Why the United States Still Can't Get BP to Do What's Necessary

[Fumesucker]

http://www.salon.com/news/louisiana_oil_spill/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2010/06/13/reich_us_bp

If Obama asserts no legal authority over BP, he can't cleanup the oil giant's cleanup

By Robert Reich

The Administration has not used legal authority to order BP to do a thing, because it hasn’t asserted any legal authority.

Meanwhile, the White House backed off its suggestion earlier in the week that it could stop BP from paying a giant dividend to its shareholders. That suggestion had caused BP shares to plummet and pressure to build on Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron. 12 percent of dividends paid to pensioners in the UK come from BP. Cameron and Obama had a friendly chat Saturday, assuring one another BP is important to both countries.

You see where all this is heading. At some point there’s likely to be a direct conflict. Like any big corporation, BP has legal duties to repay its creditors and to maximize the share prices of its stockholders. Its duties to the United States are still vague and unknown. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 can be interpreted in various ways. So far, the Administration hasn’t tried.

Yet BP is still in control of what’s happening in Gulf to stop the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

More at the link..

[dipsydoodle]

1. Its interesting

that he mentions UK pension funds and ignores US pension funds on which it has an equal effect.

Just saying.

[TexasObserver]

2. The president needs to kick BP's ass more.

The president has many tools available to him. He could have and should have taken over the clean up and required BP to pay it as such costs are incurred. BP should be tasked with stopping the flow from the well, while the government directs clean up through an international fleet using ships from other countries as well as this one.

The president can put the bite on BP in dozens of ways, including sending a team from the FBI to investigate everything BP failed to do that it was supposed to do.

If the president had the commitment to charge with felonies some of these BP officers, he'd find the cooperation of BP underlings easy to get. It's a sad commentary on his handling when we can say that the Bush Justice department was more aggressive pursuing Enron than Obama's has been pursuing BP.

[Laelth]

3. k&r for exposure. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Countdown_3_2_1]

4. If BP won't do something, then WE MUST ACT. (nt)

[miscsoc]

5. 12 percent figure seems to be bullshit

The figure the Times (Murdoch, so if anything the figure's exaggerated) gives is only 8%

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/pensions/article7148161.ece

Most pension funds tend to have about 8 per cent of their UK equity holdings in BP because until recently it represented about 8 per cent of the FTSE 100 index of leading shares.

<...>

I know my pension fund holds BP shares. Will I have suffered a drop in the value of my pension pot?

You could have suffered from a fall in the value of your pension pot if it held a substantial chunk of BP shares. However, the impact of any fall in BP shares will be diluted by a number of factors.

First, even if your pension fund had 8 per cent of its UK shareholdings in BP, that still leaves 92 per cent in other stocks. Second, pension funds invest not only in the UK stock market but also in Europe, the United States and the rest of the world, adding an extra element of dilution. Finally, pension funds normally have holdings in other assets, such as bonds, property and cash, thus ensuring that no one single investment can have too much of an effect on the fund’s overall performance.

The tabloid press:



has been hyping this up into a much larger threat than it actually is, because it sells papers (foreigners taking our stuff!) and pleases the owners' billionaire friends. So a slight downturn in pension values becomes "OBAMA IS KILLING ALL OUR PENSIONS"

[flyarm]

6. Who Owns BP? Biggest Shareholder is JPMorgan Chase

Who Owns BP? Biggest Shareholder is JPMorgan Chase


In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP’s stock value has plummeted, prompting news stories identifying the company’s largest investors. Oddly enough, some media outlets have failed to identify the largest BP shareholder: the U.S. investment firm JPMorgan Chase.

According to the European financial database Amadeus, JPMorgan Chase is the No. 1 holder of stock in BP. That distinction also has earned the Wall Street bank the title of “Global Ultimate Owner” of the oil giant, as it owns 28.34% of BP. Next, at 7.99%, is Legal and General Group, a British-based financial services company with assets of more than $350 billion. Another U.S. investment firm, BlackRock Inc., owns 7.1% of BP. Other owners include the governments of Kuwait, Norway, Singapore and China.

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Who_Owns_BP_...