How long before BP starts charging us for the oil our beaches are snatching from them?

[librechik]

that oil belongs to BP's (foreign) customers, not us! How dare we just sponge it up and return hardly any like this??!!!

[katzenjammers]

1. If they send you a bill, toss it out.

Seriously, as bad as BP has behaved in the past, anyone who thinks they are not doing everything they can to stop this disaster is just not honest...every bbl of oil that leaks out is ~$70 of lost revenue for them.

[librechik]

2. I already know they are NOT doing everything they can--$500,000 blowout preventer valve

MISSING because they didn't feel like paying for it. Broken and nonfunctioning parts overlooked and ignored. Missing reports. Reports full of lies.

Anyone who thinks BP is doing anything except minimize the damage to themselves (forget about the environment) is kidding themselves.

[katzenjammers]

4. Please read my post again. You missed the point entirely.

Don't you see that minimizing the damage to themselves and maximizing profits are the exact same thing
in this case?

[Chulanowa]

5. Each barrel they clean up costs well over a hundred dollars, though

it's actually in their economic interests to do as little as possible in the cleanup, let the taxpayers take the bill, and open a new well on what's left in the ground. Which is exactly what they are doing. it's exactly what was done at Ixtoc. it's what was done on Prince William Sound.

Please take your corporate apologist stuff back to whatever Libertarian hole in the dirt you got it from.

[katzenjammers]

7. You got that figure from...where? And you can shove your nasty accusations.

I know what I am talking about...unlike most of the posters here. If you think I'm a corporate apologist, you might be right...in general...the corporation I run employs 3000 people who are happy to have jobs.

There sure is a lot of uninformed bogus outrage in this place.
\

[Chulanowa]

11. It's called math

BP is spending $33m a day on cleanup: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7721076/BP-oil-spill-clean-up-costs-spiral-to-33m-a-day.html
An estimated 20,000 to 100,000 barrels is leaking per day: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126809525
A barrel of oil is going for $70: http://www.oil-price.net/

Ergo, even if we highball the spilling, BP is spending $330 dollars to clean up each barrel of oil that would net it $70 on the market. If we use BP's estimate, they're spending three THOUSAND dollars per barrel of oil.

Where are you getting your information that BP will do their best to do the right thing because it's in their economic interests to do so?

[katzenjammers]

13. Your math is okay but it's based on several vague assumptions

that the 33M is equally applied over all the leaking crude,

that every bbl of oil requires that $330,

and that over time every bbl will CONTINUE to suck up the ~330.

If they didn't give a shit, why would they spend a dime to work on the problem,
why would the bean counters suggest actions that could wreck the company (not even to mention
all the investments that people all over the world including Americans have in BP stock) and
in running the company down the shitter would end THEIR own jobs. It just makes no sense to anyone
who has the first clue about running a business...and whatever else they are, stupid is not one of them.

[Chulanowa]

15. Actually, you're right, but it doesn't help your position

Obviously BP is NOT cleaning every barrel that shoots into the gulf per day. Which means that the real cost of their cleanup per barrel is much, much higher than $330 per barrel. Which is, in and of itself, nearly five times the worth of the oil itself.

BP doesn't give a shit. Give-a-shit is found in absolutely no corporate charter anywhere in the world, their sole responsibility is to their shareholders. The fact of the matter is that the cleanup is vastly more expensive than the lost oil. it is in BP's interests to stop the leak, which htye are working on to their credit, but the cleanup is so completely NOT in their economic interests. Again, we have many, many examples of oil spills, and they all follow th same pattern; the cost of the spill is only very fractionally covered by the company responsible. The rest is subsidized by the taxpayers.

[katzenjammers]

16. Actually virtually every major disaster regardless of the proximate cause is ultimately paid for by

taxpayers. It's how the system works...if your neighbor's house is set on fire by an arsonist, our tax money goes to the fire department to try and save it. But why do you separate shareholders (who very well could be, and are, many if not most of us with vested interests) from the quasi-holy people who
don't have any equity in anything but their personal property? I guess I'm just having a hard time imagining how some of the posters here who want "something" done but don't want any"one" to actually do it except maybe the Government which doesn't have the resources or expertise to do it. shrug.

I objected to your assumptive figures because they aren't honest - If, for example, I were tooling up to manufacture a new airplane, I could very easily expend a million dollars a day for quite some time, while producing exactly nothing. To propose that BP is run by total morons (which is what they would have to be if they really don't care about stockholders OR the future of the company) is in itself moronic and the claim doesn't speak well of those who ought to stick with legitimate criticisms.

[katzenjammers]

17. Disregard...sorry the ISP had a burp & double posted

...

[librechik]

6. I think they are doing the least they possibly can because they knew and know

such "accidents" are disastrous, are difficult if not impossible to clean up and they have no excuse and no options except to try to evade responsibility (while continuing to look fairly responsive.) Therefore, stall, get lawyers to stall, fail to respond, obfuscate, and thank the lord they are so rich it will take many weeks before they are hurt financially. If ever. They are in major denial, and I don't see how anyone like yourself can know what they are doing (everything they can? really? when they are only losing a few days profits? how do you know that?)or the amount they are working because of their secretive and contemptuous attitude to America and Americans.

[katzenjammers]

9. You know what? I completely overlooked that no member of DU works for a corporation

or has a 401K or any kind of investment that has stocks...likely including BP...in it. So the hate for anything with "Inc." in its name is perfectly understandable. I sit corrected.

[librechik]

12. what? We all have 401ks, many of us work for corporations, including myself

if your bias against liberals is such that you can't recognize we simply have a different attitude toward capitalism (i.e., it should be responsible and not rapacious) than you guys on the other side, perhaps you should inform yourself better. Do you expect us to give BP a pass on criminal neglect because they employ a lot of folks and are a force in the global economy like the RW does? Sorry, we like capitalism that works, not capitalism that forges blindly ahead like a destroying monster, getting larger and larger on the blood of innocent victims.

[katzenjammers]

14. I hope you're kidding me...I've read enough here to see hundreds of people who think

all corporations are the epitome of true evil and should be trashed by any possible means. Funny thing is, though, none of them have suggested a viable alternative...it's just bitch and moan. Kill the king and replace him with ...nothing. Bah. You think I can't be a reasonably liberal Democrat and defend capitalism??? That's almost as goofy as creationists telling me that the FLOOD made the Grand Canyon in a month around 6000 years go.

[laughingliberal]

8. Yes, but that also encompasses doing the cleanup on the cheap

which is why we see little effort in that area. Another aspect of that is keeping us in the dark about the extent of the problem.

[iamtechus]

10. Rest assured that the future price of gas will reflect BP's cleanup costs n/t

[Webster Green]

3. Jeezus, don't give them any ideas.

I'm thinking of filing a claim against BP for mental anguish.