I agree they should be held responsible, as the oil pollution act of 1990 would dictate.

As a side note to the above, the oil companies don't "set" the gas/oil/diesel prices. They are typically based on the futures prices that are traded on exchanges. The "market" allows for the price equilibrium. The participants include banks, individual traders, pension funds, hedge funds, etc in addition to the oil players.
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Wow lots to go over here... First, I never said 'dont hold them responsible', I said I'm not sure they are the ones responsible for the problem at hand.

Do you think other companies (Transocean for ex.) dont 'make multi-millions if not billions' each year being the drilling company? I fail to see where profits apply to the situation.

Companies do have an obligation, but are you implying that you dont think BP is doing their best? Do you think BP engineers, manufactures and assembles all the drilling equipment? I'm not really sure what you point is here, since I know they're working as hard and as quickly as possible... do you think these parts just come out of thin air?

The bailouts are something totally different and I'm not going to touch on them (even though I mostly agree w/ you). I havent heard anyone, anywhere, say BP is going to get bailed out so I dont even know why you're bringing that up.

Same with citizenship... you seem to have alot of angst and dont know where to direct it.
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Let me try and clear my position a little. I believe that ALL the companies involved should be held responsible to the degree that they were involved. I'm just saying that just because BP sub-contracted out the work, that doesn't lessen their part. One of the things that could have been used that might have stopped this (and I stress might). Was acoustic valves. Bp from what I understand didn't want to use them because they cost about $200,000.00 a pop. Sounds kind of cheap at this point, doesn't it. Now this is where I'm going to be called crazy :-). But, I believe that the best long term solution is to open up some of those black budget military projects and develop the energy source for the future. This country became what it is in part because of innovation. The abacus was replaced by the slide rule, then the calculator then the computer. The horse and carriage was replaced by the automobile. If we don't develop it some other country will. Then we will be left behind wondering what happened.
Right now the number one goal should be to stop the leak. The number two goal should be clean up.
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I Agree, Don! We Definitely Need To Work Quickly To Find Other Energy Sources!:-):-)
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Well said.
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Should pull all deep drilling permits from all companies until they prove they can deal with issues when they arrive.
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Lots of interesting comments here. I have a vested interest in this spill because I live in Louisiana - about 30 miles east of New Orleans. I don't find BP to be solely responsible for this spill. They had help in their ineptitude - including from the US Government (Congress, Senate and the White House) who have continually failed to support programs, enforce regulations and hold federal employees responsible for doing their jobs.

The people with MMS should have been investigated and fired a long time ago for being in bed with the oil companies. The Coast Guard has long suffered from a lack of support from Congress and its environmental protection mission was placed on the back burner a long time ago as the government put more emphasis on things like military readiness, anti-drug law enforcement and "homeland security" without giving the Coast Guard a bigger budget. The service has been constantly told, "Do these extra jobs but we're not going to give you more money. That's why the service is facing the cut of 11,000 people in the near future.

Then there is the problem created by large donations to politicians by the oil companies which translates into government agencies being told to "back-off" from criticizing the oil companies and commercial shipping industry. I speak from first hand experience with this point as I served in the Coast Guard for 21 years. There were numerous times we were told that we could release information about what the Coast Guard was doing or what information we had about a spill or accident because it would make the oil companies look bad. We had to stand by while they company spokesmen gave out information that we knew was wrong - like the number of gallons of oil leaking from a well.

Rant over.
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Where's aquaman when we need him?
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He was arrested for swimming in polluted water.
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What's the limited liability for BP? 70 Billion? Not sure that will cover half of what will be needed. Law firms are setting up tents almost to keep up with suits. BP is going down. Deep ocean drilling, private drilling firms, and many others are now really feeling the heat.
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I know it's tough, but try to keep your humor going.



Besides, he wasn't arrested in the water. He was arrested along with Batman. Refer to the thread "Batman arrested".
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http://www.wwltv.com/news/gulf-oil-s...-95696594.html
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The oil pullution act limits the liability to 75 million, not billion. That is, however, assuming that the courts dont find BP or their contractors to have acted with gross negligence, in which case the cap gets thrown out.

BP has like $40 billion in cash...if they suspend their dividend payment, that frees up 10 bil+ for them to pay out to cover any liabilities that may arise. I agree they are gonna get hurt, but going down? far from it...
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BP is not going anywhere. Believe that.
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