Obama Backs Plan to Return BP Penalty Money to Gulf Region

President Barack Obama supports a proposal that a large portion of any federal penalties paid by BP Plc over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill be returned to the states, White House energy adviser Carol Browner said today.

Under current law, any penalties paid by the oil company would go to the general treasury, Browner said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Some Gulf-area politicians have suggested that 80 percent of the money be returned to the states affected by the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The government estimates 4.9 million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf following the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers. The London-based company, which hasn’t agreed to that figure, could pay penalties based on the amount of oil that escaped from the Macondo well.

“There will be a large financial penalty,” Browner said. Returning that money to the states “makes a lot of sense.”

In addition, BP has agreed to a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the spill for their economic losses, and BP will have to reimburse governments for natural resource damages.

“BP will be held absolutely accountable,” Browner said.

A U.S. government report said about 74 percent of the oil that leaked from the damaged well is no longer in the water. BP was able to capture about 800,000 barrels of crude before it entered the Gulf, while some of the oil was burned, skimmed and dispersed.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-08/obama-backs-plan-to-return-bp-penalty-money-to-gulf-region-browner-says.html

I would hate it to be used for Jindal's cocktail parties.

Proving trickle-down economics works, and never mind the small detail that the shrimp will have to be imported.

and I don't believe one thing our government says anymore..they have been in complete collusion with BP from the get go!

Homeland security

The Coast Guard

The FAA

NOAA

they are all lying sacks of crap!

whether they were all lying. If there has been lying who knows when they will be punished? We are still waiting for Bush and Cheney to be punished. The right are the untouchables it seems.

I have not seen one mention of people getting money because their property has now lost huge numbers in Value , that are on the Gulf or in Gulf areas! No one will get back the full value of losing their jobs, or their livelihoods! No amount of money will ever bring all those jobs back..causing many to have to move and relocate with no re-reimbursement.


And certainly no one will be able to make up to the people when the Cancers come and health issues, some seriously life threatening for the chemical exposure to Corexit many of us have had to endure, for 4 months from direct spraying and in the air we breathe and the evaporation of the nasty toxic chemicals evaporated in the air we breathe!

Money doesn't pay for everything, in fact it will pay for little for what we have lost and what our environment has lost for perhaps decades and decades! Longer than I will live!

And money will not bring back the sea life that has been killed and hidden from sight, and the Eco System that is now in many regards destroyed, nor the food chain.

e.g. places around Chenobyl are still not safe

BP took their livelihoods away. They owe it to the people of the Gulf area.