Oil companies have acted recklessly for far too long
For far too long, major oil companies have not been held accountable for their reckless actions that have compromised the health and productivity of our planet, and now this latest catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico will most likely devastate the precious natural resources in our coastal southern states, and perhaps beyond.
At the very least, it will affect the tourism industry and the livelihood of nearly every resident of those states to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars lost. BP cannot be allowed to walk away from this egregious assault on our shores. Such flagrant irresponsibility without consequences should never be allowed to happen again.
We must enact clearly stated and no-nonsense laws so that these companies will finally have to work under specific guidelines and not be allowed to perpetuate any further damage to the character of our land which makes it such an awesome place to live. Can you imagine Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, etc. without their protective wetlands? Because of the greed of industry, we are rapidly heading in that direction, and none of the perpetrators seem to care. What a sad comment on the state of corporate consciousness.
Julie K. Krick Ann Arbor
Comments
Tony Collings
Sat, Jun 19, 2010 : 11:55 a.m.
Just having laws is not enough. In a crisis like this, you need a strong President who is not afraid to pressure a big corporation like BP into setting up a $20 billion setaside for the victims. It was sad to see David Brooks on PBS NewsHour partially agreeing with Joe Barton that Obama should not have done this, and that victims should try to work through the courts. Tell that to the Exxon Valdez victims, who still have not been fully compensated. Good for CNN for interviewing their lawyer about how tough it is to go up against an army of corporate lawyers, as I pointed out in my blog, capturingthenews.com. http://bit.ly/aVjopb
stunhsif
Thu, Jun 17, 2010 : 8:47 p.m.
@D.Mike Rossi, Ditto, could not have said it better! The writer was reckless and fully one sided. Let's think with our brains, not our emotions guided by how we feel at the moment based on our political leaning.
D. Mike Rossi
Tue, Jun 15, 2010 : 9:04 p.m.
Julie, Who said BP was walking away? We have enacted clearly stated and no-nonsense laws to prevent such flagrant irresponsibility, the "Clean Water Act". An excerpt From the law; "It is further the policy of Congress that the President, acting through the Secretary of State and such national and international organizations as he determines appropriate, shall take such action as may be necessary to insure that to the fullest extent possible all foreign countries shall take meaningful action for the prevention, reduction, and elimination of pollution in their waters and in international waters and for the achievement of goals regarding the elimination of discharge of pollutants and the improvement of water quality to at least the same extent as the United States does under its laws. Except as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency aka the "EPA", (hereinafter in this Act called "Administrator") shall administer this Act. So you see, we do have the laws and agencies that should've been handling this from the start. Obama should've been on the scene and or on the TV with in days of the accident. This is turning into, "Obama's Chernobyl and His Melt Down In The Gulf"!! Why did the government refuse all the International assistance?? On 9-11 how many fire companies raced to the World Trade Center before and after the collapse?? That was a disaster that required all available hands to assist in the rescue. When an ocean liner is in distress all available ships respond! When the "Miracle On The Hudson" happened did you see all the water vessels that responded? Every boat, large and small, raced to the floating airliner and not one life was lost!! This President and His Administration had a National responsibility to act immediately! Yet they didn't seem to care enough to act at all. Not until James Carville ripped Obama a "new one" saying, "The President scares me," he said. "When is he actually going to do something? And I worry; I know he doesn't want to take ownership of it. They're being lackadaisical on this, they seem like they're inconvenienced by this, this is some giant thing getting in their way and somehow or another, hope it'll all go away. It's not going away. It's growing out there. It is a disaster of the first magnitude, and they've got to go to Plan B." Thank you James Carville!!!! What a sad comment on the state of this president and his administrations consciousness.
David Briegel
Mon, Jun 14, 2010 : 4:11 p.m.
Good ol' God. There is still oil from the Exxon-Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska! The gift that keeps on giving! All you small gubbermint folks now want your govt to clean up after BP? Now that's havin' it both ways! Any word yet from our vocal ex-VP on the minutes from those energy task force meetings with industry leaders? That's where Silent Dick promised the boys the moon. In the public interest of course! And the reckless behavior was on the part of the anti- regulation crowd and BP and certainly not President Obama! Maybe we should cut their taxes even more since that's the Republican solution to every problem! And Longfellow wants to nationalize BP!!
Trouble
Mon, Jun 14, 2010 : 9:09 a.m.
Call man who put in... he can fix.
Jerry Wessel
Mon, Jun 14, 2010 : 5:59 a.m.
Accidents do happen. No one on any side could predict this magnitude of problems. But I have a friend who was up in Alaska when the Exxon Valdieze had its accident. He said one year later the govt. gave him money (he was the director of an agency ) and told him to distribute it to agencies for further cleanup. He had to give the money away, but nature had taken care of the rest of the cleanup. Oil is a material from the ground and God has given nature the ability to remedy the situation.
Bill Wilson
Sun, Jun 13, 2010 : 8:30 p.m.
Gotta agree, this piece seems to be a bit convoluted... but the fact that Obama has failed to take this matter seriously is indeed, reckless behavior. He's got to get off the pot, and start playing hardball, and if that involves freezing BP's American assets, so be it.
John Galt
Sun, Jun 13, 2010 : 2:26 p.m.
Oil is the building block of modern society. You might like to go back to the "good old days" and live in huts and caves but here is what you must give up: Gasoline, Kerosene, Natural Gas (by product of wells), all plastics in everything you use (including all wire insulation and all those trendy gadgets like iphones, ipods and computers), paint, nylon, polyester, styrofoam, asphalt, detergent, tires-- to name just a few. In a word, all the carbon-based chain chemistry that uses oil as a feedstock. There is a price to pay for these modern items. Of all the thousands of wells, at some time there will be spills and accidents. No evil intent is required. But politics will certainly be played. And the price you will pay for all these items will be made higher by the taxes, regulation and proposed cap-and-tax policies. If you are worried about the earth, practice birth control, as the exploding population will destroy it before the oil will (we should tax children, not energy).
Cold
Sun, Jun 13, 2010 : 9:44 a.m.
Nice, attribute evil intentions to an accident. and how can you say "For far too long, major oil companies have not been held accountable" and then point to all the laws and regulations already in place? seems like you trying to have your cake and eat it too with that statement.