[Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer]
The pecuniary interests of BP have been directly opposed to the free flow of information about the disaster because their liability under the Clean Water Act alone is measured by the amount of oil spilled. The latest, most popular figure quoted is 4.9 million barrels. Fines under the Act according to AFP range from $1100 to $4300 per barrel making BP's exposure just for the spill as much as $21 billion. The government will have to rely on the company and its contractors for the salvage operations. The Coast Guard is not equipped to do the work itself despite the fact that much evidence of whether negligence or worse was involved on board the Deepwater Horizon will come from the sunken platform wreckage. Not only does the technical information about the disaster come from the perpetrators, the federal government is complicit in the control of information about environmental damage. The international environmental organization, Greenpeace, is responding to the lack independent, verifiable data by sending the Arctic Sunrise research vessel into the Gulf to collect information about ecosystem damage from crude oil and chemical dispersant. US Person will follow the results of the three month survey on line because America needs the truth.