BP spokesman Steve Rinehart told Bloomberg News that BP will deduct the $3.5 billion already spent on cleanup efforts and any future expenses:
"Taxes are paid on profits.
If our profits are down due to increased expenses such as the cost of responding to this spill, then it follows that our tax bills will be lower as a result."
Down in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is said to be "pleased" with the effort thus far to recap the oil leak, an effort that they took up in earnest over the weekend.
But at least one former BP contractor, Adam Dillon, is less than pleased with his BP paymasters and has come forward to talk about his experiences to WDSU in New Orleans.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/12/adam-dillon-bp-contractor_n_642894.html
At a town hall yesterday in Athens, Georgia, Rep.
Paul Broun (R-GA) said maybe� Obama is purposeful[ly]� giving a poor response to this oil spill� so he could promote his energy tax�. Despite the absurdity of Brouns comments, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) managed to concoct a far crazier conspiracy theory with radio host Alex Jones during an interview.
Source:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/10/gop-bp-inside-job/
Post-Katrina the same FEMA trailers were banned after they showed dangerously high levels of formaldehyde.
Somehow, they've returned.
Source:
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/07/femas-formaldehyde-trailers-are-back-gulf
Something is smelling fishy in the Gulf.
How is it possible to fail so miserably at containing and cleaning up the spill? The Trifecta gang are beginning to wonder if it's more than mere incompetence preventing the Obama Administration from taking the BP spill bull by the horns.
The latest information that we have available shows that Judge Feldman holds investments in several funds run by Blackrock, which holds a billion shares of BP.
Blackrock is BP's largest single shareholder.
Source:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/25/4564162-moratorium-judge-invested-in-bp
Amid the gloom and doom of this Summer of Oil, amid all the accusations and acrimony, weve noticed that some folks on the Emerald Coast are pausing to say kind words about those fighting the oil spill.
The kind words arent for the president, of course; in Northwest Florida he is almost universally loathed. Nor are they for the unified command�
Source:
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/opinion/amid-30324-summer-doom.html
The BP catastrophe should be a wake-up call for Americans to be concerned citizens rather than just corporate consumers.
As American revolutionary patriot Tom Paine wrote in 1796, "I care not how affluent some may be, provided that none be miserable in consequence of it."
Source:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ed-tant/29621/drilling-disaster-is-a-corporate-crime
Republican leaders threatened the lawmaker, Representative Joe L.
Barton of Texas, with the loss of his seat on the House energy committee.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/us/politics/18barton.html
Nearly 5,000 miles from the oil-spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, BP and its culture of cost-cutting are contributing to another environmental mess.
According to internal BP documents obtained by Truthout, and after interviewing more than a dozen employees over the past month, the Prudhoe Bay oil field is at risk.
Oil multinationals Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell had virtually the same inadequate response plans as BP in the event of a blowout or spill at an offshore rig - including the phone number of a long-dead marine scientist and how to protect walruses (not found in the gulf).
Instead, they were far more concerned with managing the PR damage.
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/15/exxon-bp-oil-gusher-congress
Will denying the oil giant your hard-earned cash actually make a difference?
Source:
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/06/should-you-boycott-bp
Rush Limbaugh took to his radio show today to claim that the Gulf oil spill is really no big deal because, "More oil is spilled every year in Africa, in Nigeria, than so far in the Gulf, so it's not unique.
It's not exceptional. It's not the largest...So yes, it's a disaster. It's not the worst of its kind." How much BP stock does Limbaugh own?
Source:
http://www.politicususa.com/en/limbaugh-gulf-oil-spill
Like the banking crisis, the oil disaster will see in a new age of state intervention, says Jeremy Warner.
Petroleum engineers don't have the best reputation at the moment, thanks to all that oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's April 20 rig explosion.
But don't feel too bad for them--it's easier to deal with a wounded ego when you're making a gusher of money.
Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of a House energy committee investigating the oil spill, slammed BP's response to the disaster in an appearance on "Face The Nation" Sunday morning.
He suggested that the oil company has misled the public about the magnitude of the spill, and warned the public not to trust what the company is saying.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/30/ed-markey-bp-lying-or-inc_n_594800.html
There was a "skirmish" between BP and Transocean staff about whether to proceed with a procedure shortly before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the rig's chief mechanic says.
Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37363106/ns/gulf_oil_spill/
BP says it has paid at least $29 million to people claiming economic losses because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/26/bp-has-paid-29-million-in_n_590411.html
Most news accounts of this spill are repeating a much lower estimate of 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) per day, an unexplained number that NOAA and the Coast Guard were using for a few days until they admitted a week ago that they couldn't accurately estimate the flow rate.
We estimate this well is leaking at a rate of (26,500 barrels) per day.
Source:
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/05/bp-gulf-oil-spill-modis-satellite-image.html
2.5 million gallons hemorrhaging, unchecked: Officials Tuesday told congressional representatives that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill could grow at a rate more than 10 times current estimates, greatly enlarging the potential scope of the disaster.
A source who attended the meeting said company representatives had a deer in headlights� look to them.
