Lets see BP has to put away 20 billion for clean up and restitution. This is about 1 years profit for them.

They had never said they would not pay for cleanup in fact they have said they will pay for everything.

So we force them to punish everyone whos pension plan had BP investments so our politician can say look how we spanked them.?

To make politicians look like they are doing something and feel better they forced them to suspend a 10 billion dollar dividend payment for prob 2 years.

Looks like that is where they are getting the 20 billion from.

Everyone who has BP holdings in pension funds loses 2 ways stock value has slipped 50% and now no dividend.

They were going to pay the dividend and have always said they would pay for everything cleanup related but paying the dividend was bad press.

Who actually are we punishing?

First fix leak and then crimanally charge and bring to trial those responsible if you have a case

They needed to speed up claims but how do you pay out to someone who cant verify income because it was mostly cash to get away from paying taxes

All of this is a cluster and everone should realize their are people in goverment who will make a fortune out of it.

In the words of Emanual Never let a good disaster slip though your hands without using it for political gain (paraphrased)

oh and who actually thinks the gulf will be cleaner then before the spill.

BP did not say it our wonderful goverment did. They think we are two year olds and they can tell us anything.

where is the verifiction that they ARE here...that's all I need to see.

Geez when you buy a stock you assume the risk of the company you invested in. BP is spilling 60K + barrels of oil a day in the Gulf of Mexico which if not stopped could wind up killing the entire eco-system of the Gulf - and jobs that go along with living on the Gulf. Should BP pay a freaking dividend to shareholders under these circumstances. H$$# NO!

No worries, I do that 'reading too fast' thing, too. :drink:

Well, what I meant was the cozy relationship that bush and cheney had with all their old buddies sure went a long way towards relaxing the regulatory standards used to keep safe drilling practices in place. So much so, that the oil industry had pretty much reached the point where it was literally self-regulating... and you see where that got us.

Just like the wall street fiasco, I realize there is a LOT more to it than pointing a finger at bu$hco, but they deserve much of the blame for the current state of things, imo.

I can't believe you posted that. Do you work for BP???

An interesting status report and comments from Allen on these subjects.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-sp...in_respon.html

"As BP and federal officials struggle to deal with oil spreading hundreds of miles from Louisiana marshes to Florida beaches, reports have surfaced that countries such as the Netherlands have offered skimming vessels to assist with the containment, but they were rebuffed because the Jones Act, a 1920 law governing the use of foreign vessels in domestic trade, would limit their use.
But Allen said that he would be happy to consider using foreign vessels for the clean-up if someone were to make an official request.
"We are more than willing to consider Jones Act waivers," Allen said. "Nobody has come to me for a Jones Act waiver yet, but I am prepared to consider that."

Tony Giberson, Pensacola News Journal/The Associated Press
During a visit to Santa Rosa Island in Florida, Zachary Kaupp of New Orleans pulls his fishing lure out of the water at the Fort Pickens fishing pier only to find it covered in oil on Thursday.
Ken Wells, president of the Offshore Marine Services Association, does not believe that the Jones Act applies to the situation. Foreign vessels are already working at the accident site, and foreign skimming vessels are allowed to work, even close to shore. He views any offers to help as sales calls, and noted that the Coast Guard is probably already overwhelmed with offers from companies that claim to have the magic bullet to help.
Allen said that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu are reviewing a plan that BP filed at the government's request for how it will capture oil going forward, increase the capacity of the system, and have back-ups in place in case there's a problem or the ships reach their capacity of oil. The federal government expects to have comment soon.
As BP ramps up its new system with ships being brought in from as far away as the North Sea, the company will have a system in place by mid-July to capture 40,000 to 50,000 barrels per day of oil."

Washington, Jun 15 -

U.S. Representative Jeff Miller (R-FL-01) today met with President Barack Obama on Pensacola Beach to discuss the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster and cleanup.


Miller asked the President that every resource, both national and international, be made available to assist in the cleanup operations. He also reemphasized the importance of BP setting up an escrow account to allow local governments to function and small businesses to stay afloat.


“I told him I remain concerned that inadequate resources are being dedicated to containing and removing oil from the Gulf before it reaches our fragile coastline,” Miller said. “Skimmers are not running around the clock, more booming is needed, new ideas are not being evaluated and implemented, and there is a severe communications crisis between Unified Command and state and local officials.”


Miller and U.S. Senator George Lemieux (R-FL) both asked President Obama to waive the Jones Act which would allow skimmer vessels from foreign countries to participate in the cleanup.


“There are numerous reports that confirm offers by foreign corporations or governments to send skimmer vessels to the Gulf have been refused as a result of concerns arising from the Jones Act, which regulates the use of foreign-owned vessels between U.S. ports,” Miller said. “Every gallon of oil we pick up at sea is a gallon that doesn’t hit the beach or pollute a bay.”

In the final minutes of the meeting, Congressman Miller asked President Obama for a Gulf Opportunity Zone for the entire affected area, including Northwest Florida, similar to those created after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005. Businesses in the Opportunity Zone would be allowed emergency tax relief and residents would be able to apply for grants and reduced-interest loans to offset losses from the disaster.


“President Obama was very receptive to the proposals, and I look forward to working together for both short term and long term solutions to this crisis,” added Miller.

I understand the correlation tying Bush to this mess, but IMO it discounts too much the ability that Obama had in the last year and 1/2 to stop it or impose a regulation. Even if it is primarily ceremonial Obama did endorse the Gulf Oil rigs (and endorsed the specific oil rig in question, I believe), and discussed their safety.

Obama wasted no time in repealing the ability to drill outside of our national parks. It was one of the first things he did when he took office. He also wasted no time in directing his efforts passing the Health Care Bill, which no one was calling for and the majority of Americans do not agree with. He could have focused these efforts in more meaningful direction and used them to over turn Bush's "cronyism" and/or loose regulation if there was any of that going on.

All would have been better served if the estimates of oil gushing into the Gulf were better earlier on. It wasn't until BP released the video that other experts began to estimate on their own.

As of last week, the operations were being recrafted into one of far more skimming. The logistics involved are being worked on, as they need to build mooring sites to allow for more tankers safely into the area. Foreign ships are already working in the area, and aside from news reports and requests like the one above, there had been no such official outcry before. I think if the dispersants hadn't been used in such a quantity, this would have been a skimming operation a month ago. They've just recently had a fire aboard ship on one of them. Nice of Jeff Miller to chime in a week after most of this was going down.

If BP had been solely in charge of this operation with no oversight or prodding, we'd still be hearing how this spill is small compared to others, and how letting the experts deal with it is best.

So as of last Friday, there were ".. Allen said, 25,000 people are working on the gusher in the Gulf using 400 skimming vessels, 500 barges, 2,500 government and contract vessels and 66 aircraft. I think the number you stated was 32 skimmers. A slight difference. The foreign skimmers already working in the Gulf are from Norway and Mexico.

Here's a story from direct sources from May 27th. It lacks the hysterics that some are fond of, but does state the events well.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...ssistance.html

http://radioornot.editedforcontent.com/site/?p=3596

scary read, if true