Reid: BP's 'greed' caused oil spill

[kpete]

Source: The Hill

Reid: BP's 'greed' caused oil spill
By Eric Zimmermann - 05/17/10 02:27 PM ET

The "greed" of BP executives led directly to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) charged Monday.

Reid linked the oil spill to the mistakes of Wall Street during a floor speech on financial reform.

"Wall Street isn’t the only place where a reckless pursuit of profits has proved destructive," he said. "In the weeks since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, as much as 20 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico."

He continued: "Their greed led to 11 horrific and unnecessary deaths. It has harmed an enormous tourism industry, threatened business at countless fisheries and disrupted life for many along the Gulf Coast. As the pollution grows worse, those consequences will only compound."



Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/98193-reid-bps-greed-caused-oil-spill

[superconnected]

1. +1

[Oregone]

2. Now we can eliminate greed by socializing the industry...

Or we can just grand stand for votes and let the status quo persist

[apnu]

6. Hell, effective and vigorous regulation would have prevented this. (nt)

[protocol rv]

14. What does socializing the industry mean?

I'm not a US native, but I understand socializing means something like sitting down and having coffee and chatting. So you want to set up some sort of forum where you sit down with BP's managers, have coffee with them, and chat so you can get to know each other? It sounds a bit impractical. Unless you mean to put a lot of red pepper in their underwear at the same time.

[salazarmms]

30. Then why is the Coast Guard helping BP cover this thing up?

It seems the Coast Guard is greedy too.

[LakeSamish706]

3. Maybe so, but Reid fails to mention that the Bush/Cheney Administration,

the Obama Administration and Congress are all guilty as charged for failing to keep these companies in check.

[glitch]

7. Exactly -- it wasn't just BP's greed Harry. nt

[truedelphi]

10. Now there is one Big Inconvenient Truth. n/t

[terrapinwelcher]

11. You Nailed It!

Bush/Cheney and Halliburton are no different than Obama and BP. Reuters just put out an article that Obama has been BP's candidate of choice for political contributions. I swear that I get so disillusioned sometimes. I really hoped that we would be witnessing real and monumental change, but it appears to be more of the same old crap and political ties to crony capitalists. What saddens me is that most of my progressive brethren are turning a blind eye to the fact that Obama is acting just like the previous eight years of horror show that we suffered through. And yet when someone like you posts about it, the majority on this board remains silent. If all we do is say "Our guy good -- Your guy bad", how are we different than the repugs? Seriously people, whatever happened to principles? It's nothing but fricking blood money.

BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company's political action committees - $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.

On top of that, the oil giant has spent millions each year on lobbying — including $15.9 million last year alone — as it has tried to influence energy policy.

During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505

[louis-t]

12. 15 mil would have gone a long way toward

making their rigs safer. Jeez!

[dave29]

13. and how much did he get from everyone else?

?

[City Lights]

34. !

:thumbsup:

[avaistheone1]

4. No kidding.

Kudos to 60 Minutes for their expose on Sunday. Wow!!!

[joanmj]

9. 60 Minutes +

the news channels and the voters need to keep up the heat.

[salazarmms]

32. Keep up the heat...

for only 1 hour?

[BeyondGeography]

5. Simply and properly put

[ananda]

8. Ermmm...

Reid needs a reality check here.

What regulations and enforcements were in place to control
the greed of BP and its bypassing of safety measures?

Hmmmm?

[w4rma]

18. What people and companies lobbied to remove those regulations and enforcements? (nt)

[humbled_opinion]

15. OK We get all that....

but tell me Senator and to the rest of the Democrats in Congress, after you fine BP and force BP to pay clean up costs and pose stricter regulation on BP etc...

What will you do to stop BP from passing those costs back on to the consumers, US?

Nothing because none of you have the nuts to do what is needed and that is nationalize the Oil industry and let the government devise a plan to get this nation off of OIL once and for all.

I am so done with all of these politicians.

[guitar man]

16. Well Harry

You better send them a "strongly worded letter" that will show 'em !!

:sarcasm:

[CLANG]

17. Greed. The Super Fucker-Upper!

[sabra]

19. $10 bln oil liability cap not enough-US Sen. Reid

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - A proposed cap of $10 billion in liability for oil companies to cover damages from oil spills is "inadequate," U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Monday.

Democrats have introduced legislation that would raise the current $75 million liability cap to $10 billion per company for each incident. Reid urged fast action on raising the cap, saying that $75 million was "clearly insufficient" but, "I certainly think a $10 billion cap is inadequate."

...

In his prepared remarks, Reid cited a report on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday of "damning evidence that the roots of this tragedy are in BP executives efforts' to pad their own wallets."

"Their greed led to 11 horrific and unnecessary deaths. It has harmed an enormous tourism industry, threatened business at countless fisheries and disrupted life for many along the Gulf Coast," Reid said. "As the pollution grows worse, those consequences will only compound."

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N1781571.htm

[Ruby the Liberal]

20. I thought that had already been voted down?

[bonnieS]

26. there was no vote

They were blocked from having a voice vote.

[Ruby the Liberal]

27. Ah. Thanks.

[truedelphi]

21. Transporting the population of this planet to another one,

Where the oceans are still thriving, and the oxygen from the plankton is still being produced, might cost a whole lot more than ten billion bucks.

[aquart]

22. No cap on profits? Then no cap on liability.

[Andy823]

24. Couldn't agree more!

Gas in my area went up last month to $3.27 a gallon when oil started to climb from around $80 a barrel up to I think $86. This happened in just a couple of weeks. Now oil is around $70.00 a barrel, and the price is still $3.27 a gallon, and there is a huge surplus of both crude oil, gasoline, and diesel! They jack the price UP every week, sometimes twice a week, when prices for oil or going up, but when the price drops, around $15 a barrel so far, the price of gas doesn't move! I keep hearing it will go down before memorial day, but it looks to me like they are trying everything they can to keep it up till "after" memorial day!

Greed is the only ethics they have, and like you say, if we can't cap their profits to stop them from manipulating the prices, then there should be no cap when they cause a disaster like BP did in the Gulf!

[harmonicon]

28. +1

[jtrockville]

29. +1, Right on!

[flor-de-jasmim]

23. No cap on the well? No cap on liability!

Since corporations are able to astound us with the amount of damage they can do to live, livelihood, nature, etc., WHY ON EARTH should there be a predetermined cap?!

[Scuba]

25. Atta Boy, Harry !!!

[salazarmms]

31. Reid knows Greed

[salazarmms]

33. 1 Trillion

Which is just about BPs total assets.