BP Chief: Company Never Had the Tools to Address Oil Leak
What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit, [CEO Tony] Hayward told the Financial Times.
But didn’t BP tell feds it could handle oil spill 60 times larger than Deepwater Horizon?
In its 2009 exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, BP PLC states that the company could handle a spill involving as much as 12.6 million gallons of oil per day, a number 60 times higher than its current estimate of the ongoing Gulf disaster.
Looks like it’s time for Gulf Coast communities to file civil and criminal lawsuits. Wait … Hello? Can Anyone Down There Handle The Oil-Spill Litigation?
the bulk of the litigation arising out of the spill might end up in front of a judge who doesn’t sit in New Orleans … six of the 12 active judges in the Eastern District of Louisiana have removed themselves from oil-spill cases. The judges are citing conflicts tied to the energy sector and personal relationships with lawyers or companies involved … Federal judges in southern Alabama also have stepped away from handling spill-damage cases, according to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, BP program to hire cleanup boats has resulted in windfalls for rich pleasure-craft owners
… a Daily Beast investigation reveals that this much-touted program is far more effective as a PR stunt than a financial savior. Specifically, a large number of the 1,900 contracts BP has issued across the Gulf have gone to the owners of pleasure boats: doctors, lawyers, and the like, who use their vessels for Saturday fishing trips or family outings, rather than the decimated commercial fishermen.
and, 5000 feet below the sea, the plan now is cutting the riser above the BOP with large shears after the DSAW failed. I’m still watching.
