades if not longer. IIRC in World War II literally hundreds of oil tankers were sunk in the oceans but the oceans seemed to recover just fine.
That's because the media loses interest in that time. Not because its "all better." They do, but you just don't hear much about it, until a similar disaster happens. If you go to Prince William Sound and dig a few inches down into the soil, oil from the Exxon Valdez spill quickly begins to fill the hole. Of course, that's only part of what's still happening. Key words being "seemed to." I seriously doubt there were any environmental studies done on the industrial chemicals found in seafood prior to WWII. We know that current fish stocks can be heavily contaminated with things like mercury and other chemicals, to the point that certain areas are kept off-limits for fishing. (There's waterways in TN that are too contaminated from Oak Ridge's nuclear lab to allow people to eat the fish caught there.)
Actually, I could've and should've asked you the same thing. Since you admitted that regulation didn't work, tell me what's supposed to happen here. BP's being punished by the marketplace already. Now, I'm not saying that it's enough or that they shouldn't bear a tremendous burden in the cleanup but whatever reputation they had is already crap now. Plus, they're losing millions in lost revenue as wel as trying to stop the leak and restart production later safely. So, again, since there were regulations covering what happened AND the government was checking the very thing that failed AND the government commended BP on their safety procedures relatively recently, YOU tell me how piling on more government interference with the free market would've made this situation not happen or less worse than it is.
Because it's BP's fault and the Republicans fault. (even though the majority of money from BP goes to Democrats)
What qualifies as "serious ramifications for decades" in your head, exactly? That you continue to hear about it on Fox News?
I think the thing everyone forgets is this oil is not only valuable, it is 100% natural and organically pure. It was just trapped underground, deep beneath the sea. We should all thank BP for freeing this valuable commodity and then giving it away for all to enjoy instead of artificially processing it and then charging a premium for it.
