Make BP Pay Royalty Fees on Spilled Oil
Finally, a plan. Hit ‘em where they live! Fuck ‘em where they breathe!
We’ve got all these layers and layers of regulatory bureaucracy, fines that are too small to have any deterrent effect and/or get overturned on appeal, and what have we got to show for it? Instead, let’s use a clear cut, black and white, no ifs ands or buts approach: You leak oil, you pay royalty fees on it. You break it, you’ve bought it.
Rep. Nick Rahall (D—W. Virginia) has asked Eric Holder to force BP to pay oil drilling royalties on the oil that’s leaked into the Gulf. BP’s lease with the government stipulates an 18.75% royalty.
As the linked article says: “The royalty is on the oil extracted, what you do with it afterwards is really not the problem of the United States.”
Works for me.
Labels: BP royalty fees, Nick Rahall
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:24 AM
18 Comments:
Tom, I believe that is already covered in the law. The royalty covers the depletion of a publicly owned resource. The resource is visibly being depleted.
How about just holding BP accountable financially, and criminally if warranted, to pay for every last bit of cleanup and for those who's livelihoods they have negatively impacted by this accident?
Mr. Harper, I finally had the time to put together my response to Dubya regarding the challenge of lies from the right versus left from awhile back. I don't necessarily want to post it on your comment section without your permission though as it is fairly long.
Please let me know if this is a problem, sir, and where/when you would like me to post these if you deem this to be okay.
TomCat: That's the beauty of it; it's already part of the law, so Congress wouldn't need to vote for it (which they'd never have the balls to do). They've depleted the resource; they need to pay royalties on it.
TP: That's a good idea, but the reality is, well, we all saw what happened with Exxon.
That's fine if you want to post your response to Dave Dubya. I assume the post where you two have been going back and forth the most, would be the most appropriate place to put your comment. Let the games resume :)
Mind if I step in before the fists fly?
By the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 it's up to the states to go after BP for all the clean up, lost revenue, and penalties. The limit on the feds is $350 million.
By all means, BP should pay royalties on every bit of oil that came out of that well. Good luck getting an exact number, but that's secondary.
While Holder's got their attention on that, wouldn't it be nice if he were to relay a message from the president: "Get some tankers in there to recover as much of the spilled oil as possible."
Demeur, wow, if that is the case then a commitment to the states needs to be elicited from BP that they will comply with that law without reservation, assuming that they are going to stand by the word of their CEO to take full responsibility and make complete restitution accordingly.
My response to Dubya has now been posted way back on your Woodstock article where all of this began. Cheers!
Demeur: I think royalties are a separate thing from fines and penalties. I couldn't swear to it, but that article sounded like an 18.75% royalty was part of the lease, and the lease doesn't differentiate between oil that leaked and oil that got shipped to a refinery.
SW: It's true that measuring the exact quantity of spilled oil would be a problem, but that's secondary, like you said. And they definitely need some tankers in there ASAP.
TP: CEOs standing by their commitments, government officials who aren't afraid of their corporate donors? It would be nice...
T Paine
While you are at it, you owe me a response from that same post, Unless you choose not to
Erik
Erik, I am sorry as I had forgotten about this. I will go back and look for your question and respond when I am able to do so.
Erik, I will do some research and look at Kemp's speeches, as per your suggestion, sir.
Good Luck,
As a year ago it would have been easy (I have found them myself as I threw away the magazine it once appeared in) but since he's died he's become polarized. The "liberal" sites praise the conservative that believed in civil rights and reached across the color line while the "conservative" sites talk about the true Reagan fiscal conservative.
Happy Hunting
Erik
LOL - I like that :)
However, Eric Cantor is a tiny little prick of a waste of flesh, and won't do a damned thing but kiss big oil booty.
I heard today that BP is whining that they've already spent over $1bil on cleanup. Oh, my little heart just bleeeeeeds, I tell ya, just bleeeeeeeds.
Some anon person has set up a Twitter acct to go after BP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aVBbUQvFB0&feature=player_embedded
A spill in PA of gas that happened last weekend and the company is basically saying, nothing to see here move on. No media is allowed near it and the governor has told the company, EOG resources, to stop drilling for at least a week. Then we have the explosion in TX that has killed and injured some people. What I now want to know is, will those drill baby drillers now just STFU and get of twitter $ister $arah?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3mfM9WY8LI&feature=player_embedded
Mom earth is now all the way pissed off at her kids, us, and we need to get off the oil and we need to do it quickly.
Jess, what would you recommend we use for energy in the interim until we find a viable alternative energy source?
T Paine
Would you be asking that question if it was one of your relatives that died in those accidents?
Erik
Jess: That's excellent news about Twitter. I don't know anything about Twitter or Tweeting, but it sounds like this guy is really socking it to BP. It sounds like those Google Bombs from a few years ago.
TP: I'm not Jess, but I'd recommend solar, wind power, hydroelectric power, kinetic power from the oceans, wood chips, methane, garbage and waste products in general. All of these energy sources (I've probably omitted a lot of them) need to be expanded and streamlined, of course; and the sooner and quicker.
Erik: Excellent question.
Post a Comment
<< Home