Low Gulf Oil Spill Size Estimate Could Save BP Millions Of Dollars In Court

McClatchy:

WASHINGTON -- BP's estimate that only 5,000 barrels of oil are leaking daily from a well in the Gulf of Mexico, which the Obama administration hasn't disputed, could save the company millions of dollars in damages when the financial impact of the spill is resolved in court, legal experts say.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[noaxe397]

12:10 PM on 05/23/2010

Red Adair, if you are looking down from heaven (or up from hell) please send us a sign as to what to do!

[SystemLink]

11:59 PM on 05/22/2010

In that case, BP should just say there is no leak

Hey, BP said it so it must be true!

[textynn]

04:35 AM on 05/22/2010

BP Oil Spill.... the Musical

Toxic Love (Extended)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg-Wm25T6Qs&feature=PlayList&p=74F51CDB54D970E8&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=42

[Pupadup4oBama]

12:48 PM on 05/21/2010

Yeesh people all you have to do is read the first paragraph to realize this is a "what if". Just because the administration hasn't disputed it doesn't mean that is what will happen.
T r0// bait.

[ticonderoga]

11:31 AM on 05/21/2010

And through it all Obama has sold us out for a couple extra pieces of "corporate person" silver. This will be Obamas watergoo.

[tribalogical]

02:43 PM on 05/21/2010

Watergoo. Clever.

Keep chanting that "Obama has sold us out" meme... ignore his actual actions though. They might reveal that he's acting in direct opposition to your supposition. Cracking down on the financial industry, the health insurance industry, and now moving toward tightening the reins on the oil industry. He's responsive. Turning crisis into opportunity for change.

Wait... that's exactly the position he campaigned on. One of the reasons I voted for him. I'm getting just what I'd hoped for.

What do you know.....

[LooseCaboose]

03:28 PM on 05/21/2010

A modification - Obama's Waterglue (let's include the dispersant globs)
Obama's crack has really been slacking. We got a "Depends" Credit Card Bill, a Band-Aid Health Care Bill without a Public Option and a mandate for Big Carriers with a must buy or be fined clause. "Oh! And you are so right about tightening the reins on Big Oil, why you can here the facade of bureaucratic thunder all over the land. He's even asked for frequent updates, (I'm sure THAT will threaten them into blowing the well).
I'm getting just what I hoped I wouldn't, changed with a half-clean diaper and not EVEN CLOSE to what he campaigned on.
I know though, it all takes time, why 18 months is only a beginning. We got another attorney for president, one we thought had teeth instead of a jump shot.

[Bama Girl]

11:14 AM on 05/21/2010

How did I miss this??????

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/05/cheap-oil-is-costing-us-the-earth.html

[tribalogical]

02:53 PM on 05/21/2010

Dear God...

Why wasn't this woman's voice and perspective given credence BEFORE this disaster?? This is the kind of perspective that should be driving ALL decisions to issue licenses for deep water drilling, or any offshore drilling for that matter.

If we don't start taking amore holistic view of our planet, its interconnected and interdependent systems, upon which we DO in fact depend, we're going to kill ourselves along with everything else.

I'm not a person inclined to "doom and gloom". I'm hardly an extremist. I fairly pragmatic, especially in matters like these.

But we have to say, with one voice, NO MORE to corporate profit taking precedence over all other considerations. Not even "compromise positions" will do.

Here's my proposition: Profit and commerce must ALWAYS take a back seat to these considerations. Period. If you can't earn a profit without destroying the habitats we all depend on, then find another way to earn them. If there are things we "want", but can't have without destroying the habitats we depend on, then we must go without, or find another way.

How simple is that proposition? Seriously.

[Changeizgood]

04:04 PM on 05/21/2010

I told ya.

[hellboundtrain]

10:59 AM on 05/21/2010

You do not want to think about the ramifications of what it means to water supplies, soil quality, and crops when this potpourri of petrochemicals and dispersant is picked up by the evaporation cycle and is delivered via the rain over all.

