Reply #17: I didn't know it had been raised. That's good news indeed.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

It's been years since I had a reason to follow that bit of legislation. The fund is really just to assure cleanup if a smaller (is there such a thing?) oil company were to create an environmental disaster which exceeds their financial means to clean up.

I don't really expect BP to renege on paying for the cleanup. They'd never again be permitted to tap an offshore well if they did. Which would end up costing them way more in the long run than the cleanup of this disaster. I only mention the fund to assure the masses here that there is recourse available if a corporation were to spill and run. Perhaps this incident could even light a fire to feed new fees into the fund while the all to real ramifications of offshore drilling are still fresh in the peoples minds? One never knows.