Posts tagged BP
Why Should Taxpayers Pay for Toxic Cleanups?
Mar 2nd
WE SHOULDN’T! Let the profiteers who cause the problems pay.
JACQUELINE MARCUS
FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
CopperPollution
(Photo: Cls 14)
If an oil or coal firm releases toxic chemicals that poisons every living thing it touches (Freedom Industries) and sends thousands of residents to the hospital from lethal exposure, (read Truthout’s Editor William Rivers Pitt’s recent pieces Diary of a Dying Country and The Poisoner’s Reckoning), U.S. government officials not only will pat the oil-coal thugs on the back, they’ll hand over a check worth millions of tax dollars for cleanup fees. And if that isn’t insulting enough for you, the insurance companies will also allegedly pay the dirty energy oligarchs again for the same amount.
No criminal charges, no one goes to jail, and to add insult to injury, they’re actually paid twice for contaminating our drinking water, for putting thousands of Americans in the hospital from toxic poisoning, and for turning communities into real estate nightmares.
The insurance settlements represent a drop in the bucket to oil companies that receive close to a trillion dollars a year combined in profits, but those extra millions that the oil firms pocket can make a significant difference for cash-strapped states. It’s like stealing a tiny piece of candy from a baby when your store is spilling over with tons of sweets.
Why are we, the taxpayers, paying for the oil oligarchs’ hazardous toxic messes in the first place?
By and large, the fossil fuel industry owns the U.S. government. You will never see oil-coal executives arrested for the environmental crimes they’ve committed even when Americans have died from their toxic explosions and disasters. That’s why when President Obama boasts about how he increased drilling, fracking, and the construction of oil pipelines beyond George W. Bush’s wildest dreams, which means more disasters are bound to happen, it makes you question Obama’s motives, especially when we’re heading full speed ahead to mass extinction from carbon emissions produced from oil and coal.
Federal regulations for sale: Why disasters keep happening
When Republicans rage about federal environmental protection regulations, think about how we’re rapidly heading towards mass extinction. Instead of increasing regulations, Republicans want to gut the Endangered Species Act, and they’re determined to blow up the Environmental Protection Agency so that big polluters can continue to rapidly push us beyond our ability to survive.
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As they’re shredding the last of the public safety regulations, think of the perpetual oil, fracking and coal disasters, and you’ll get the picture of what “deregulation” looks like. Americans pay the consequences for a government that’s been paid to look the other way.
Federal oversight of eroding equipment is not taken seriously. The feds rarely inspect the fossil fuel industry’s equipment whether it be fuel storage tanks, drilling rigs, pipelines, and most importantly, aging equipment at refineries.
For all the brouhaha the President and elected officials make about protecting the public, the fact that oil-chemical disasters continue to happen demonstrate that they could care less about protecting the general public’s welfare. The oil industry is notorious for putting workers at risk. Should petroleum engineers, manual laborers, or if an honest federal inspector complains, they’re threatened and told by the industry’s supervisors that they’ll lose their jobs.
A friend that formerly worked for a major oil company spoke about the federal inspection process, and if what he says is generally true, it explains why these disasters continue to happen: “The federal inspectors are easily bribed, boxes are checked off based on the word of the oil management team, and then permits are stamped for approval.” In short, U.S. federal inspections of antiquated equipment for the protection of workers, the public, and the environment are a joke.
You would think that the petroleum executives would want to maintain and upgrade their equipment to prevent potential disasters. But thanks to our oil-soaked elected officials, oil execs don’t have to worry about the disasters they create from gross negligence. We, the taxpayers, pick up the tab—while the petro-thugs get paid twice for the cleanup and make off with the profits. Oh and speaking of taxes, Big Oil hardly pays any U.S. taxes, if at all.
These recurring disasters are far from being “leaks” and “spills”: those are Big Oil euphemisms that are used by the media and politicians in the attempt to deceive the public. Think of BP’s Gulf catastrophe. There is no clear evidence of a recovery. On the contrary, it’s been over three years after the explosion and enormous dead zones are spreading throughout the Gulf. As Truthout reporter Dahr Jamail noted, thousands of Gulf residents have been suffering from the toxic exposure. Nevertheless, President Obama still refers to BP’s worst oil disaster in history as a “leak”.
Who’s to blame?
Every other week you read about another oil catastrophe: trains exploding from the fuel they’re transporting, toxic water contamination, offshore rig explosions, pipeline ruptures and refinery explosions, on and on it goes, there’s no end to it—many of which could have been prevented if federal inspectors were doing their jobs and if the oil firms were diligent about maintaining safety equipment.
These disasters are systemic cases of gross negligence that threaten the public’s health. While our elected officials are being wined and dined by Big Oil criminals, they see the American people as merely “collateral damage” when disasters happen, and then proceed with business as usual.
