http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/17/866965/-GOP-plan:-Lets-trust-BP-to-pay-what-it-owes?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29GOP plan: Let's trust BP to pay what it owes
by Jed Lewison
Video at link~
Mon May 17, 2010 at 08:00:03 AM PDT
Well this sounds like a really stupid plan:
MR. GREGORY: What about the issue of legitimate claims, as BP said, that it will honor? Do you think that the cap for damages should be higher now, higher than $75 million, as you heard Senator Schumer say they would propose?
SEN. McCONNELL: Well, the danger in that, of course, is that if you raise the cap too high, there will be no competition in the Gulf and you’ll leave all the business to the big guys like BP. What BP has said they need to be held to, which is they’re going to pay for this. They ought to pay for it, and they will pay for it. But the danger of taking the cap too high is that you end up with only massive, very large oil producers able to meet that cap and produce in the Gulf.
McConnell says he's concerned that a high cap would discourage companies from drilling offshore. But if they can't afford to pay for the damage that drilling can cause, why should they drill in the first place?
It's hard to defend any sort of liability cap on oil companies, let alone a $75 million cap.
Why should they be entitled to unlimited profits if they can't be held accountable for unlimited damage?But let's pretend that McConnell's objection were valid. If so, the proper solution would be to tie the liability limit to the size of the company. But he's not proposing that, underscoring his utter lack of sincerity.
Mitch McConnell believes that BP will voluntarily agree to waive the liability cap. Rather, he says he believes that, because he can't really be so dumb as to believe BP won't try to screw over as many people as possible as soon as the spotlight is off them.
In fact,
even with the spotlight still on BP, it's already making moves to limit its exposure. Yet McConnell dishonestly urges us to trust BP's promise to pay every claim. That's crazy. The only thing we can really trust is that big oil is going to line Mitch McConnell's pockets and those of his Republican colleagues.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
