The President is scheduled to address the nation tomorrow (June 15), no doubt to try and answer some of our questions and calm our growing concerns about the oil spill. So around the blog community, we’ve been rounding up some of those questions. Here are several from this morning:
• Why does the government seem to side with BP on oil spill estimates? The estimates have continued to swell over the course of weeks in a series of “adjustments.” We can certainly see why BP officials would wildly low-ball these numbers. Fines and other payouts will be tied to the volume of the spill, but why have the government estimates seemed to side more with the company and less with independent experts?
• If you set up this third-party fund, will it, in any way, limit BP’s liability? The fund is a decent start, but it won’t come close to covering the total cost of the cleanup and economic damages. Senate Democrats have called for $20 billion to be put into the fund. Will victims be permitted to use legal representation to access the fund?
• Why does BP get to decide what testing or video or anything else is made public or provided to Congress or other investigators? When experts in charge of estimating oil flow were denied high-resolution video for weeks (among many other delays and denials), doesn’t that pretty much prove bad faith from BP?
There will be many more questions, and we’ll assemble them here.
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Something that has confused me for a while… from all the news reports, it appears that BP will be dipping into corporate profits to pay for the effects of the catastrophe. Aren’t there insurance companies involved in the company’s activities? If not, does anyone know why not?
It seems that insurance companies would have a conserving effect on the oil companies or other polluters in other areas. Is deep water drilling not insurable?
Love to know the answers. Thanks.