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 Oil Spill Has a Price Tag and It’s HighPosted on Jul 22, 2010
The cost to the Gulf states’ tourism industry alone could be $22.7 billion, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association. The outlook for the region’s fishing and drilling industries is also pretty bleak. BP, meanwhile, has already spent $4 billion trying to clean up the mess.
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By rico, suave, July 23, 2010 at 1:07 pm Link to this comment
Jim Yell:
“Most of what we need from our government is honest regulation and enforcement of rules of production.”
You are absolutely correct!
Now show me any government, anywhere, free of corruption, cronyism and favoritism, at any time in history which has delivered on that lofty goal.
How you can honestly trust government to look after your affairs more competently than you can yourself is just beyond my comprehension.
Report thisBy Jim Yell, July 23, 2010 at 5:38 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Most of what we need from our government is honest regulation and enforcement of rules of production. This respondibility was damaged and destroyed by deliberate policy of George Bush and Dick Cheney, or should we say accelerated. Their appointments to department heads were made on grounds of the persons hostility to the idea of government regulation at all. It was criminal and designed to increase the bloated profits of their own business group.
We may or may not need Nationalization, but we do need at all times Rules and Regulations and Enforcement of the same. Business can not be trusted, Banks can not be trusted as they have proved over and over again. For a brief burst of profit they will destroy their neighbors houses and lives and laugh while doing it.
Report thisBy rico, suave, July 23, 2010 at 4:40 am Link to this comment
If you were a Gulf Coast fisherman and lost a few hundred thousand dollars of income due to the spill, who do you think would be the easiest to sue SUCCESSFULLY?
A. BP
B. The US government
(Yes, it will take years, but that’s not the question.)
Report thisBy rico, suave, July 23, 2010 at 4:36 am Link to this comment
I have a newspaper headline from Monday. It says, “BP, feds clash over shut well.”
Lots of posts responding to previous truthdig articles about the spill demanded that the US nationalize BP, and the oil industry overall for that matter.
I have a few nits to pick:
1. The largest previous Gulf leak was the Ixtoc 1, owned by…. ready….. Pemex, the NATIONAL oil company of Mexico. I bring this up to suggest that nationalizing oil industries, per se, might not guarantee accident free operation. (BP’s ostensible “greed” would be replaced by government’s guaranteed incompetence and the spill would still occur.)
2. After the BP spill, Obama brought BP to the woodshed and collected $20 billion from them into an escrow account.
3. Let’s say the well was owned and operated by PdVSA. Can you imagine Obama “inviting” Chavez to the white House and demanding $20 billion. Let’s say BP was owned by the British government. Can you imagine the Brits writing us a check for $20 billion?
4. The Texas coast was hit by a lot of oil from the Ixtoc 1 spill in 1979. Texas asked the Mexican government for restitution. The Mexicans told Texas to fuck off.
5. And let’s say BP was owned by the US government. Can you imagine the above headline? Can you imagine the taxpayers’ ecstacy about having to come up with another $20 billion? “Well”, you might respond, “we’ll just tax the oil comp… oh, wait.”
If you think nationalization will result in a safer, cleaner oil industry, remember Ixtoc 1. And I won’t even mention Africa and Central Asia.
Report thisBy Fat Freddy, July 23, 2010 at 3:13 am Link to this comment
Don’t worry about the cost. I read in the NYT (can’t find the link) that an executive from JP Morgan estimated that the oil spill will have a net positive effect on GDP. Just think of all of those jobs that are being created for clean-up workers.
Report thisBy gerard, July 22, 2010 at 3:01 pm Link to this comment
And typically, not one word about the damage and insult to the world itself, the body of Mother Nature which makes all our lives possible every day of every year through centuries of mysterious rhythms and enormously complex processes beyond our understanding. The sacred realm of boiling hot and freezing cold. The home of hope and happiness, sorrow and sin. Selah!
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