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The first penalty should be that BP pays every dime of the cost..It it wipes them out thats ok as long as the ceos on down lose their jobs and have to spend the billions of assets the company has...Thery dug the hole and were there to claim every dime of profit that came out of the hole. Now its their turn to claim the bill for the mess they made....Their hole= their bill
I'm open to suggestion! Please share what you think the penalty should be for poisoning millions of gallons of water, destroying tons of food, and putting thousands of people out of work/business. Perhaps you believe the ocean is a magical place that will just buck off the poisons but it doesn't work anywhere near that way. We've got a seriously big problem and these companies think nothing of crapping in the village well and watching us all fall ill. I'd say it's attempted mass murder, treason, a biblical level assault. What else could you call it?
Treason? Here is the definition: The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort.
Are they doing that? Nope.
Attempted mass murder? The definition: The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass murder as: "[involving] the murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event."
Again, they didn't do that.
What they DID do was ecologically unsound, reckless, and a heavy fine should be levied. If it means the CEO's get jailed, so be it.
While I admire your gumption for wanting them to pay the price for their mistake, I think you're going a wee bit overboard. They should be picking up the tab for the entire cleanup.
Let's remember that oil is a natural substance coming from the earth. Not a man made creation. I spoke to a wildlife biologist about this over the weekend at great length, and she said that the ocean would absorb it a lot faster than people realize. However, the short term affects definitely could be devistating to the food supply.
The earth DOES bounce back. It's been here way longer than we have, just remember that.
This doesn't mean BP, or any other oil company around the world has no worries. They should know these possibilities exist and should plan for them, but they don't seem to. Imagine if a nuclear plant had no safe mode in place? Ugh..
At latest report, the projected cost of this cleanup (to BP) will be around $32 billion. If that is the case, BP's projected profit for this year will only be around $6 billion (source Wall Street Journal, 5/10/2010). Though none of us wanted this to happen, neither did BP, nor the environmentalists, nor the conservatives or liberals, nor the Obama administration. Which company was it that isn't being boycotted? So I know where to get gas.
Fact of life is with current technology, the world runs on petroleum. Yet the past 7 presidential administrations have all talked about energy policy, but all have done little to nothing about it. So, if you want to have an omelet you have to break a few eggs.
Due to the frustration felt by all, this subject is the obviously a source of great contention, and this thread is no different. I just hope that we all remember how we are feeling now when clean energy is being discussed in Washington or when we go to vote. I hope everyone speaks as passionately then as they are now. If they successfully recycle some rubber, or they score a hole in one with their golf balls , it doesn't mean the problem is solved.
Whats going to happen when "because of increased cost" gasoline goes up to 5 dollars a gallonor more? And we all know that if BP were to raise its prices at the pump (and we know they will) then ALL of the other oil companies will also raise theirs..Its called collusion or price fixing by many but they will call it "working together" ....The screwing is coming,They just havent figured out when and how much and how they will "justify" it yet.Afterall they got profits and BIG CEO salarys to protect.
Whats going to happen when "because of increased cost" gasoline goes up to 5 dollars a gallonor more? And we all know that if BP were to raise its prices at the pump (and we know they will) then ALL of the other oil companies will also raise theirs..Its called collusion or price fixing by many but they will call it "working together" ....The screwing is coming,They just havent figured out when and how much and how they will "justify" it yet.Afterall they got profits and BIG CEO salarys to protect.
Quoted for truth!
I'd say this is like biological warfare. Destroy or cripple the ecosystem of a nation. It's like dropping a bomb.
Treason? Here is the definition: The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort.
Are they doing that? Nope.
Attempted mass murder? The definition: The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass murder as: "[involving] the murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event."
Again, they didn't do that.
What they DID do was ecologically unsound, reckless, and a heavy fine should be levied. If it means the CEO's get jailed, so be it.
While I admire your gumption for wanting them to pay the price for their mistake, I think you're going a wee bit overboard. They should be picking up the tab for the entire cleanup.
Let's remember that oil is a natural substance coming from the earth. Not a man made creation. I spoke to a wildlife biologist about this over the weekend at great length, and she said that the ocean would absorb it a lot faster than people realize. However, the short term affects definitely could be devistating to the food supply.
The earth DOES bounce back. It's been here way longer than we have, just remember that.
