BP Using Gulf Oil Spill Victims As Pawns To Pressure Alabama To Drop Charges
The Intel Hub
By Alexander Higgens
I recently wrote that the State of Alabama has filed charges against BP and Transocean for covering up the BP Gulf Oil spill and for using dangerous toxic dispersants that have destroyed the environment.
Now if we can only get other states to follow suit AND add a few more defendants to the list like the cronies in the Government who are allowing this to happen.
WKRG News 5 in Alabama reports that the Attorney General of Alabama has filed charges against BP and Transocean for covering up the BP Gulf Oil Spill and using a dangerous and highly toxic choice of chemical dispersants among other things.
MONTGOMERY, Alabama – Alabama’s attorney general is suing BP and others over the Gulf oil spill saying the oil giant has broken too many promises.
Attorney General Troy King filed two lawsuits in federal court in Montgomery late Thursday afternoon. One suit is against BP, the other against Transocean.
In a statement released Friday, King said “their history of saying one thing and doing another, and now, new information that they have been secretly working to gain a legal advantage, can only further damage our people.”
The lawsuit claims “defendants were slow and incompetent, if not dishonest, in their announcements and warnings to the state of Alabama and its citizens and businesses,” referring to the drastic difference in the initial oil flow estimate of 1,000 barrels per day and the latest estimate of as much as 60,000 barrels per day.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified money damages plus punitive damages, also references BP’s choice of a “highly toxic chemical used to disperse oil in the ocean.”
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, causing nearly 200 million gallons of oil to gush into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days before the well was capped last month.
A spokesman for BP declined to comment to the Associated Press.
King filed the lawsuit against the wishes of Gov. Bob Riley, who says the state should pursue an out-of-court settlement first.
Here are some highlights of the charges filed against BP and Transocean by the State of Alabama.
…
Damages to the State of Alabama
Defendants have yet to clean up the millions of gallons of oil, dispersants, and other materials and substances discharged into the waters, property, estuaries, seabed, animals, plants, beaches, shorelines, coastlines, islands, marshlands and other natural and economic resources of the State of Alabama and the ultimate amount of damages incurred by the State of Alabama as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is not yet ascertainable and shall be established according to proof presented at the trial of this matter. However, damages incurred to date shall include:
…
r. Failing to prepare an adequate oil disaster repose plan.
s. Failing to marshal sufficient resources to adequately respond to the oil disaster and protect the waters, property, estuaries, seabed, animals, plants, beaches, shorelines, coastlines, islands, marshlands and other natural and economic resources of the State of Alabama.
t. Failing to use BOPs appropriate for this drilling operations, and failure to test the BOPs there where used.
u. Failing to follow the plans and specifications applicable to the design and construction of the Oil Well and its components.
v. Failing to use safety devices adequate to arrest the flow of oil in the even of a catastrophic failure of the Oil Well or drilling rig
w. Failing to properly design the Oil Well.
x. Concealing or misrepresenting the nature, size and extent of the oil disaster
y. Using Dangerous chemical dispersants of an incorrect nature, type and amount.
…
Now the Montgomery Advertiser is reporting that BP is using BP Gulf Oil Spill Victims as pawns in game to place pressure on the State Of Alabama to drop those charges.
BP executive: State’s lawsuit complicates process for evaluating $148 million claim
The Mississippi-born top executive of BP told Gulf coast officials Sunday that the company is trying to compensate people with losses due to the oil spill without litigation, but that a lawsuit filed by the attorney general of Alabama is complicating the company’s evaluation of a $148 million claim from that state.
Incoming BP CEO Bob Dudley said the lawsuit was filed by the attorney general the same day Gov. Bob Riley and other officials presented him with the $148 million claim for lost revenue.”We hadn’t even read the claim when the lawsuit came. It was that quick,” he said.
…
Dudley said BP officials will meet today with representatives of the Alabama attorney general’s office and Riley’s finance office. He said they will meet to discuss the specifics of the claim and the claims in the litigation. Dudley will not attend the meeting. Dudley said BP’s approach has been to negotiate “without the time-consuming process” of litigation. He said BP, unlike Exxon with the Valdez spill, does not want to spend 20 years in court.
“I do not think that is the way for us to resolve this,” Dudley said…
[The rest of the article is all BP PR Propaganda quotes]
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I find that odd since Mr. Fairness Kenneth Fienberg has been appointed by the Federal Government to be “a neutral fund administrator responsible for all decisions relating to the administration and processing of claims” that is supposed to handle claims against BP from the $20 billion escrow account without any BP involvement.
