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| [Jeff Darkow, Columbia, MO Daily Tribune] |
Even 'Sponge Bob' has been eliminated by the toxins unleashed by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico! Yet Obamatron & Folks, Inc. has allowed the company to resume operations there--another example of how
entrenched the oil lobby is in Washington. The Repugnant controlled House of (Corporate) Representatives prevented an attempt to end $4 billion in government subsidies to the oil industry (some of which have existed for 97 years), and agreed to weaken environmental reviews for new off-shore drilling. BP
settled with the Justice Department on Tuesday for 2006 oil spills in Alaska. The company was responsible for 5,078 barrels leaking onto the tundra of the North Slope. BP agreed to pay a total of $85 million composed of a $12 million criminal fine for gross negligence, $8 in other penalties and $60 million to improve the safety of corroding pipelines. The company did not send inspection "pigs" through the pipes it manages since 1998! The company also pleaded guilty in 2007 and put on criminal probation. The settlement, despite its size, is literally is a drop in the barrel for a company that made $7.1 billion in profits for just the first quarter of this year. Hopefully, the Alaska case will set a lower boundary for the legal resolution of the
Deepwater Horizon disaster in which an estimated 4.7 billion barrels fouled the Gulf of Mexico. But slaps on the wrist will not change a company's culture which considers environmental regulations nuisances to be ignored. British Petroleum must be made an example to other international oil companies they will not soon forget.
