[ale] BP knew of problems 11 months before the rig blew -further OT

[Tom Freeman]

On 06/03/2010 10:23:33 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Geoffrey
> <lists at serioustechnology.com>wrote:
> 
> > Jim Kinney wrote:
> > > True. EarthFirst is often seen as ecoterrorists. Their antics 
> have
> been
> > > very geared towards don't make an eco mess while causing problems
> for
> > > "the man". This BP mess sounds more like NASA bad management 
> calls
> and
> > > the Challenget disaster.
> >
> > Agreed.  I think the bottom line is, either they cut corners, or
> they
> > simply did not plan for dealing with such a problem.  Disaster
> recovery
> > should be part of their plan, obviously it was not.
> >
> >
> > Agreed. Either is bad. Both is a gross lapse of judgement. It
> appears on
> the surface (no pun intended) to be both. MMS is also in need of some
> serious slapping. The splitting into license fees and oversight 
> groups
> is a
> good start.
> 
> Maybe the US needs a fleet of the fancy oil skimmers like Norway has
> to be
> deployed on hot standby where ever we have oil traffic on the oceans.
> 
> 
> Heh, heh. My snark bone tells me if the skimmers are deployed the
> company
> that sprung the leak pays for the full cost (boats and crew plus
> overtime,
> etc.) of the deployment and the captured oil is sold on the open
> market and
> the funds are used to support research to improve the oil process
> safety (or
> really snarky - alternative energy sources!). Add in punative fines 
> of
> highest market value of oil for the 12 months prior to the spill for
> the
> total spill amount multiplied by the number of days or partial days
> the
> leaking occurred.  Makes for quite an incentive to make no mistakes.
> So
> $85/barrel peak price X (low end 5kbb/day X 32 days so far) X 32 days
> so far
> = $435.2M so far. . At the high end of 20kbb/day and nothing stops
> until
> relief wells done in August  (90 days from explosion) is $13.77B.
> 
> That will catch the attention of the CFO!

I like the way your fines work. The cynic in me wonders whether or not 
the legal system would allow it. (And/or the bought sheep of 
Washington)