Legitimate Claims: Cantwell Grills BP On How Much They Will Actually Pay (VIDEO)

Representatives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton all testified before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee about what happened to cause the unfolding oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. After prepared testimony which centered around the executives pointing fingers at each other and deflecting blame, the best moment of the session came when Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) attempted to hone in on exactly what BP was going to pay for. Using the terrible long-term impacts of the Exxon-Valdez spill as a model, Cantwell grilled Lamar McKay, president and chairman of BP America.

McKay's rapid-fire response that they will pay "all legitimate claims" to most of Cantwell's questions, had the eerie ring of corporate doublespeak.

Cantwell ends her questioning period by saying, "I hope we never get into a situation in a court where we are now debating what is a legitimate claim."

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Comments

[lungfish]

01:12 PM on 06/02/2010

Seems like there is a pretty clear path to follow here, right to BPs doorstep as ultimately responsible...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/top-kill-results-awaited_n_591522.html

In a handwritten statement to the Coast Guard obtained by the AP, Transocean rig worker Truitt Crawford said: "I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/29/95064/oil-spill-is-taking-a-toll-on.html?#ixzz0pMxCVZxT

Many are especially concerned that two top BP executives aboard the rig, known as "company men," didn't testify last week at a joint U.S. Coast Guard-Minerals Management Service inquiry into the cause of the accident.

Robert Kaluza invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination; the other company man aboard the rig, Don Vidrine, was on an original witness list but also declined to testify because of an undisclosed illness.

Without their testimony, there's no public accounting of their decision-making, said Keith Jones of Baton Rouge, La., the father of 28-year-old mudroom engineer Gordon Jones. As an attorney himself, he respects the fact-finding process, Jones said, but it bothers him that the company men aren't talking.

[omobob]

03:05 PM on 05/12/2010

How much will Bp pay and in what part of this century will they finally be forced to cough it up?

[StevieRae]

08:06 AM on 05/12/2010

It is UNREALISTIC to expect any of those of officials to acknowledge responsibility (liability) for any portion of the "accident" in answering those questions. Tragically, this whole issue of who's ultimately responsible, who will have to pay the big bucks $$$ will be left to the courts, insurance contracts and lawyers to decide. This is the capitalistic world of insurance and determining fault for assessing $$$ damages.

What we saw in those Congressional hearings yesterday on the oil spill disaster is the function of an insurance product, liability insurance. The denials and cross finger pointing is nothing more than protecting one's hide from being sued by ADMITTING responsibility.

[omobob]

03:07 PM on 05/12/2010

Exxon still has yet to "pay off" Alaska 20 years later? Now thta’s a tragedy. We can expect more of the same from Bp.

[BluestateGuyInTX]

06:02 PM on 05/11/2010

Until we hold the executives of these companies *personally* and criminally responsible for the havoc the corporations they run cause, there will be no end to the havoc. And I don't want to hear their apologists ranting about how it is impossible for them to know everything that is going on in these large companies. There are two major reasons why that is poppy cock: 1) they claim obscene salaries by saying that the buck stops with them and 2) their attitude of "profits above all else" is what leads to the mayhem and havoc.

[sunnyside]

04:40 PM on 05/11/2010

Is the Gulf going to be a toxic soup?

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/05/toxic-soup-gulf

[sunnyside]

04:38 PM on 05/11/2010

"Plans by BP to sink a 4-story containment dome over the oil gushing from a gaping chasm one kilometer below the surface of the Gulf, where the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and killed 11 workers on April 20, and reports that one of the leaks has been contained is pure public relations disinformation designed to avoid panic and demands for greater action by the Obama administration, according to FEMA and Corps of Engineers sources. Sources within these agencies say the White House has been resisting releasing any "damaging information" about the oil disaster. They add that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond. At best, some Corps of Engineers experts say it could take two years to cement the chasm on the floor of the Gulf."

http://oilprice.com/Environment/Oil-Spills/The-Cover-up-BP-s-Crude-Politics-and-the-Looming-Environmental-Mega-Disaster.html

This whole thing is sickening to the core!!!

[BluestateGuyInTX]

06:18 PM on 05/11/2010

Maybe it takes a disaster to get people to see what allowing corporations to run roughshod over democracy has done. If only Iraqis, Afghans, Iranians, Pakistanis and other victims of our oil based imperial wars are the only ones to suffer there will never be change. Perhaps it is human nature that empathy isn't possible until we reflect on our own suffering enough to understand that of our victims. And make no mistake our imperial wars for oil have made many victims.

[sunnyside]

04:37 PM on 05/11/2010

"WMR has been informed by sources in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Florida Department of Environmental Protection that the Obama White House and British Petroleum (BP), which pumped $71,000 into Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign -- more than John McCain or Hillary Clinton, are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP's liability for damage caused by what can be called a "mega-disaster."

Obama and his senior White House staff, as well as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, are working with BP's chief executive officer Tony Hayward on legislation that would raise the cap on liability for damage claims from those affected by the oil disaster from $75 million to $10 billion. However, WMR's federal and Gulf state sources are reporting the disaster has the real potential cost of at least $1 trillion. Critics of the deal being worked out between Obama and Hayward point out that $10 billion is a mere drop in the bucket for a trillion dollar disaster but also note that BP, if its assets were nationalized, could fetch almost a trillion dollars for compensation purposes. There is talk in some government circles, including FEMA, of the need to nationalize BP in order to compensate those who will ultimately be affected by the worst oil disaster in the history of the world."

[BluestateGuyInTX]

06:12 PM on 05/11/2010

Nationalize BP? Don't forget what happened to Mohammed Mossadegh when he tried to nationalize BP's ancestor company. ;-)