President Obama is scheduled to address the nation this Tuesday evening about the Gulf oil crisis. It is anticipated that he will demand that BP set up an escrow account to pay claims. This from MSNBC via the AP (emphasis added):
Obama wants BP to set up escrow account President to address the nation Tuesday night
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will demand that BP create a special account with "substantial" reserves to pay Gulf oil claims and is readying aid packages for the region, his top political adviser said Sunday.
Obama, set to visit the Gulf Coast on Monday and Tuesday, also plans an Oval Office address Tuesday night after his return to Washington. He meets at the White House with BP executives, including the oil company's chairman, on Wednesday.
"This is an ongoing crisis, much like an epidemic," David Axelrod told NBC's "Meet the Press."
BP's board was to meet on Monday to discuss deferring its second-quarter dividend and putting the money into escrow until the company's liabilities from the spill are known.
'Hold them accountable'
"Our mission is to hold them accountable in every appropriate way," Axelrod said.
The White House wants an independent, third party to administer the escrow account and compensate those with "legitimate" claims for damages, he said. The amount of money set aside will be part of the White House discussions, but Axelrod said it should be "substantial."
In addition, the Obama administration will announce several aid packages and the president will make clear in his meeting Wednesday with BP's chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, and others about his expectation of BP's responsibility for caring for people affected by the spill.
"They're responsible for it and want to make sure that they meet that responsibility," Axelrod said, adding that Obama believes BP has a legal and moral obligation.
In the meeting, Obama is set to follow the example of some Gulf states, which aim to put the squeeze on the company amid talk of the possibility that BP eventually may file for bankruptcy.
The attorney general in Florida and the state treasurer in Louisiana already have said they want BP to put billions in escrow accounts for claim payments.
"I really don't care how they do it, whether they set up an escrow account or not," said Gov. Bob Riley, R-Ala.
"But we have to do something. If you look at what's going on with the economy and the state of Alabama and Mississippi, Louisiana, and now Florida, we're going to have to have some level of compensation, because our tourist season here is essentially from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And with the beaches the way they are this morning, it's going to be very, very difficult to sustain the economic balance that we've had in the past," he told CNN's "State of the Union."
Asked who might receive compensation — oil workers unable to work because there's no deepwater drilling, stores without shoppers, hotels without guests, fishermen without clean water to fish, states without expected revenue — Riley replied, "Everyone of them. ... I don't think there is a dividing line. I don't think you can say that one group is going to get it and another one doesn't."
The administration's point man for the oil spill said federal officials may appoint an organization outside BP to administer the escrow fund ...
1 comments:
Gotta love the good old USA. By all accounts US churches are going to claim because they are finding less in the collection plate.
How much did Union Carbide pay for the worlds worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Around midnight on December 2–3, 1984, there was a leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other substances from the plant, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.[1] Other government agencies estimate 15,000 deaths.[2] Others estimate that 8,000 died within the first weeks and that another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.[3][4] A government affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in 2006 stated that of the 558,125 cases of injury resulting from the disaster, 516,406 (92.5%) were minor, 38,478 (6.8%) were temporary partial disablement while 0.7% (~3,900) were severely and permanently disabled. The government's classification was criticized after the deaths of people who were classed as having minor injuries.[5]
Some 26 years after the gas leak, 390 tons of toxic chemicals abandoned at the UCIL plant continue to leak and pollute the groundwater in the region and affect thousands of Bhopal residents who depend on it,[6][7][8] though there is some dispute as to whether the chemicals still stored at the site pose any continuing health hazard.[2]
Over two decades since the tragedy, certain civil and criminal cases remain pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India, against Union Carbide with an Indian arrest warrant also pending against Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster.[9][10] Greenpeace asserts that as the Union Carbide CEO, Anderson knew about a 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant, which identified 30 major hazards and that they were not fixed in Bhopal but were fixed at the company's identical plant in the US.
The Government of India claimed US$ 3.3 billion from UCC. In 1999, a settlement was reached under which UCC agreed to pay US$470 million (the insurance sum, plus interest) in a full and final settlement of its civil and criminal liability.
Maybe BP should pay a similar amount?
Of course we can thank the US for those honest bankers that managed to con the rest of the worlds banks out of how much?
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