No,we don't want to think of this.

[Bama Girl]

12:24 PM on 05/21/2010

cotton, soybeans, corn, peanuts, and many other crops.....

Here's a thought how many items are made with cotton????????????

and what's going to happen when there is a cotton shortage to make these items, also corn and peanuts and soybeans..........

[Changeizgood]

04:06 PM on 05/21/2010

Time for massive greenhouse usage. Screens big enough for bees to come in and pollinate, and small enough to keep the birds off the strawberries, blueberries and other fruits. I'd stock up on some bird seed to help these creatures uprooted and starving on the way to migration.

[RnR]

10:45 AM on 05/21/2010

If BP is successful in destroying the gulf, hey, they can say "why not continue drilling all over the gulf...there's nothing there anyway". Picture the Iraqi oil fields, in the gulf :(

[Jack Webb]

12:14 PM on 05/21/2010

As pathetic as that argument sounds, if the gulf truly is destroyed, it is an argument that may well prove difficult to refute :-(

Think about it.

[tribalogical]

03:02 PM on 05/21/2010

Actually, left alone (or with a little help) most 'destroyed ecosystems' recover with time.

Lake Erie was one big 'dead zone', until we cleaned it up. It has some way to go, but has 'recovered' quite a bit... life comes back if we apply a little 'nurture'...

The gulf is going to need a LOT... this is a wake-up call. We'd best answer it.

Solar, Wind, Geo-thermal, Hydrogen fuel-cell... the alternatives are coming online. If WE shift focus and demand to those, we won't NEED 90% of the oil we consume.

Just do it.

[lemmyk73]

12:18 PM on 05/21/2010

Yup- Thanks Obama.

[tribalogical]

02:56 PM on 05/21/2010

what? excuse me? HALLIBURTON and BP cause an epic disaster and you blame OBAMA???

Any excuse, eh? Pathetic....

[DustinTime]

10:38 AM on 05/21/2010

Wow! Look at how mighty, how fearsome the United States is thanks to your tax dollars. Hail the world's dominant superpower...

"Um, okay, BP, we'll, uh, go with what you say. Gee, this really looks bad, though."

So ask yourselves: who really wields the power?

Is the massive, every-expanding Pentagon there for the people? For the interests of the average American, for our environment?

America bends at the waist for BP. All these decades, you are told that we need to become an indebted nation to protect our national security, to be able to defeat any nation, even multiple nations across the globe... and yet a multinational corporation can piss on our leg than tell us to grab some tissues.

Think we're in Iraq for you? For your family? For your kids future?

Sure--if you're a multinational CEO or born into a global banking dynasty.

Wake up.

[Bama Girl]

10:39 AM on 05/21/2010

"So ask yourselves: who really wields the power?"

um Superman????????? or Wolverine or oh hey I know, BP

[Jack Webb]

12:46 PM on 05/21/2010

Twenty years ago the government let Exxon get away with a half-assed non-cleanup of Prince William Sound.

Were our current government to compel BP to do thorough cleanup of this stinking mess - no matter how long it takes - I would be impressed beyond all measure.

I would also all but certainly go into clinical shock.

[AirForce Vet]

10:27 AM on 05/21/2010

You don’t accept the fox’s advice that is over the fox, which has just raided the hen house. We need independent assessment and damage reports.

[Bama Girl]

10:34 AM on 05/21/2010

I swear I did not eat those chickens........................

okay eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww got a mental image of Politicians roasting over an open fire......

[AirForce Vet]

10:39 AM on 05/21/2010

Bama Girl, that’s a good one. You have been fanned.:-)

[tribalogical]

03:07 PM on 05/21/2010

(30 chickens missing, and more going missing every day)

Fox: I only ate 3... OK, maybe 10... wait, what? 30 missing? OK maybe I ate 15... But no more than that! I want it on paper I will not be liable for more than 15!!! Wait, what? 45?!? Halliburton did it!!!