This doesn't mean BP, or any other oil company around the world has no worries. They should know these possibilities exist and should plan for them, but they don't seem to. Imagine if a nuclear plant had no safe mode in place? Ugh..
The Earth DOESN'T bounce back indefinitely from multiple assaults all around the globe. This isn't one unfortunate mistake. This is one in a series of "mistakes" AKA costs of doing business many corporations commit year after year. If no one stood up and stopped them there would still be coal plants spewing crap into the air and dumping heavy metals into "industrial" rivers like the Hudson. Did you know there was a time corporations got the government to designate our largest greatest most productive rivers as industrial because they were allegedly able to absorb toxins? That's where the riverkeepers movement came from. www.riverkeeper.org The laws were passed because there was recognition of the fact that the Earth can't magically wipe it all away when we screw it up. Streams and lakes poisoned, groundwater poisoned, oceans poisoned. Your friend is mistaken. The ocean can't "absorb" all of it.
I am aware that oil is a natural thing but what we do to it and add to it isn't natural. If we want to wildlife to be able to live in it we can't make excuses for fouling it. Nature did not recklessly release tons of oil into the Gulf--we did. Dreaming that it could happen therefore we shouldn't worry is like laying on a train track and saying 'hey, I could have just fallen here naturally so why worry'. They shouldn't be out there until they can contain the toxin they're releasing. Period.
It occurs to me that many of you don't have the experience I've had because I was raised in South Carolina and in Phily/NJ. So you guys take for granted all the yummy fish and beautiful lush woods, clear beach water. In my other home we used to be able to get water from springs until the water became too polluted. We could fish but we couldn't eat the fish because of dioxins. Needles routinely washed up on parts of the Jersey shore. There are still mass fish die offs from the crap dumped in the "industrial" rivers. Immigrants have gotten sick from eating the poisoned fish because they never dreamed what was on the river bottom. In North Jersey We have refineries up and down the Newark Bay, Hudson, Kills (rivers surrounding Staten Island). They are practically a fishing dead zone. Our oysters used to be big as dinner plates and sold around the world as some of the finest! No joke. The Gowanus, a river in Brooklyn used to be fertile but now has bubonic plague in it. I'm not hyping you! Please look it up to verify. It's so polluted NO wildlife lives in it and if you fall in the cops WILL NOT go in but will fish your butt out. It routinely kills and poisons people. You don't want that crazy stuff to happen down here or in the Gulf or anywhere.......right?
I was raised in NY state and just recently moved here, almost 6 years ago. I, too, couldn't eat the fish we caught in the rivers. (The Hudson! ewwwww) So yes, I have the experience you have. And the person I spoke to went to ESF in NY and was a wildlife biologist. She worked for the State of MD until she had children.
The earth has bounced back millions of times, as history has shown. It's still here, after all, isn't it? We may not be, but *it* will be. Where would it go? Ok, so it may be a little worse for wear...After all, many people thought the world would end with the Exxon Valdez spill, but the ocean recovered, and years faster than people anticipated, according to the NOAA. There's tons of info at NOAA's Ocean Service Office of Response and Restoration if you want real facts, not just conjecture.
Attempted mass murder? The definition: The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass murder as: "[involving] the murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event."
Again, they didn't do that.
I have to disagree. Eleven people died in that explosion and as we are now learning there is every indication that they knew something was wrong but continued on anyway. Let's not forget about them. Let's also remember the hundreds of species that are being effected, many of which will suffer the same fate.
That's not mass murder according to the law, I'm sorry to say, as much as we'd like to think it is. It was an accident, plain and simple. They may have had some signs (which they did) and chose to ignore them, but we all know they wouldn't have wanted people to die.
Was it premeditated or full of malice? Do you think they intentionally said "let's kill as many people as we can!!" or do you think they had more of a lazy attitude, caring more about money or whatever was on their mind that day? (I'm not in their minds, I can't speak for them)
We can make of it what we like, but to blow it out of proportion will do no good. Humans tend to do that to make a point. However, doing something about it would be more beneficial. Yes, the ecosystem will take a good 7-10 years to recover, if it's anything close to the Exxon disaster. Yes, they will have tremendous penalties to face. But let's realize, no one company is at fault here. We are as well. Until we can stop our dependance on foreign oil and come up with a better solution, we have ourselves to blame as well. It's far easier to blame someone else than it is to blame ourselves.
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, or they score a hole in one with their golf balls 
, it doesn't mean the problem is solved.
