Laying all the blame on BP is counter productive.

[rhett o rick]

Of course BP shares some blame, but remember, they are a corporation and in spite of what the SCOTUS says, they are not human. BP doesn’t not have a conscience. Their sole goal is to make profit and as much as possible. They will cut corners and cheat the regulations at every turn. In some cases corporations have decided it is more profitable for them to neglect safeguards and pay the measly fines.

Bad analogy time:
If the candy store owner doesn’t buy a door and the guard sleeps on duty, should the neighborhood children shoulder the complete blame for getting into the candy?

We have inadequate regulations and very little enforcement of those regulations we have. Sadly, I doubt this president will do much about it. Oh something token will happen to BP, probably a punishment that they come up with. They will promise to never again let the battery run down on their blow-out preventer valve. Trust them. But IMHO they will never clean up this mess and they will do little to prevent the next one. Their sole goal is profit and they are willing to risk extreme damage to the environment and even human deaths (11 died on the Deepwater Horizon. Massey Energy killed 29 miners and nothing was done. I wonder how many deaths are allowed before we would do something.

Unregulated capitalism will be our downfall.

[LeftyFingerPop]

1. Well, when you have the head of BP going on TV...

and lying his ass off, it is difficult not to place 100% of the blame on them.

And even though their goal is to make a profit, they tend to ignore their social responsibilities.

[hayu_lol]

3. Poor BP...they drilled the hole using flawed methodology...

it was cheaper to do that way they said.

OK, we won't pick on poor BP, fire Arne Duncan instead...then blame BP.

BP executives, decision makers, engineers, and the rest of the 'in charge' folks at BP should be immediately indicted, booked, tried and imprisoned for cutting corners.

[seabeyond]

2. they get 100% blame. power. regardless of where the power is, they need boundaries

to not abuse the power. it doesnt matter what angle this is addressed. in relationships, teachers, business, army, govt, police. whomever has the power needs strong guidelines and rules to follow and someone to follow along making sure those rules are not ignored. reality.

dereg doesnt work.

[rhett o rick]

17. You cant have it both ways. Either you trust them to do the right thing on their own

or you regulate them. Corporations have proven over and over they cant self regulate. Therefore when there is a failure part of the blame goes to the regulators and regulations.

To lay 100% of the blame overlooks the most important lesson. They cant be trusted, they need regulations. The failure here wasnt that BP was greedy, we know they are greedy. That is what a corporation is. We, you and I, failed, thru our congress-critters, to regulate them.

[Xicano]

23. "Therefore when there is a failure part of the blame goes to the regulators and regulations."

Not when the corporations spend billions of dollars buying off politicians to deregulate. Its their lobby money which is responsible for deregulated policies and its their inability to self regulate. Therefore they and their bribed politicians shoulder all the blame.

[rhett o rick]

24. Exactly. The politician must take some of the blame. Who set the limit of liability at $75 million?

Who allowed the environment waivers for BP? Who job was it to inspect the oil rig to see that BP was following regulations?

We know that BP will try to cut corners to increase profits. If we dont do anything to prevent it, we are also to blame.

[Tempest]

4. That's like saying serial killers aren't 100% to blame

BP is 100% responsible.

It was their responsibility to make sure proper procedures and safety regulations were being met and they failed.

[rhett o rick]

21. Self regulation never works. We need strong regulations and strong enforcement,

and strong penalties for failure to follow the regulations.

[Tempest]

5. Your post is a case of bad timing

Documents show BP chose a less-expensive, less-reliable method for completing well in Gulf oil spill
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4393908

Tell us again how BP isn't 100% responsible.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. They stood to make BILLIONS off this one well and a small amount

of money stood in the way of them taking the high road.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Dupe

[HysteryDiagnosis]

13. Dupe

[dipsydoodle]

14. But don't you find something odd

about the fact its from the Orlando Sentinel - hardly mainstream MSM. Hope they got their facts right. Down the line I have a feeling BP will recover some of their costs through libel charges in English courts which would also lock out any defence of satire - your Constitutional rights don't hold good in an English court of law where satire cannot be used as a defence in libel.

I think you may also find that they are the sole source and any links go back to them inc those via DU.

[rhett o rick]

27. I will be glad to. Did you expect them to use the safest method or the most profitable?

Unless we force them to be safe, they wont. We have to have regulations and enforcement.

So you say they are 100% responsible. What do you propose to do about it. Unless they violated regulations, you have no case. They wont pay for clean up and they wont prevent future disasters. They are for maximum profit.

