A possible reason why Obama has not intervened in spill

[kratos12]

Is it possible that the WH lawyers came to the conclusion that any attempt at nationalizing the response by bringing BP under government control would limit BP's ultimate liability?

Could BP later argue that the administration, by taking over control of the operation, then became responsible for any subsequent delays in capping the well and thus claim limited liability?

Would anybody think that BP wouldn't take any and every legal avenue to mitigate their responsibility?

Also what role does BP's status as a foreign owned company play in this, does that further complicate or block any admin thoughts about seizing their assets and taking over the response to the spill?

Thoughts?

[rug]

1. Its liability exceeds its net worth.

[avaistheone1]

6. True.

[WeDidIt]

11. So you think current liability exceeds $162 billion?

It's high, but I don't think it's anywhere near that high.

[rug]

17. Easily. And current liability is more than a pun.

[Scuba]

25. How do you put a price on the Gulf of Mexico? Several trillion, at least, in my book.

[WeDidIt]

26. I predict total damages will not exceed $20 billion.

And that's assuming the gusher is not stopped before September.

We'll see who's correct in the end.

[FarLeftFist]

28. I don't get why the Govt WOULD take over..

They don't have a solution for this historic problem either. I believe BP is actually doing everything they can to cap it, the problem is we may not have the means to achieve this. The human race fucked up.

[FBI_Un_Sub]

22. But its assets

include its other oil leases in the Gulf, plus its patent portfolio in renewable energy and in biofuels.

[panader0]

23. I think time will prove you correct

[ThomWV]

2. Another reason may very well be that the Administration has no solution either

Why would you think that anyone in the Administration knows any better than the oil company people how to stop the blow out? Do you think for a moment that the oil company has anything to gain by prolonging the blow out? Of so what? Name it.

[mzteris]

5. Now Thom,

that requires thinking. Don't be too hard on those who refuse to think about this logically.

[Jennicut]

9. No one knows how to stop the oil leak. Everyone working for BP

(the scientists and engineers) hope they know. Methods are being tried that have never been done at this depth. The govt. could take over management but we have no "experts" better then BP's. We could get experts from other countries, that is about it.

[PCIntern]

18. Agreed 100%...

and have been posting that for days now...many argue with me, few refute the point.

[laughingliberal]

20. The administration has the power to ask for help and hire anyone who might be able to help

No one is suggesting the cabine members, themselves, to cap the well, personally.

The oil company has incentive to spend the least amount of money they have to (remember, this is a company that lobbied against a half million dollar piece of equipment that might have prevented this). They also have great incentive to cover up the extent of the damage.

[tularetom]

27. Of course the oil company wants to stop the blowout

For the same reason they got into this mess in the first place - money, or the promise of it.

They can't sell the oil that gushes out of this leak but if they can stop the leak they can drill nearby and capture the oil that remains.

Greed is a powerful motivator.

The fact that they haven't stopped it yet means letting it continue has not cost them enough yet.

[slackmaster]

3. I found a video that explains everything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv041-dAnqs

[dkf]

4. If they are worrying about liability when everything is being killed and destroyed

They are just as bad as BP.

I sure hope there is some other excuse.

[Individualist]

24. +1

[donco6]

7. Their liability will almost certainly be limited anyway.

There's already a bill out to do just that. And we will pass it.

So we can sit there and watch these bumblers try to fix a problem that they, in their incompetence, created; or we can try to interject some outside expertise into the mix so that we can have some assurance that every possible solution really is being considered. I don't think that's too much to ask.

[Bigmack]

8. Possible...also it's possible that it CANT be stopped....

Why let the government look helpless and incompetent, when BP is doing such a fine job of showing their incompetence?

I think we have to stop calling this a "leak" or "spill". It's a blowout... maybe totally uncontrollable.

[Jennicut]

14. Other leaks in shallower water took months to plug.

People have to come to terms with the fact that this is not that fixable. Deep sea drilling is very dangerous to the environment because of that.

[ingac70]

10. Is he suppose to swim down there and plug it up? n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

31. Send Patrick Duffy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_from_Atlantis

[Raven]

12. It is possible that, as bad as BP is, no one else, public or private,

has a better answer.

[time_has_come]

13. Define "intervened" and/or "taknig over control of the operation"

do you mean shunting BP off the leak site and sending in a federal team? Or finding some other private company interested in trying to stop the leak?

[laughingliberal]

15. BP is going to use everything at their disposal to mitigate their liability, regardless.

The law, in place since Exxon Valdez, makes them responsible and provides for government oversight.

[Oceansaway]

16. Beyond Prosecution...nt

[KharmaTrain]

19. Phase One: Stop The Gusher...

Firstly...who says the President hasn't intervened? I've heard him address this issue and even get down to the Gulf Coast to see for himself what is happening. He may not be intervening the way you or others here would like, but we have no idea what's going on behind closed doors and there is plenty of information flowing that says this government is very engaged and involved. Unfortunately there's little they can do and their job appears to be even tougher thanks to BP's ongoing attempt to control the message, and yes, their liability.

BP Execs have all but said they're going to do all they can to minimize any liability and if they can palm it off on the government, so much the better. An easy way for that is for them to just quit this mess, blaming the government for attempting to interfere or even nationalize and possibly escape any liability.

People like to jumble things up here, but the first and most important priority here is to find a way of stopping the oil...and this is something the government isn't capable of doing any faster or better than BP. There's also the attempt to prevent the oil from ruining shorelines and the jury is out as to how cooperate and effective government efforts are. This is a slow motion tragedy and thus snap judgements have little merit.

After the damage is controlled, then we get to the blame and liability game. And there's plenty to go around. I do think there is criminal violations that need to be investigated as well as a full assessment of the economic impact of this disaster. We are a long way from even getting a handle on it. In the meantime, BP is on the hook and they'll use every trick they can to shirk any and all liabilities.

[randr]

21. This reminds me of the injured victim scenario

where people will ignore the cries or just walk by a person who is obviously suffering.
After the fact everyone who ignored the situation is guilty.

[ooglymoogly]

29. Gee and here I thought the first concern was to stop

the destruction of our planet and keep the sky from falling. Cluck....Cluck....Cluck. I should have known it was about money first, above all, and foremost.

[customerserviceguy]

30. You've made some good points

Especially about BP's propensity to always try to put the blame on others.

As for the whole "foreign corporation" thing, I wouldn't worry about it. They have assets that are located within the United States, and are subject to the jurisdiction of our laws. They'll be afforded the full opportunity to defend themselves in the many lawsuits that will arise, and once those are decided, they can and will lose assets. International law is not going to interfere with our ability to collect damages across national boundaries, either.

I don't seem to recall anyone riding to the oil industry's rescue when their assets got nationalized in various oil producing nations of the Middle East, with far less due process than BP is going to be afforded in this country.

[flamingdem]

32. Yes on the liability question, billions are on the line of course nt

[FBI_Un_Sub]

33. US Government May Not Have The Assets

We may not have the specific people with the specific skill sets! We may not have the specific hardware!

Don't forget - the 1980's were a devastating decade for petroleum drilling engineers, with truly massive layoffs (and when the industry began rehiring, they (re)hired Emirate nationals for jobs in the Emirates).

You can't snap your fingers in Silicon Valley and say "Hocus Pocus Dominocus! You are hereby retrained from a Computer Engineer to a Petroleum Drilling Engineer!" For a good engineer (who is not a Petroleum Engineer) you are looking at a year - full time - 24 by 7.