As storm approaches BP to pay even if they exceeded $20 billion

As storm winds pushed oil over booms protecting the Louisiana coast, Vice President Joe Biden made his first tour of the troubled gulf region

Tuesday, assuring locals that claims filed against oil giant BP would be paid even if they exceeded the $20 billion the company set aside in an escrow account. "That $20-billion fund, that's not a ceiling," Biden said. "BP is required to pay whatever it is [that] falls under their responsibility, whether it ends up being $25, $30, $40 or $50 billion."

Wow.. im thinking it will be even more than 50 billion in damage..

Looks like BP is Learning there lesson

Although it was Biden's first visit since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people, President Obama has visited the region four times and top administration officials have made repeated visits.

The vice president arrived as the first major storm of hurricane season, Alex, pushed through the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, creating large waves that washed oil patches over booms as far as the Mississippi coast. The storm became a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday night, the National Hurricane Center said. Meteorologists at AccuWeather said it appeared headed to make landfall near Brownsville, Texas.

Well this is the begging of the hurricanes.

Because of the rough seas, BP and the Coast Guard sent oil-skimming ships back to shore, the Associated Press reported. And in Washington, the State Department announced that the U.S. was accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations.

WHAT? i thought he refused help from other countries.. makes no sense!



What do you think about this ATS?



Link

Wow, even though the situation is bad, at least some of that sounds good that BP will pay.

I said a month ago wait for the hurricanes and it's going to be bad. Sad thing is that I'm going to Dallas in a few weeks to visit my family. Right in the after math of the storms.

Well...I guess we're going to need that help if as they're saying the cleanup crews won't be able to get back out there for 1-2 weeks after the hurricane.

Maybe they just made the decision to allow help. Or maybe the earlier reports were false. In any case, neither BP not the government has demonstrated any sense of urgency. It appears that they are stalling. Almost intentionally.

I'm betting the cleanup runs well over $50B. Probably more in the range of $500B-$1T.

once the storm makes this all even worse, I bet they try and weasel out since, hey they didn't cause the storm that brought it all on shore.

regardless, paying to me isn't the issue, since WE could clean it up for FREE. MONEY=NOTHING

its who the f%$# is going to jail for all of this? huh? please tell me.

people died because off negligence, not to mention the millions of fish that will or have.
who is going to spend the rest of their rich life in jail?

i believe a whole lot of them should. but no one will. n ot one person.

if i happened to have been drilling and f'd it all up I would have been shot by now.

How exactly does one pay down an environmental disaster?
I'm sorry, but I have a hard time trying to put a price tag on any of this.
Multiple very unique ecosystems are being destroyed right now, you CANNOT pay it down!!!


IMHO, true justice would be a live broadcast of BP execs being dumped off in the middle of a corexit-y oil slick right SMACK in the dead zone.

Originally posted by pavelivanov22


Wow.. im thinking it will be even more than 50 billion in damage..

Looks like BP is Learning there lesson

IMO this is nothing more than strategic profit and loss thinking.

By setting aside this fund they are looking to halt regulatory and criminal investigations and consequnces that in the long-term would cost the industry much more than this.

I expect to see a watered down regulatory response, a fizzling out of the criminal investigation that the FBI announced a month ago etc.

And a return to business as usual once this crisis passes.

The Oil industry does not do ANYTHING because it is the "right thing" to do...they are always running the numbers. Just my opinion.

reply to post by mpriebe81


but 20+ billion is better than nothing to try to fix the problems they made..