What would an appropriate penalty be for BP's destruction of an entire ecosystem?

Once the actual cause of the explosion has been determined and to the extent that it is determined to be BPs fault, they should be required to pay for the entire clean-up.

They they should also be required to partially fund a effort to investigate ways to clean up these kinds of disasters, and anyone drilling on US soil should also be required to pay into the fund which should be used to put Americans to work to develop the technology.

Should neglience be determined they should have to pay some damages to the businesses impacted. If no neglience, they should not have to pay damages.

reply to post by Luke.S

Unless UK citizens are sitting on the board of BP then I fail to see how a fine, if any; would impact the average person on the street, sure some cost disbursement would be passed along to consumers, but then again since BP sells its products globally then the cost would be passed along globally and not just directed at the good citizens of the UK

I believe that we should make BP pay for all the cleanup. Using the logic that Transocean caused it, but BP has the contract, and BP is a UK company, then when BP runs out of money to pay for it then we should make the UK government pay us the remainder until we are paid in full. If it takes 1 trillion dollars to pay for it, then the people of the UK owes the remainder of the trillion that BP cannot pay.

Originally posted by SlickOil
I believe that we should make BP pay for all the cleanup. Using the logic that Transocean caused it, but BP has the contract, and BP is a UK company, then when BP runs out of money to pay for it then we should make the UK government pay us the remainder until we are paid in full. If it takes 1 trillion dollars to pay for it, then the people of the UK owes the remainder of the trillion that BP cannot pay.

You are an idiot is this your post?

reply to post by galloways


Yeah its my post and how am I an idiot? It makes perfect logical sense. Why should US citizens have to pay for this mess when BP runs out of money. It is a UK company so the UK should be responsible. We would prefer payment in cash. Not that we dont trust you, but your balance sheet doesn't really warrant giving the UK credit at the moment.

[edit on 2-5-2010 by SlickOil]

Originally posted by SlickOil
reply to post by galloways

 

Yeah its my post and how am I an idiot? It makes perfect logical sense. Why should US citizens have to pay for this mess when BP runs out of money. It is a UK company so the UK should be responsible. We would prefer payment in cash. Not that we dont trust you, but your balance sheet doesn't really warrant giving the UK credit at the moment.

[edit on 2-5-2010 by SlickOil]

Who said us citizens have to pay ?? Bp have already stated they will pay .
I meant your 1 st post looking at your username and the date you joined it looks like you are just here to attack BP or is it you like attacking the uk? if it was a american company this post would not be here because its a british company people like yourself are all jumping in and acting like it was deliberate

What is not being seen is that the costs for clean up or any fines levied against BP/Transocean are going to be passed right back to the consumers of their products. Surely you don't doubt that TPTB have ways of covering their losses. They will do what thay have always done, pee on the peons...

reply to post by galloways


Have you looked at the scale of this disaster? This is going to take 100s of billions to clean up and many decades to recover. You are talking paying us for all the marine life killed, all the animals killed, all the beaches to be cleaned up, all the water in the gulf to be cleaned, etc... No company has that much money. This will probably exceed a trillion dollars in damages before its all said and done. BP doesnt have that much money and they couldnt borrow that much. They will be bankrupt within a year and so it seems only fair that the UK should be held responsible for the remaining costs that BP doesn't take care of.

reply to post by SlickOil


You do know BP 39% is owned by US companies and some shareholders are russian and chinese only 40%is owned by british companys its not all british yes its a very bad i just hope they get flow stopped

reply to post by galloways


You could say that about any large company. However BP is a UK corporation and so therefore all liability should flow back to them. All profits flowed back to the BP parent and so those profits were taxed by the UK and therefore they need to pay us the remainder.

Everyone knows common shareholders cannot be held liable.

Pay the cost where you can put a prize tag on.

If it was truly negligible. Get them out of business. Imprison every single person who failed or neglect safety procedure and / or warnings.

If it was not. Let them pay anyway for responsibility and make it illegal for any company to drill anywhere where this could happen. Imprison all those responsible for neglecting the possibilities and risk this to happen.
Including government officials.

Hope this isn't the drop that overloads the bucket.

Originally posted by SlickOil
reply to post by galloways

 

You could say that about any large company. However BP is a UK corporation and so therefore all liability should flow back to them. All profits flowed back to the BP parent and so those profits were taxed by the UK and therefore they need to pay us the remainder.

Everyone knows common shareholders cannot be held liable.

BP does not 'belong to England'. It is a multi-national corporation whose shares are in private hands, some in the UK, most not.

The shareholders of BP should take on the responsibility.

Do you also think that the USA should compensate everyone for McDonalds serving nasty, nutrition-free food to the world?
and BP doesn't belong to england it is a business and we are not communists. Perhaps america could pay for all the damage they have done around the world starting with the thousands iraqi children murdered by american forces since 2003

[edit on 2-5-2010 by galloways]

reply to post by galloways

Do you also think that the USA should compensate everyone for McDonalds serving nasty, nutrition-free food to the world?

Not unless McDonalds dumbed all of their nasty, nutrition free food in the gulf and it killed all the wildlife, detroyed the tourist industry, destoryed the fishing industry, destroyed the ocean, destroyed the beaches, etc....

BP is a multinational corporation that is based in the UK just like McDonalds is a multinational corporation based in the US.

Not sure you got on the whole Iraq war tangent though. I guess I will just let that be so we dont get sidetracked.

I will add this BP alone have the burden of the clear up costs.
It's share value has shown a drop because the people who have invested in the COMPANY do not wish to share in the financial losses encumbered in this incident.
When it is all cleared up and the COMPANY restarts it's business in the Gulf the shares will reflect this and once again go up in value and the rats will re-infest the COMPANIES ship, one thing is for certain the cost of the oil cleanup will reflect in the cost of petrol at BPs pumps and others will jump on the bandwagon and raise their fuel prices as a well earned bonus to us all, because as always when the shiit hits the fan it is the plebs who pick up the ticket.
Over and out

reply to post by galloways


You are dreaming. BP will file bankruptcy within a year. They cannot afford to clean this up. Don't worry we can just send the remaining balance to the UK government.. maybe the Queen can pay.

I don't know how people can be so nonchalant about this.

I feel a profound sense of LOSS myself. I feel like someone has hurt my MOTHER.

Prison seems acceptable to me. Maybe execution by oil.

reply to post by SlickOil


I'd like to remind you that the profits made by the big oil companies ussually are above a 100 million range, a year. They should have billions and can sell a number of their branches also bringing up a whole lot of money

Originally posted by SlickOil
reply to post by galloways

 

You are dreaming. BP will file bankruptcy within a year. They cannot afford to clean this up. Don't worry we can just send the remaining balance to the UK government.. maybe the Queen can pay.

You are being totally stupid now It is not a wholly British owned company! and national governments are not held responsible for the actions of companies based in their country in any case.
I refuse to go any further with your silly replys you are totally out there if you think the queen would pay get real

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Hey Sinter Klaas, I agree they make billions most quarters. However they pay that out in dividends and the like. Even if they pay all their profits for a while how many quarters profits would they have to pay to get to a trillion dollars. Even if they sold the whole company it wouldnt be enough. There market cap isn't even close to that.

Sure it should help the UK citizens though if BP paid as much as possible so the remainder is smaller.

reply to post by galloways


Yeah well I was dreaming to think that tight old bat is going to unclinch a dime from her death grip on money.

However, you are saying that the US could send over a company and wreck your environment and the only thing we would be liable for is the value of the company. I might have just found a new way to fight a war if that is the case.