Let's get one thing straight:
The ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill is not an "Act of God." I use the insurance-speak because it's the most common explanation for environmental disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, lightening, and excessive flooding. It's a common loophole through which insurance companies often weasel out of paying on the homeowner's insurance policy.
We cannot allow BP to back away from Deepwater Horizon by using the "Act of God" defense. Tony Hayward would have you believe that BP is shocked--shocked!--by the whole incident. Republican lawmakers, like Rep.
Joe Barton (R-TX) would have you believe that the $20
million billion escrow account demanded by the Obama administration is a "shakedown."
When a company is deliberately negligent in safety preparations AND ridiculously unprepared for disaster with a completely ineffectual response plan (note to BP:
there are no walruses in the Gulf), they should be held responsible and fiscally accountable.
Period.
(Edited to accurately reflect escrow amount, as per agnophilo's good catch)
Comments (14)
a shake-down? they know they're going to be sued for more years than Hayward will be CEO. i don't think $20bil will be enough.
An act of God...really? That's passing as an excuse? I just dripped coffee all over my shirt because my mouth shot open...
I heard this at work yesterday, and although the oil spill is not funny, I thought that was!
Don't understand why god is included in insurance clauses.
oh but didnt you know, anyone that thinks this has already been unAmerican and anti-business? @TheBigShowAtUD - I agree
Heh I wrote about this today but took an entirely different spin on it.
Wow. Marat wasn't that green!
@haloed - Well, it's kind of a convenient and pithy way to say "natural disasters not covered specifically by our policy." A holdover from the 40s and 50s, really.
Actually it's a 20 billion dollars escrow account...
@HappyLemming - I love the original David but I might actually love this alien photoshop version more :).
@agnophilo - Oh, good catch! I'm editing, will credit. My typing mistake.
@abbylyne - No need for credit. But yeah, just a thousand times more money : P
@agnophilo - Which is probably still not going to be enough to cover the environmental devastation, the direct result of their complete and utter negligence.
@abbylyne - Probably not, but it's a good start.