[socialist_n_TN]

6. Hell, unregulated capitalism can't even save themselves

They'll forgo MORE profit 5 years down the road for profit today. They make decisions in order to gain immediate profit EVEN IF IT ISN'T IN THEIR LONG TERM INTEREST TO DO SO.

Unregulated capitalism can't even save ITSELF. Remember what V.I. Lenin said about capitalists? They'll sell us the rope that we hang them with. There's SURELY something there that we can use against them.

[rhett o rick]

34. Capitalism by it's very nature will self distruct. nm

[disndat]

7. The hope is that the truth

may come out some day, so we will know exactly what happened, although it doesn't look promising with Obama's appointment of William Reilly, ex-Bush "environmental" EPA man who allowed the Feds to sell millions of acre of public land to private developers, if my memory is correct.

[charlesg]

8. BP execs are not children

Yes, very bad analogy indeed :)

[rhett o rick]

29. Children or not, they will push the regulations to the limit. They have killed people and destroyed

the environment. And I am betting that our regulations are so weak that we cant prosecute them. When faced with greed, the BP execs act like children.

[ananda]

9. OK. There ARE the deregulators and enablers that BP owns..

.. including Obama.

[Upton]

10. Maybe we should send them a thank you card..

They're greedy pigs, skirting safety and environmental regulations at every turn. Then they've lied to us from the beginning of this tragedy. Sure there's a lot of blame to go around, but BP is at the top of the list..

[HughMoran]

15. plenty of blame to go around

blame doesn't pick up any oil

[socialist_n_TN]

18. True. So let's nationalize BP assets in the USA

and use the BILLIONS of $$$$$ in profits to cap the gusher and clean up the mess. Since they were the ones that caused it, they should pay for it. Right?

[rhett o rick]

19. Solving the problem might prevent it in the future. There are poor regulations and poor enforcement

[HughMoran]

20. "solving the problem"

I'm not sure what 'problem' you are referring to, but all the regulations in the world won't stop people from taking short cuts.

The oil people would not promise that a spill like this would not happen again.

My solution?

1. either stop deep-sea drilling altogether or
2. require acoustic bop valves on all rigs

...obviously in addition to more regulations and inspections. But regulation and inpsection alone would not have prevented this - it was a single decision and unless an Fed was there at the time, it would have happened anyway. Or, like we used to do in the factory, it would have happened the minute the Fed left the rig.

[rhett o rick]

22. We have a long way to go to bolster the regulations. And we have farther to go

to bolster enforcement. I agree that a bop valve in operating condition should be required. And if they dont have one or it is not operable, humans should be held accountable with stiff sentences.

You can slow down humans taking short cuts if you have strong punishments when they get caught. But corporations shield the humans that run them. Who ever is personally responsible for this explosion should be in prison for a long time.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. "BP shares some blame"?

It is BP's well. They drilled it and they own it. Primary responsibility for this disaster is with BP.A secondary but indeed massively important issue is why government regulation did not prevent BP's criminal negligence, but that is a secondary issue as far as responsibility goes. You have this ass backwards.

[rhett o rick]

28. It will be hard to prove criminal negligence unless they willfully violated regulations.

I think you will find that they will get off, they will only provide a token clean up and do nothing more than pledge to be better in the future.

[Warren Stupidity]

37. " unless they willfully violated regulations"

which they did.

[rhett o rick]

38. I am interested. Which regulations did they violate? nm

[flamingdem]

25. Yes, but they messed up AND more important they have the billions to pay nt

[rhett o rick]

26. I believe their liability is limited to $75 million. nm

[TomCADem]

30. And Republican Senators Are Blocking A Bill To Increase This Amount.

[RandomThoughts]

31. Unregulated capitalism will be a downfall only for those that side

with it without being able to defend those arguments with thought and feeling.

[rhett o rick]

32. It will take us all down. It has started. The middle class are losing homes, retirements, jobs, etc.

This is a direct result of the looting and polluting of the capitalists.

[RandomThoughts]

33. I wasn't thinking in materialistic terms on that question.

[Johonny]

35. but it is the truth

If you allow the industry to self regulate, then it's the industry to blame. Sure we shouldn't have done that, but we did. They failed to self regulate and thus they deserve all the blame. Hey they got the profits, they should be able to suck it up and accept the blame. We on the other hand should demand finally a strong regulatory agency in charge of these operations that works with government supervision and maintains independents from corporations.

[Catherina]

36. I rec'd. Our sick need to allow profit on everything is our downfall n/t

[rhett o rick]

39. LOL. If you rec'd, someone unrec'd. It's cool. I dont take it personally. Just kinda reminds me of

high school.