So to summarize, BP is implying they will not pay claims to Alabama residents unless Alabama drops the charges against BP.
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The AG better watch his back.
Two points: First, 148m won’t come close to “fixing” Alabama. Second, the well isn’t plugged. In a non-fascist nation, BP’s assets would be seized and those responsible would be jailed. Since fascism(defined as a “special” relationship between business and govt)has replaced the Constitution(especially the Bill of Rights), BP will walk on this. They own our “elected” officials. The long term effects of the “spill”,not to mention additional deliberate poisoning with Corexit(banned in ALL of Europe for it’s toxicity)will render the Gulf dead for generations to come.
I agree with “robertsgt40″. Like Bush before him, toy boy Obama is a shill for the fascist corporate elites. Had “toy boy” been a real leader he would have done exactly what robertsgt40 suggested.
So much rubbish you guys talk as well as the Alabama AG who was acting against the Governors wishes.
FIrst, the US Government signed The The Oil Pollution Preparedness Response and Co-operation Convention of 1990 amongst which it encourages co-operation between Government and Industry. When this did not occur at the Valdez spill, there was massive criticism of the GOvernment and Exxon. So lay off this talk of co-operation between government and BP working together. That’s what they are supposed to do and is the best way to get this sorry mess sorted without the silly criticism and talk of fascism.
As to the other accusations, once the enquiry reports then will be the time for litigation to punish those responsible, not in a premature case right now.
Secondly the lawsuit quoting highly toxic dispersant is plain wrong. It has to pass a toxicity test before use that shows it is less toxic than the oil and the resultant dispersant and oil mixture is also less toxic than the oil.
Third
It was the Coast Guard who at the beginning said there was no oil, then from observation of the surface oil, was only 5000 bbls per day. It was not until proper measurements by scientists observing the wellhead that the number changed and they were all announced by the Government not by BP. Remenber it is the US Government in charge of this spill response not BP. They are just carrying out the orders of the Unified Command led by Admiral Allen.
If you don’t believe what is being said you are accusing Admiral Allen not BP of being a liar and I do not think that is the case.
I am stunned that the AL AG has the gonads to enforce The Law. But, frankly, that’s what a real prosecutor does. He’s doing his job-that’s all!! If law enforcement was a consistent practice in this country, the U.S. would not be so bankrupt, phony “war”-ridden, and losing power by the day…
If anyone gives this AG any trouble, he just has to repeat that he’s “doing my job.” He’s under many oaths to uphold and enforce the law, the Constitution, and to protect the interests of the state. At any rate, I’d much rather go down fighting on the side of the law and the good guys, rather than go down by getting poisoned and bankrupt, as they face now. Great case-sign me up!
Sounds like BP is trying both extortion and desperate pre-trial plea bargaining! i.e. a clear admission of guilt. hmmmmmm…..
I imagine Obama’s training inured him to be able to withstand every personal violation possible and welcome the payback. His handlers are now transferring this behavior modificvation to the American people, getting them accustomed to every sick inflicted aggressive act known to prepare them for recolonization by the Old World Order. Get ready for Benny the Rat slipping into your kids’ beds just like during the bad old days.
Whyle ahm reelly ohnly a ‘rednek howse painterr frum Tammpa,Floorda’. Ahd juss lyke u’ahll 2 kno abowte a lil sumptin thatt I lernt, frum knott empting a bukket uf raine wahter!
Whutt ah lernt, wuz thet thiss bukket, hadnt ben emptyd, inn ohver 6 munths, & “did knott hahv ANY skeeter larvi init, AT AHLL”! Maibee, theers sumptin init, “that makes it soh, thaht da skeeters doughnt bee bourn”?
Nohw, ahm shur theers mor redneks in Alabami, thatt cud dew the saime theeng! Ah doughnt hahv a colledge degri, or eevin a hi scool diplohma, or any thin, butt ahm shur you mite dew bettr?
“Ahll it taces, is too gitt a bukket of tapp wahtr, & a bukket of raine wahtr, & sea whut getts da skeeters 2 gro ferst”! “Theers sumptin inn da raine wahter”.Nohw, weerd dus ah goh 2 kool off? Inn da spreeng! Butt NOTT, inn da seement pahnd!
Ahs ah sedd, “theers sumptin inn da raine wahter.An da skeeters doughnt gro…”! Ya, ah gott cuzzins inn mohbeel. Ah reelly wahnt 2 tel em, thaht “theers sumptin inn da wahter, & da skeeters doughnt gro….!”
Ya theenk alabami mite prophit ahff diss 1? Well?
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