Is BP being scapegoated?

[Rum]

Personally I found the hearings today embarrassing. While I have no sympathy for corporations such as BP the cheap and easy wins that the committee scored off Tony Hayward, the head of BP were - well cheap and easy. They probably have fucked up but the show today was a skinning alive exercise more for the benefit of the politicos than the public.

Shame on them I say. It was like witnessing bullying and not being able to intervene.

The real issue is how we stop our reliance on an increasingly dangerous energy source.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The politicians' showboating for the cameras would not be "scapegoating". BPollution will be a fact of life on the Gulf coast for a long time. BP's unwillingness to have emergency equipment on hand is the issue. When you consider ALL the oil companies could have a pool of equipment any of them could tap if they wanted to spend the money there's no reason it wasn't there.

[RuleBritannia]

I've thought the same thing my self, they've come down like a ton of bricks on BP, yet when the banks fucked up millions of peoples lives - they get some money, slap on the wrist, maybe some tighter regulation so it's not so bad next time...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've thought the same thing my self, they've come down like a ton of bricks on BP, yet when the banks fucked up millions of peoples lives - they get some money, slap on the wrist, maybe some tighter regulation so it's not so bad next time...

The banks have already paid back the money, so they're ahead of BP there.

[RuleBritannia]

I've thought the same thing my self, they've come down like a ton of bricks on BP, yet when the banks fucked up millions of peoples lives - they get some money, slap on the wrist, maybe some tighter regulation so it's not so bad next time...

The banks have already paid back the money, so they're ahead of BP there.

And the millions of unemployed? Have the banks coughed up some jobs yet?

[Thinking Aloud]

Oh goody.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've thought the same thing my self, they've come down like a ton of bricks on BP, yet when the banks fucked up millions of peoples lives - they get some money, slap on the wrist, maybe some tighter regulation so it's not so bad next time...

The banks have already paid back the money, so they're ahead of BP there.

And the millions of unemployed? Have the banks coughed up some jobs yet?

Yep, but they outsourced them to the UK.

[Feck]

Yes . So is Obama , total hypocrisy by the Republicans If this had happened when Bush was in power to one of the American owned companies the news would be very different .

Seems It's Britain's fault ...even though BP is an international company .. You see those pictures of the oil leak that pipe is the top of the BOP (blow out preventer)
that is Transocean's kit it's not working is it ? Do any of the news report that Transocean were the rig operators ? Why not ... because it is easier to blame BP a company that is more easily (and erroneously) identified by Merkins as a foreign company . Fuck if Halliburton had owned the rig then it would suddenly have been a British company again .
I thought the US had set a limit on how much a single company could be held liable for ....seems that has been forgotten too .

Seems we have forgotten that a US company was responsible for Piper Alpha and other US companies have been responsible for more than a few massive human and environmental disasters . As always ,just like the US attitude to many thing it's very different when it happens to you .

[Horwood Beer-Master]

When you have a population large parts of which treat any government regulation of anything as tantamount to Stalinism, and treats any slight rise in the cost of filling-up their needlessly fuel-inefficient like it's the greatest human-rights violation since the Holocaust, and you mix-in a government with no spine to stand-up to these sections of the community - what the fuck do you expect the result will be?


Of course BP are evil - they're an oil company. Expecting them not to be evil would be like expecting a drug dealer not to be evil. But the fact is that prior to this disaster the US government was only too happy with these particular dealers pushing their wares upon the American populace in order to keep them placated and happy, and they were no doubt fully aware of the corners they were cutting in the process (or else they went very deliberately out-of-their-way not to know the kinds of corners being cut (out of sight, out of mind)).

Every single finger-wagging congressperson at that hearing today has oil dripping off their hands, and they know it!

[owtth]

Well their argument was hardly going to be along the lines of "we spent millions on lobby groups and diverting fund to your political parties in order to give ourselves an easy time over safety regulations and testing so you must shoulder some of the blame". There has to be a little honour amongst thieves. This instance is singular only because they are being held to account as no other company has been held to account before. I still suspect that, in the long run, they will duck the majority of the expense which will end up being shouldered by the taxpayer, just as Exxon did.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Well their argument was hardly going to be along the lines of "we spent millions on lobby groups and diverting fund to your political parties in order to give ourselves an easy time over safety regulations and testing so you must shoulder some of the blame"...

No, the reason the American people must shoulder some of the blame is, as I said, their insistence on treating any government regulation of anything as if it's Stalinism, and their childish demand for cheap fuel to fill-up their absurdly wasteful vehicles.

Both these things directly contributed to the oil washing-up in Louisiana.

[Feck]

167 dead

[Gawdzilla Sama]

No, the reason the American people must shoulder some of the blame is, as I said, their insistence on treating any government regulation of anything as if it's Stalinism, and their childish demand for cheap fuel to fill-up their absurdly wasteful vehicles.

You know, sweeping generalizations ain't helping here.

[Feck]

No, the reason the American people must shoulder some of the blame is, as I said, their insistence on treating any government regulation of anything as if it's Stalinism, and their childish demand for cheap fuel to fill-up their absurdly wasteful vehicles.

You know, sweeping generalizations ain't helping here.

Nor is scapegoating , but it is valid point that the worlds biggest consumers of oil are behaving very differently because the spill is in their waters for a change .