Quote Originally Posted by zib View Post
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of this mess in the gulf. As a Floridian, this hits home for me. I can't believe Oil companies like BP have no contingency plans for situations like this. You mean to tell me no ever brought up, "Well, What if"? I really feel sorry for the people of Louisiana. They've really been through enough, now this?

All the technology we have today, and we can't stop an oil leak. I realize it's a mile below the sea, but something must be done. The cap is obviously not working. I've heard that this has happened in Russia and they successfully sealed the well with explosives. Why isn't this an option?
Someone tell me?
It was brought up. If memory serves, BP had to sign a contract that stated that they had the capacity and resources to clean up a spill 10X worse then this. Obviously they lied, and there was lots of wink-wink nudge-nudge going on. I personally am pretty irritated about it myself, my family and I own property in the area that will be affected, and I live on the gulf coast.

But the reactions I've seen here are moronic. Theres been a decline and de-emphasis on environmental regulation for quite some time now, all in the name of "good for business" and many people in the area when I live are indeed blaming Obama. Its enough to make you a firm believer in requiring an IQ test to vote. Their ham-handed logic trying to justify their stance is interesting, though.

I'm willing to bet that BP will be getting out of it pretty much scot free. Either they'll declare bankruptcy, or they'll be able to invoke the regulation that was signed after the Valdez crash, which limits the liability of companys in situations like this. Even if BP was liquidated, which it should be, I doubt that it'd be able to offset the economic impact they've had in the area, and clean up the environmental mess they've made. Plus, after the leak is finally plugged, people in the rest of the country will forget about it pretty quickly and move on to the next kidnapped blond girl on the news. BP is aware of this, and I'm sure it'll stall everyway it can.

I find it interesting that in all this there have been no suggestions of a boycott of BP that I've heard of. Not even a boycott till they fix the leak. I actually just did a google search on "boycott BP" and saw about what I expected--little to nothing.