VIDEO: As House Opens Hearing To Investigate Oil Spill Disaster, House GOP Gathers At Oil Industry Fundraiser by lee Fang via Think Progress,May 12, 2010
This morning, executives including BP’s chairman Lamar McKay, Transocean CEO Steve Newman, and Halliburton’s Timothy Probert appeared before a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee to dodge responsibility for their respective roles in the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast oil spill. About an hour before the investigation began, however, House Republicans gathered a few blocks away for an “oil and gas breakfast” fundraiser with the oil and gas industry to benefit Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX).
Janet Napolitano sec. of Homeland Security has sent a letter to BP explaining that she and her department and the Obama administration are going to hold BP to the generous statements they have made to the media about taking full responsibility and unlimited liability and BP will not try to take legal action to avoid its responsibility.
This is awesome - finally some members of the Obama administration are acting bold by taking BP spokespersons at their word for offering unlimited liability payouts to government and individuals for clean up and costs incurred by people in the region. These spokespersons may have meant their statements just to empty promises and a PR strategy but they are being called out on it. Now that's the way to do things. These companies are always placing ads in the media how they take care of their workers and the environment so now make them pay up or shut up. If they claim to be going green then pursue them on these statements and promises. But its like asking a politician to keep to their promises they can always come up with an excuse to avoid doing what they said they were going to do.
White House Letter to BP and BP America – From: Janet Napolitano (Sec of Homeland Security) and Ken Salazar (Sec of the Interior) Posted on May 16, 2010 by Weed Dude
May 14, 2010
Dr. Anthony Hayward Group Chief Executive
United Kingdom
Dear Dr. Hayward:
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill may prove to be one of the most devastating environmental disasters this nation has ever faced. As one of the responsible parties for this event, BP is accountable to the American public for the full clean up of this spill and all the economic loss caused by the spill and related events.
We recognize that, to date, BP has undertaken to promptly pay the damages associated with the Deepwater Horizon events, in addition to all removal costs. In an interview with Reuters on April 30, 2010, you stated that, “We are taking full responsibility for the spill and we will clean it up, and where people can present legitimate claims for damages we will honor them. We are going to be very, very aggressive in all of that.”
Mr. Lamar McKay, Chairman and President of BP America, in his May 11, 2010 testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also acknowledged BP’s responsibility for clean up and compensation associated with the oil spill: “[W]e are the responsible party.
Our obligation is to deal with the spill, clean it up and make sure the impacts of that spill are compensated and wc are going to do that.” Mr. McKay further noted in his testimony, “BP will pay all necessary clean up costs and is committed to paying legitimate claims for other loss and damages caused by the spill.” Finally, we note that Mr. McKay in his Senate testimony also agreed that BP will pay all claims even if they exceed what he described as an “irrelevant” statutory cap of $75 million per incident.
Based on these statements, we understand that BP will not in any way seek to rely on the potential $75 million statutory cap to refuse to provide compensation to any individuals or others harmed by the oil spill, even if more than $75 million is required to provide full compensation to all claimants, and BP will not seek reimbursement from the American taxpayers, the United States Government, or the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for any amount.
The public has a right to a clear understanding of BP’s commitment to redress all of the damage that has occurred or that will occur in the future as a result of the oil spill. Therefore, in the event that our understanding is inaccurate, we request immediate public clarification of BP’s true intentions.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Flag Of Convenience Loophole in Maritime law And US Law
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig was flying a flag of convenience when it went down. Flags of Convenience are used as loophole in a country's laws by companies to skirt laws and regulations of whatever nation's water they are in.
The Gulf oil spill spreads to the South Pacific Offshore in more ways than one: The Deepwater Horizon oil rig flew a Marshall Islands flag By Andrew Leonard Via Salon .com , May 13, 2010
Deepwater Horizon, the Transocean offshore oil rig currently shipwrecked on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico, about 1000 feet below the surface, operated under a "flag of convenience" from the Republic of the Marshall Islands. This is by no means unusual. Marshall Islands operates one of the five biggest shipping registries on the planet, accounting for some 1500 vessels -- 35 of which, at last count, were Transocean oil rigs.
The reasons explaining the proliferation of shipping fleets registered in places like Marshall Islands, Panama and Liberia are well known: Low taxes, cheaper labor, and lax regulation. Just as multinational corporations industriously find ways to park assets and ownership in offshore havens, so do shipping companies use flag of convenience registries to lower their own costs. It's a perk of globalization, and while it might come as some surprise to realize that an offshore oil rig -- or more properly speaking, "mobile offshore development unit" -- qualifies as a ship, it shouldn't raise any eyebrows to see the oil industry up to its neck in these tiny foreign nations. Oil companies were a prime driver of the widespread adoption of flags of convenience in the 20th century, aided and abetted by a cadre of elite former U.S. diplomats turned businessmen.
...As Carlisle wrote in 1981's "Sovereignty for Sale: The Origins and Evolution of the Panamanian and Liberian Flags of Convenience," Panamian registration had clear advantages that went beyond evading the neutrality restrictions:
An officer of the first shipping company to transfer a U.S.-flagged ship to Panamanian registry explained the appeal: "The chief advantage of Panamanian registry is that the owner is relived of the continual . . . boiler and hull inspections and the regulations as to crew's quarters and subsistence," pointing out that as long as the ships pay the registry fee and yearly (low) tax, "we are under absolutely no restrictions."
Gulf Oil Leaks Could Gush for Years "We don't have any idea how to stop this," expert says. Christine Dell'Amore National Geographic News, May 13, 2010
If efforts fail to cap the leaking Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico (map), oil could gush for years—poisoning coastal habitats for decades, experts say.Via National Geographic
Gulf Oil Reservoir Bleeding Dry
If the oil can't be stopped, the underground reservoir may continue bleeding until it's dry, Simmons suggested.
The most recent estimates are that the leaking wellhead has been spewing 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons, or 795,000 liters) of oil a day.
And the oil is still flowing robustly, which suggests that the reserve "would take years to deplete," said David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
"You're talking about a reservoir that could have tens of millions of barrels in it."
At that rate, it's possible the Gulf oil spill's damage to the environment will have lingering effects akin to those of the largest oil spill in history, which happened in Saudi Arabia in 1991, said Miles Hayes, co-founder of the science-and-technology consulting firm Research Planning, Inc., based in South Carolina.
If because of this oil rig disaster the US may have too depend more on the oil extracted from the Oil sands or Tar Sands project in Alberta , Canada. This would not be any sort of viable environmental solution to off-shore drilling-the Oil from the Tar Sands uses a great deal of energy to extract the oil plus large quantities of fresh water. The oil itself is much dirtier than the drilled oil. This project is seen as one of the most environmentally destructive on earth. The project is destroying valuable marsh lands and rivers and streams and the irreplaceable Boreal forest .
Canada's Tar Sands: A Dangerous Solution to Offshore Oil by Heather McRobie via CommonDreams, Guardian UK, May 11, 2010
As the clean-up of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues, the US may finally begin to rethink its position on off-shoring drilling. As usual, change is frustratingly slow, and almost imperceptible: environmental groups like the Centre for Biological Diversity have criticized the Mineral Management Service, the US agency that oversees oil extraction, for its "business as usual" approach during the disaster, and expressed concerns that the Obama administration has waived environmental reviews of more than 20 new off-shore drilling projects even as the Deepwater Horizon spill continues.
and check out slide show of oil spill at National Geographic:
Gulf Oil Spill "Tarball" Photograph by Brian Snyder, Reuters May 14, 2010 at nationalgeographic
and so it goes,
GORD.
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