Who’s to blame? The oily legislators have passed laws with the fossil fuel lobbyists that benefit the oil industry at the expense of our environment: our drinking water, our oceans, our forests, our farms and ranches—all sacrificed in exchange for campaign funding and happy-go-lucky party money. I’ve asked this before and I’ll ask it again: Can we eat and drink oil?
Executive decisions lead to ongoing disasters
If President Obama is sincere about preventing another BP Gulf disaster, as he often claims, then why did he give Shell approval to drill in Alaska’s dangerously turbulent Chukchi Sea—home to more than half the nation’s polar bears? Moreover: Shell is working with Transocean: BP’s collaborator that contributed to the unprecedented 2010 Gulf of Mexico catastrophe due to Transocean’s faulty equipment which was never properly inspected by the federal government.
President Obama is fully aware of Shell’s critical malfunctions of transporting their rig at sea, which was shoved to the shore like a bobbing toy from Alaska’s turbulent winds. To allow Shell to proceed is unconscionable when this near disaster signaled an alarming siren of warning to the White House. There’s a perfect example of why disasters keep happening.
New Laws: the American public v the U.S. federal government
Our legislators are perpetually occupied at passing new laws that benefit the fossil fuel industry at our expense.
Well maybe it’s time for us to pass a few laws against our legislators:
New Laws: The fossil fuel industry from now on must pay for cleaning up their deadly toxic disasters that they create, not the taxpayers and not the insurance companies. If the federal government fails to inspect faulty and aging equipment, then the President, and members of the legislature that receive dirty energy money, must pay for the cleanup expenses when disasters occur as a result, and they must establish a multibillion dollar fund for families and animals that are harmed, injured, killed or poisoned from the toxic chemical disasters from their dirty energy campaign money. If they (fossil fuel firms and legislators) do not pay for the cleanup expenses, and for all those who have been affected and harmed immediately after it happens, they will be held to a mandatory prison sentence of ten years in federal prison without bail or parole.
If this were to happen, oil and chemical disasters would be reduced to rare exceptions if at all.
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Footnotes:
1. Freedom Industries, a coal-industry surrogate in West Virginia, dumped poison into the water supply known as the Elk River, waited 24 hours to tell anyone about it, waited even longer to mention that they had also dumped a second poison into the water supply, and then declared bankruptcy so as to make themselves judgment-proof in civil court against the hundreds of thousands of people who couldn’t eat or work or bathe or cook for weeks…and this was all before the stuff they dumped into the river evaporated into formaldehyde, which it does, so everyone who couldn’t eat or bathe or cook for weeks was suddenly eating and cooking and bathing in a whole different poison, this one being a known carcinogen…but they’re bankrupt now, so screw you and your tumors. (William Rivers Pitt: “The Poisoner’s Reckoning”)
2.
Earth Day Network Aims for Billion Acts of Green
Apr 21st
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-21-02.html>
WASHINGTON, DC, April 21, 2011 (ENS) – Earth Day Network and
Facebook are collaborating to motivate people to participate in the
Billion Acts of Green campaign with a new application for publicizing
environmental actions. The Facebook app is part of Earth Day Network’s
campaign to reach “a billion….
BP to Pay $1 Billion for Early Gulf Coast Restoration
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-21-03.html>
WASHINGTON, DC, April 21, 2011 (ENS) – BP has agreed to provide $1
billion toward early restoration projects in the Gulf of Mexico to
address injuries to natural resources caused by latest year’s oil
spill, the largest in U.S. history. …
<http://www.youtube.com/embed/OkQSQvvkW08>
Japan Enforces No-Go Zone Around Crippled Nuclear Plant
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-21-01.html>
TOKYO, Japan, April 21, 2011 (ENS) – The Japanese government will
enforce a no-entry zone within 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) of the
battered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from midnight
Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said today…..
Bolivia Celebrates Law Granting Rights to Mother Earth
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-20-01.html>
LA PAZ, Bolivia, April 20, 2011 (ENS) – Bolivia today marked the
International Day of Mother Earth with a ceremony in the Plaza
Murillo, the center of political power. An ancient ritual shared
center stage with speeches in which authorities in this Andean nation
extolled the Law of Mother Earth – the world’s first legislation …
BP Sues Transocean for $40 Billion Over Gulf Oil Spill
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-20-02.html>
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, April 20, 2011 (ENS) – On the first
anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout in the Gulf of
Mexico, BP today filed a $40 billion lawsuit against the rig’s owner,
Transocean…..
UN Chief Charts Five-Step Path to Global Nuclear Safety
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-19-02.html>
KIEV, Ukraine, April 19, 2011 (ENS) – As he prepared to visit
Chernobyl 25 years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlined a five-step plan to strengthen
global nuclear safety…..
