Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Price of Oil - $4,300 per Barrel

Let's see - that's 33 days at up to 50,000 barrels a day or roughly 1,650,000 barrels times 4300, equals roughly $7.1 billion US. That's the tab BP could face for the Deepwater Horizon spill if it's fined under the US Clean Water Act. From Reuters:

The little-known, seldom applied clause in the Clean Water Act was added in 1990 after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, and was intended to beef up the arsenal of penalties the government can apply to oil spillers to deter future disasters.

"These civil penalties could be staggeringly high, possibly running into the billions," said Professor David Uhlmann, director of the Environmental Law program at University of Michigan.


Total liability -- including civil fines as well as the cost of clean-up, economic damages and potential criminal liability -- "will run into the billions and may be in the tens of billions," Uhlmann said.

Under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency can seek in federal court to fine any party whose negligence results in an oil spill in U.S. federal waters.

The basic fine is $1,100 a barrell but that can be increased to $4,300 per barrell if the court finds the spill resulted from gross negligence. It's the "gross" part that's tough to prove but Congressional investigations seem to point to a measure of wilful neglect on the part of the companies involved in this drilling rig.

Oopsie, maybe there won't be any Christmas bonuses this year at Bandito Petroleum.

2 comments:

Okie said...

Given the bribes and fudged safety reports, one would think some arrest warrants should have issued by the Champions of Law and Order down South.

Odd how they can focus on a guy from Canada selling pot seeds or even our own Lord of Conservative lucidity, Lord Black of Crossharbor, yet pass by these Masters of Disaster.

Momentarily I am having a bit of dilemna though Mound. I'm not sure whether I am more angry at the Yanks for their gross Environmental irresponsibility, or our own Harper gang for near one billion worth of security in Bugsville, Ontario.

These things are very disturbing especially in conjunction with the many other concerns such as the European economic scenario, it's effects and the daily manipulations of the rest of the Corporate entities and their henchmen.

And what of our leaders? What are they saying? This could never happen in Canada. Right. Like there won't be any deficit. Oh, and let's focus on Afghan detainees, not WHY we are still in Afghanistan. Nooo..., some blame would have to shared on that one, wouldn't it? Better to throw a shiny thing to the masses instead. Like a lure to a Trout.

What say Iggs on the Gulf spill? He supports the Tar Sands. What does he say about the billion for security? Nothing. Rookie MP Mark Holland speaks on it. That's leadership.

Oh yes, and in the meantime Chretien is telling us how Noble is the career politician.

I expect that some of the bloggers on this site read your blog, so to them I would say, get a grip. Never mind pissing and moaning about the long gun registry, Geurgis etc. Nero and Rome.

It's like my going on about food security Mound. The city folk just don't get it, I know. They haven't drawn the parallel from oil to food yet. From North American factory production to China and India and how it's all interconnected.

They don't see how the Corporate structure aided by our political grunts are boxing them into a feudal existence that may last 1,000 years. The Fourth Reich.

And they will scoff, naturally. For most are young, and have never seen firsthand how thingss really work. So long as they think they understand the markets, and they believe the Carpetbaggers, they take comfort that all will be well. Somehow??

Sorta like being born again I suppose.

The Mound of Sound said...

I left a comment on another blog this morning in which I argued that virtually all the great challenges and threats facing mankind today will not be properly addressed until we wrestle corporatism to the ground.

Corporatism has seen a great deal of power, even sovereignty, transferred from voters to shareholders through freedom of movement of capital, the loss of the ability to use tariffs to advance national policy and the surrender of control over access to our markets.

Corporatism advances the interests of its shareholders, the rentier class. This is the foundation of oligarchy. The interests of the rentier class are usually quite divergent from the interests and well being of the general public.