BP Extortion: Let us drill or funds will dry up

BP Extortion: Let us drill or funds will dry up

Oil giant BP is telling lawmakers that if it isn't allowed to get new offshore drilling permits in the Gulf, it will not be able to afford to pay for the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the New York Times reported in its Friday edition.
The CLEAR Act, passed by the House in July, includes an amendment that states any oil company that has received more than $10 million in safety fines, or has seen more than 10 workers killed in the past seven years, is barred from being granted new drilling permits. The Times notes that, currently, only BP fits that criteria.
the Times reports that BP is using some of its voluntary payments as "bargaining chips" with lawmakers.

www.rawstory.com...

comments:
This reminds me of the mafia movies
where the goons come in your shop
and say if you don't pay them on
a monthly basis, then we gonna
tear ur place up and run off your customers.
What I find odd about this tactic is that they
still have assets they can sell to pay off this
debt. But I guess corps don't play by the same
rules as us Joe Americans.

I say we sue them in court, make them liquify their assets and give it to everyone who was affected. Dissolve the corporation, liquify their assets and hand out the cash to everyone who lost their livelihood. We shouldn't allow them to opperate here in the US any longer. This is getting a little absurd.



--airspoon

sounds a lot like typical extortion to me i agree with the poster above. when you see some of the things these corporations get away with you got to think, if i did something like this personally would i be arrested? are these people somehow above the law? it sickens me in america that if you are rich you basically cannot be a criminal, you don't get sent to jail and you end up with unsupervised probation for embezzlement and fraud. but if you are a lower or middle class citizen you can be jailed for some very ridiculous crimes. honestly i do not understand why we the citizens of the united states let the government and it's business partners get away with so much.

these criminals need to be in jail.
There is a double standard
when it comes to obeying
the law.

Wall Street is no different.
There are more snakes
in these corporations
than a Cajun Snake Pit.

Then you need to put every oil company exec in prison and destroy their companies.

Every company associated with getting cride oil out of the ground should then be break up and its assets sold off as they all have been guilty.

And just where do you people get off destroying a company that provides billions of dollars to millions of people to fund their lives after the retire, around the world, not just the US!

How many of us suggested that Exxon should be broken up and destroyed after the oil spill in Alaska?

And remember, if there is no BP, the US tax payer will foot the bill as BP will have already protected its assets.




[edit on 4-9-2010 by Freedom ERP]

reply to post by Freedom ERP


The people who have their retirements invested in BP knew, or they should have known anyway, that investments are risky. It is an investment, not a promise. If you don't want the risk, don't invest. It really is as simple as that. The people in the Gulf region didn't have a say in it, as the people who invested in BP. Why should they have to pay because the Brits chose to rely on their investments with BP, a company who ignored most safety and environmental protections?

Put simply, they invested in BP and investments are risky. When you invest in a company that is no good, breaks the law or simply screws up, you generally lose money. That's how it goes. Other people should not be liable because you chose to invest or you chose to rely on an investment.

Tell me this, would the British share their profits if BP did well? Obviously not, then why should you be able to share your losses? You can't expect to share your losses if you weren't going to share your profits.


--airspoon

[edit on 4-9-2010 by airspoon]

Originally posted by airspoon
I say we sue them in court, make them liquify their assets and give it to everyone who was affected. Dissolve the corporation, liquify their assets and hand out the cash to everyone who lost their livelihood. We shouldn't allow them to opperate here in the US any longer. This is getting a little absurd.



--airspoon

While I agree with the sentiment, I hope you understand that the actual logistics behind such an activity would be VERY, VERY complicated and would raise issues on many sides of the political spectrum, from ultra left to hard right.

reply to post by airspoon


And you have just proved to me by our comment regarding the British that you have been taking in with Obama looking to cripple what he regards as a British company.

And do it. Try to reduce BP to its assets, and sell them. And them tell me what company would want to have a major trading arm in the US. Only those that have paid their dues to the Government.

Millions of Americans rely on the dividends paid by BP. I am sure that are all best pleased with those who want to destroy a global company. Where does this stop?

reply to post by Freedom ERP


Look, I don't care who invests in what company, whether it be Americans, Brits, or Afghanis. What I do care about, is when a company has no regards for the population in which it operates, then causes harm to them, they need to pay and no longer operate there anymore. I don't care who invested in what or why they invested. If you invest in a company that fails, you lose out. I should not be made responsible for their investments, especially seeing how they weren't going to cut me into the profits, had their investments succeeded. Now, this doesn't mean that I want to be cut into any profits of companies that succeed, as I invest my money wisely. Before I put money into a company, I do my research on that company. It would have taken all of 5 minutes to see that BP has had a worse record than any other oil company operating here in the states. In fact, the people who were getting dividends from BP, were in part getting that money from BP cutting corners, thus cutting costs. In effect, they were profitting from the dangerous activities of that particular company.

It all boils down to this: An investment is risky and I didn't have a say in whether these people invested their money or not, so I shouldn't be held liable for any losses they incur.

--airspoon

Originally posted by Freedom ERP
reply to post by airspoon

 

And you have just proved to me by our comment regarding the British that you have been taking in with Obama looking to cripple what he regards as a British company.

And do it. Try to reduce BP to its assets, and sell them. And them tell me what company would want to have a major trading arm in the US. Only those that have paid their dues to the Government.

Millions of Americans rely on the dividends paid by BP. I am sure that are all best pleased with those who want to destroy a global company. Where does this stop?

So, if a person (The US supreme Court says companies are people) commits a crime, they shouldnt have to pay restitution for said crime if said restitution would cost money?

thats some unique logic.

The US gov was very stupid and BP was were smart at the beginning of this crisis.

BP made sure that only its subdivision working in the Mexican Gulf is being hold responsible for the damages in the Gulf. That small subdivision has limited assets. The US gov can't touch the BP corporation as a whole.

That's just plain fubar.

[edit on 5-9-2010 by Zorg12]