Friday, June 18, 2010

Have I Got A Deal For You !


Well, it seems the White House successfully twisted the arm of the BP executives, forcing them to cough up 20 BILLION DOLLARS over the next 4 years to "mediate" the effects of the oil spill on the businesses affected. That's 5 billion $$ a year. Not an insurmountable amount for a large company like BP.

But it's a LOT of money. Money the company loses, money that won't be used for exploration and production. Money that won't be returned on the shareholders' investment.

I also think the media has played a very large role in keeping tourists from visiting their normal haunts at the beach, further adversely impacting the coastal economies. What is their share?

How about the government's responsibility to inspect the drilling rigs offshore, and enforce existing regulations, that they absolutely failed to do? What is their share?

Other companies will be liable as well, since this was a joint project. The legal eagles will fight that battle.

I don't object to BP posting such an "escrow" amount to be distributed to those truly impacted by the spill. There are many families and small business people who are devastated by the effects of this accident. It remains to be seen how these funds will be REALLY distributed, and how much of them will be absorbed by the "overhead" and "expenses" of paying them out.

If our experiences with the Katrina relief funds administration are any example, it will be rife with fraud, waste, and mismanagement. Even the 9/11 funds distributed by Kenneth Feinberg, currently known as Obama's"pay-czar", had these problems. And, that was less than half of the amount he's going to be in charge of this time.

You don't think there are not already schemes afoot to grab some of this "free money", do you?

Of course there are! Loot always draws crooks. This will be no different.

Sure, we caught and prosecuted lot's of people for stealing Katrina money that didn't deserve it, or need it....they were just crooks. But, the money was most always not recovered, or very little was.

What I object to is the President of our country shaking down a private company for money. That's the appearance of this, no matter how the Administration tries to "spin" it. It smacks of "The Chicago Deal", and gangsterism. It looks really bad. I don't believe the Constitution gives the Executive Branch this kind of power.

I realize we don't have a lot of facts. We are not privy to the behind-the-scenes workings of a deal like this....and it was a deal, worked out beforehand, that much is obvious. You don't really think that such a quick sale was made around a table at the WH, do you?

This "conference" with the BP execs at the WH was strictly for show. BP had surely decided, on advice from their legal and financial teams, what needed to be done. After all, the $75 million dollar cap on spills is the law. I think BP is making an aggressive move to show their willingness to cooperate and do the right thing.

The wrong thing, is for an American President and our government to make Hugo Chavez-like moves to force a private company to give the government what amounts to a huge political tool(the money) to solidify it's position and shore up its crashing popularity with the American public. This isn't a banana republic, Mr. President....it's the USA. You aren't doing yourself or your administration any favors by acting like a dictator.

More facts will emerge in the coming days and weeks. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Will this turn into a free-for-all feeding frenzy that will devour BP, and drive oil production completely out of the US? It very easily could. Politicians are not known for being farsighted. They can rarely see beyond the next election, if that far.

As for the argument that this disaster will drive the rapid development and implementation of "green" and "renewable" technologies to replace "evil oil", we all know that it will take decades to do anything even approaching such a level of use and adaptation. It has to be practical, and actually work. We are only in the infancy of developing and utilizing such technology.

We are going to need that "evil oil" for some time to come. Even if we had the "green" technology ready to go right now, cheap, efficient, and practical, we will still need petroleum for many of our industrial feed stocks. Where do you think plastic comes from, huh? And thousands of other products you use every day.


Then there's the latest federal commission created by our Glorious Leader. Filled with eviros and an anti-oil leader, Fran Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council. She isn't just suspicious about drilling, she outright opposes it.--Fox News

Composed of academic and environmental advocates with ZERO experience and knowledge of the oil industry, this body is charged with ensuring that a disaster like the one we have underway in the Gulf never happens again. They all espouse a similar ideology – one that is opposed to drilling and oil.

And these geniuses are going to decide what to recommend our national policy on oil production should be?

I think someone should ClearTheirBrainZ, except they haven't used them in so long they may be hard to spot.

My guess, is that they will spend lots of our money(that we don't have), eat at many fine restaurants(all while discussing the Public's business, of course), and jet around on government aircraft. I say, we give them a budget and a timeline for completion....just like in the real world. It would be interesting to see if they could perform.

I doubt it. How about you?

Your comments, please.

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