As the oil slick spreads, and outside agencies analyze and revise upward the estimates of how much is leaking, BP is acting just like that fox...

[PizzaGuy1]

10:26 AM on 05/21/2010

The unfortunate facts are that BP and other oil companies are the only ones on the PLANET with the technology to clean up this mess and who have a prayer of stopping the leak. They quite literally have us over a barrel. There was never any effort on the part of the federal government in years past to develop any technology or expertise in emergency management of anything remotely like this. President Obama could drive down there himself, take a boat out and scoop, while simultaneously sending every known military and government piece of equipment and manpower, and they would simply have to stand there and watch the oil spew. The National Geographic Society, NOAA and USGS have confirmed that the only technology remotely capable (no pun intended) of handling this spill is ALL owned by Oil Companies. It is still up to the OIL COMPANIES to get us out of this. The dangers and difficulty of operating at such a depth are enormous, and in some ways are more daunting than working in space.

Finally, as humans that are guests of this planet, it is well past time for us to realize that it is entirely possible to do damage to the planet's physical structure that we do NOT currently, and may never, have the technology to correct, or that CANNOT BE CORRECTED no matter what technology is brought to bear. I am reminded of that old TV commercial:

"It's not NICE to fool with Mother Nature.............................."

[tribalogical]

03:11 PM on 05/21/2010

A month on, and it's still leaking... doesn't seem like the oil companies really do have the technology to seal off a leak at these depths.

It kind of begs the question: Given that's the case, why were they given permission to drill in the first place?

We need to hold some PEOPLE responsible... this didn't happen on its own.

The executives, the enablers, the media pundits 'winning hearts and minds' with the "drill, baby, drill" chant they promote as "America's Future"...

There's a long list of people I'd like to castigate over this.... and preferably find a way to make THEM pay for it... 100 hours of community service. Here's a mop and a beach...

[Changeizgood]

04:10 PM on 05/21/2010

yep. The tr0//z are being paid to come on. You can see how they fanned each other in a tag team, cause they haven't said anything to be fanned for.

Low counts?

[PizzaGuy1]

10:25 AM on 05/21/2010

My god the trolls are working overtime today!

[Bama Girl]

10:34 AM on 05/21/2010

I don't see any trolls, and are they cute????????

[Changeizgood]

04:11 PM on 05/21/2010

nah, more like those little trolls from mattel that had all that hair sticking straight up on their heads.

[Bama Girl]

10:02 AM on 05/21/2010

http://www.wkrg.com/gulf_oil_spill/article/mississippi-clean-up-jobs-for-residents-only/888692/May-20-2010_11-07-pm/

[Changeizgood]

04:26 PM on 05/21/2010

Stupid hick.

mississippi residence are working in other states, yet he denies the other out of state workers work in his.

So stupid, WE need every hand on deck.
I'll be the poor don't see any of the jobs money.
They want to keep it in the higher ups contracting hands where they can hire cheap labor like they did during Katrina. Haley had halliburton contractors in and they had the white residents train illegal labor and then gave the white workers a pink slip.

I wanted to laugh because it's happened to African Americans for that last 30 years, but I saw the guy cry and remembered my tears, and put the link from cnn on viral.

[Bama Girl]

10:01 AM on 05/21/2010

Don't know if any of you have seen this but check it out.

http://www.wkrg.com/gulf_oil_spill/article/new-video-of-the-oil-rig-sinking/888571/May-20-2010_5-44-pm/

[Changeizgood]

04:14 PM on 05/21/2010

The oil company's Titanic!

[Deborah Beck]

10:00 AM on 05/21/2010

I don't see how BP could limit it's liability to 5K barrel as they state that they are siphoning 5K barrels and have released video showing how much oil is still gushing.

I do not like violence, however, it's time for a solid suggestion; and

I'd like to suggest that the Gulf locals make some good use out of that tar and oil damaged bird feathers - yep combine em, find a few BP execs give em a makeover and drive em out of town.