What I really think has the potential to bite BP on the ass is if it comes out that they were heavily involved in getting the Lockerbie bomber released based upon a bogus "terminal cancer" allegation in return for Libyan drilling rights.

BP has already admitted that it lobbied for his release.

(07-14-2010 09:31 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(07-14-2010 07:18 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I also believe that there are people in those agencies who want offshore drilling outlawed completely, at all costs, and to them the Gulf coast would have been a cheap price to pay.

I don't want to open up a discussion on conspiracy theories, but I have heard it questioned that if the spill had happened opposite Massachusetts or some other blue state(s), would the governmental response have been different? Quicker? We'll never know for sure, but I have wondered at times about the lack of government response or (what i consider to be) inappropriate responses.

Boston Harbor has a LNG Tanker Terminal right there 3/4 of a mile from Downtown. Not pretty if anytghing goes wrong. If there was an "accident" would Obama blame the terrorists or punish the utilities that import the LNG?

While I was reading about BP's idiotic choice to start photoshopping press photos of its "disaster response" site, I stumbled over this interesting link:

BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/bp_buys_...s_for.html

BEIJING — China's largest reported oil spill more than doubled in size to 165 square miles by Wednesday, forcing nearby beaches to close and prompting one official to warn of a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38337393/ns/...nvironment

(07-21-2010 10:22 AM)JSA Wrote:  BEIJING — China's largest reported oil spill more than doubled in size to 165 square miles by Wednesday, forcing nearby beaches to close and prompting one official to warn of a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38337393/ns/...nvironment

Oh just wait until the Chinese start drilling for oil off the shores of Cuba. USCG better set up a spill response unit in Miami.

Quote:BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/bp_buys_...s_for.html

Wow... scary stuff in there.

I get that there are many people who don't want to defend BP in any way... I'd be one of them... but I don't understand what the complaint by some of them is. Certainly even habitual criminals with a lay-down child rape and murder deserve a competent defense including expert witnesses to question the forensic evidence or police conduct or whatever... and $250/hr is actually pretty cheap for an expert witness... also, Who knows more about the gulf environment than gulf scientists at gulf Universities? Hiring a defense doesn't mean you don't admit a lot of guilt... putting $20byn in escrow in advance certainly accepts an awful lot of blame... merely that you aren't going to accept blame for things that can't be proved... As to the "agreement", that's actually pretty standard "expert witness" language... and they seem to admit this later... though clearly SOME of the earlier commenters feel "violated". I think it is an abuse of government powers and interference with the court system to withold federal funds for universities/researchers who work as expert witnesses for companies trying to defend themselves... or to give grants to those who won't. Certainly, it may simply be an over-reaction to the reasonable request for conflicts disclosure... but SOME seem to imply something else.

It's a microcosm of every political argument... 2 sides to every debate... and both sides think the other is trying to "pull one over on them".

I found this article to be of interest and had a lot of info on the cleanup that I did not know.

http://www.aolnews.com/gulf-oil-spill/ar...s/19572133

Tangentally on topic - this promises to be an interesting series related to a specific LA community and the impact of the distruction of the marsh due to a variety of factors - levees, oil canals, hurricanes - will be interesting to see how much capital, if any, the US will put into coastal restoration. Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune's outdoor writer, is a terrific journalist and photographer, imo.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/...is_ju.html

(08-02-2010 12:05 PM)ausowl Wrote:  Tangentally on topic - this promises to be an interesting series related to a specific LA community and the impact of the distruction of the marsh due to a variety of factors - levees, oil canals, hurricanes - will be interesting to see how much capital, if any, the US will put into coastal restoration. Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune's outdoor writer, is a terrific journalist and photographer, imo.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/...is_ju.html

There was a sizable appropriation for coastal restoration for the Corps of Engineers in the post-Katrina budgets. I don't where the projects were located however.