“BP is responsible for this leak — BP will be paying the bill…”
Mr. Obama met with Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana upon the arrival of Air Force One in New Orleans. Then he went to Venice for two hours — by road, rather than helicopter, because of inclement weather — to look at the response.
He stopped to speak to several fishermen, assuring them that BP would reimburse them for lost earnings. But reimbursement may be one of the largest battles to come, given that federal law sets a limit of $75 million on BP’s liability for damages, apart from the cleanup costs.
“It’s going to be extremely tricky” to reimburse fishermen and others if economic damages tally above $75 million, said Stuart Smith, a New Orleans-based lawyer who is pushing for Congressional action to amend the law…
Offhand, I’d say oil will freeze over before the law is amended. Like “big insurance”, “big oil” spends its money on influence – spreading dollars around the politically “slick” – and few politicians are slicker (pun intended) than Louisiana’s own David Vitter:
The potential magnitude of the disaster and the limited liability established in law, “big oil” is spilling into federal court about as fast as its leaking out of the deep water well: Continue reading “Slicked and Slabbed”