BP won't pay a penny outside of its legal fees and the government will let them get away with it. All costs for the cleanup will be paid by the government. Nobody will ever be held responsible.

Now THIS guy is speaking the truth.

The horrible, depressing, kick-in-the-scrotum truth.

Of course the government won't do anything about it. BP dumped more money into the Obama campaign than any other single campaign in the company's history. They already paid for their insurance policy and now it is time for them to cash out.

This is what I've been saying for a long time- corporations are not evil. They don't make moral choices at all, rather instead acting like hungry animals. Profit is what matters, and it's not evil to say that. If I were a shareholder at BP, and they were to say "We've just spent lots of money to make our rigs even safer than the government requires!", I'd seriously question investing with them, on a simple financial basis. I'd also pull my money out if they told me that they purposely didn't meet government standards, on the basis that they were stupid enough to tell the shareholders that.

This sort of thing needs to be regulated and inspected by the government. The financial loss of even a day lost due to maintainence and such is a huge bullet to bite for someone with a vested financial interest in it.

McDonalds likely wouldn't clean their kitchen until rats were found in the deep fryer if they didn't have to, and now even that there are health inspectors and agents and laws on this stuff, there's still plenty of kitchen shenanigans to be found on this very site.

Ageusiatic sounds a lot like Robert Reich.

Ageusiatic is right. Capitalism is pretty broken, and national resources like oil should be nationalised.

phalsebob: About 75-80% of oil reserves ARE nationalized. The national oil companies like PDVSA, Permina or Pemex have considerably worse environmental and safety records than the Western corporations. So its difficult to pin blame for shortfalls on profit motive alone.

Okay, if you want to further expand the Darwinian evil of capitalism: is it not also in the prey's best interests to defend against the predator? Who do you think they're making money off of? I'm somehow wrong for not wanting them to shit where I eat?

O RLY?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/court-stops-bp-forcing -oil-spill-clean-up-volunteers-signing-away-rights.php

BP, which is mandated to take 100 percent responsibility for the oil clean-up, is demanding that the volunteers indemnify it for any accidents that might occur from the volunteers' efforts (Art. 13(F));

BP demands that the volunteers waive their First Amendment constitutional free speech rights about the volunteer's participation in the clean-up efforts of the disaster; for example, if a commercial fisherman signed this agreement he or she could not then speak to anyone about the disaster or clean-up efforts until BP first "approves" of what the volunteer wants to say (Art. 22);

BP demands a free-ride on the volunteers' insurance policies so that if there is damage to a volunteer's vessel or other injuries, such as to a crew member, BP will be an "additional insured" and the financial responsibility for the damage will rest on the volunteer's insurance carrier, not BP; quite obviously, the volunteers paid good money for this insurance and BP should not be allowed after-the-fact to worm their way into that contract so that it can attempt to avoid further legal responsibility for the very volunteers it is asking for aid and assistance; (Art. 13(A)); and

BP demands 30 days of notice before any volunteer is allowed to pursue legal claims against BP, and there are no exceptions made for emergencies (Art. 13(I) [sic (G]).

Oh, and even a quick glance at Wikipedia calls bullshit on your claims of how much Exxon paid. I guess you forgot about the 20 years of legal shenanigans Exxon pulled to minimize their responsibility.

BUUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTTTTT

Yes. And?

All of this is bog-standard boilerplate for many companies employing subcontractors.

If I were BP, I wouldn't accept volunteers AT ALL for the legal headaches they might cause. They've already got 10,000 workers, subcontractors and temps and about 1400 boats working the booms, skimmers, barges etc. Let the Feds or NGOs coordinate volunteers (or at least give them make work).

You said above "Nobody will ever be held responsible," which is more a snippet of movie dialogue than portrayal of what goes on. Lots of people, including the innocent, have already and will continue to be held responsible. I wouldn't be surprised if the company man who ordered drilling mud to be replaced with seawater in the riser after some iffy pressure tests (if there was a crucial mistake, it was his) is on suicide watch. BP is likely to be out over billion when all is said and done.

Exxon paid those sums for cleanup and in settlements with the locals. The judgment they disputed through the appeals process was a jury's billion punitive award in addition to those amounts.

Thats good ol Shep.

The Gulf is one of the most wonderful places I've been to in this country, or at least it was. White sand beaches, water so clear you can see your feet when it's up to your neck, frisky wildlife that wants to play with you.

All fucked.

So far, no visible oil on the beaches around Pensacola (you don't want to bother with Mississippi or Alabama, unless you like to gamble).

It looks like the strategy of adding surfactants/dispersants (fancy words, but its the same chemicals as in Simple Green detergent) underwater has caused the bulk of the oil to remain in a mid water column emulsion, rather than a surface slick. Its shifting harm from shorelife and the sensitive brine marshes towards pelagics, and in the process leaving photographers empty handed for dramatic photos. Also, Mississippi Canyon 252 happens to be in the midst of the annual hypooxic dead zone caused by fertilizer runoff from the Midwest.

So, the major known consequences are contaminated shrimp harvests and oyster beds. Not recreational spots.

If the discounts run high enough this year, I'm seriously considering scheduling a trip to dive some of the wrecks off Pensacola. In the right season (mid-winter, IIRC), visibility is as good as in the Bahamas, which is amazing for the Gulf.

That is good news, Godot.