Entire Gulf of Mexico Reopened to Fishing a Year After BP Spill
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-19-01.html>
WASHINGTON, DC, April 19, 2011 (ENS) – Federal regulators today
reopened commercial and recreational fishing in all federal waters of
the Gulf of Mexico that were closed to fishing due to the BP Deepwater
Horizon oil spill……
BP Blowout One Year Later: Drilling Safety an Explosive Issue
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-18-02.html>
WASHINGTON, DC, April 18, 2011 (ENS) – Hundreds of activists
protesting fossil fuels marched to the Department of the Interior’s
headquarters today and swarmed inside, calling for the abolition of
offshore oil drilling, coal mining and tar sands extraction……
Georgia Court Rejects Air Permit for New Coal-Fired Power Plant
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-20-092.html>
ATLANTA, Georgia, April 20, 2011 (ENS) – A Georgia administrative
law court has sided with two citizen groups opposed to the proposed
Longleaf coal-fired power plant in Blakely, Georgia, designed to be
the largest coal plant in the nation…..
Huge Texas Wildfires Scorch 1.5 Million Acres
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-19-091.html>
AUSTIN, Texas, April 19, 2011 (ENS) – A unprecedented wildfire
situation in Texas has set more than 1.5 million acres ablaze, forced
hundreds of people to flee their homes and destroyed hundreds of homes
and buildings…..
U.S. Offers $5 Million to Advance Electric Vehicles
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-19-093.html>
WASHINGTON, DC, April 19, 2011 (ENS) – U.S. Energy Secretary Steven
Chu Tuesday announced $5 million in new funding for community efforts
to deploy electric vehicle infrastructure and charging stations. ..
Shell Eco-Marathon Winner Gets Over 2,500 Miles Per Gallon
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-19-092.html>
HOUSTON, Texas, April 19, 2011 (ENS) – A prototype car that achieved
an amazing 2,564.8 miles per gallon won first place in the Shell
Eco-marathon 2011 in Houston this past weekend. …
EPA Considers Ban on Dangerous Chemicals in Spray Foam Insulation
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-16-092.html>
WASHINGTON, DC, April 16, 2011 (ENS) – The U.S. EPA is considering a
ban or restriction on consumer insulation and sealant products
containing a family of chemicals known as diisocyantes….
U.S. Alliance Debunks Myths Surrounding Fuel Efficent Cars
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-16-091.html>
NEW YORK, New York, April 14, 2011 (ENS) – Go60MPG, a new alliance
of American environmental groups, is rallying support to raise
federal fuel efficiency standards for new cars to 60 miles per gallon
by the year 2025…..
Congress Pulls Wolves Off Endangered Species List
<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-14-093.html>
WASHINGTON, DC, April 14, 2011 (ENS) – Congress today approved a
budget bill that includes a rider removing wolves in Montana, Idaho,
Washington, Oregon and Utah from the federal endangered species list
and sets the stage for near-term delisting in Wyoming. The measure
returns control of wolf management to the states….
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Press Releases From the Environmental Marketplace
Hospitals Around the Country Hold Earth Day Events to
Highlight Importance of “Going Green”
<http://www.world-wire.com/news/1104210001.html>
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 21, 2010 –/WORLD-WIRE/– Hospitals and
other members of the health care sector will be marking Earth Day
2011 with a wide variety of events showcasing their efforts to
develop sustainable operations and reduce their environmental
footprint. From making a rap video to staging water tasting and other
educational games, those engaged in sustainable health care are
finding fun and creative ways to educate their peers and their
communities about their successes in lessening their impact on the
environment.
Toyota Financial Services Celebrates Earth Day and Boys & Girls
Clubs of East Los Angeles with $500,000 Investment and “BE GREEN
DAY” <http://www.world-wire.com/news/1104190001.html>
<http://www.world-wire.com/news/1104190001.html>
American Standard Inspires Solutions in Earth Day Video, ‘Water
Wake-Up Call’ <http://www.world-wire.com/news/1104180001.html>
PISCATAWAY, N.J., April 18, 2011 –/WORLD-WIRE/– – Water usage
and costs affect all Americans and are becoming newsier topics every
day. As Earth Day on April 22 nears, environmental news will get a
special focus.
Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud Retains Power in Scandalous
Malaysian Polls <http://www.world-wire.com/news/1104190002.html>
KUCHING, SARAWAK, MALAYSIA, April 19, 2011, –/WORLD-WIRE/–377,000
votes from a population of 2.4 million have been sufficient to enable
Abdul Taib Mahmud (“Taib”), the controversial Chief Minister of the
Malaysian state of Sarawak, to be returned to office for his seventh
term in power. Despite heavy criticism over graft and abuse of power,
the Taib-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition has won the Sarawak state
polls, which were held last Saturday, with a majority of 54.5% of the
votes.
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