From HuffPo:
Democrats in Congress and officials in the White House are making yet another major push to pass legislation to make the liability for oil companies involved in damaging spills unlimited.And this, from McClatchy:
On Monday evening, the White House confirmed that it favors the most recent piece of legislation that would drop any numerical ceiling to the amount of money an oil company like BP would have to pay for economic damages caused by a spill. Currently, the cap is $75 million.
"The president supports removing caps on liability for oil companies engaged in offshore drilling," said spokesman Ben LaBolt. "Oil companies should have every incentive to maximize safety and arbitrary caps on liability create a disincentive to achieve that goal.
If the Obama administration is serious about holding BP and others responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it can start with the federal Clean Water Act, which could allow the federal government to collect as much as $4.7 billion in civil fines just for the oil that's spilled so far.I'll bet that BP already has one of the top corporate bankruptcy firms on the speed-dial of their corporate counsel.
So can the Feds file pre-emptive liens to insure payment?
ReplyDeleteOne word, Montag: RICO. The Feds could seize every BP asset within their reach and force BP to prove that each asset was not the product of criminal activity. Which they can't do, since, err, they're up to their knees in bribing government officials, killing protected wildlife by the million (each of which is a $50K fine and 3 years in jail if you or I go out and kill a protected heron, and BP is killing them by the bucket full), and so forth.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, I forgot, BP is run by white people, not by unseemly wogs. How silly of me to think RICO might apply to them!
- Badtux the Snarky Penguin