Calculating BP’s Liability
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 18th, 2010 4:31 am by HL
Calculating BP’s Liability
Monica Potts, American Prospect
Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon April 21, 2010. (Flickr/U.S. Coast Guard)The figure most frequently discussed in the news is $75 million — the cap on BP's liability under a 1990 law passed after the Exxon Valdez disaster that covers economic and punitive damage claims made in federal courts. The company has said it plans to disregard the cap without tapping into a federal trust fund designed to help people whose claims are denied, and has put $20 billion in an escrow account at the president's urging. It says it has…
Obama’s Energy Push Divorced From Reality
Charles Krauthammer, IBD
Barack Obama doesn't do the mundane. He was sent to us to do larger things. You could see that plainly in his Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill.He could barely get himself through the pedestrian first half: a bit of BP-bashing, a bit of faux-Clintonian “I feel your pain,” a bit of recovery and economic mitigation accounting.It wasn't until the end of the speech — the let-no-crisis-go-to-waste part that tried to leverage the Gulf Coast devastation to advance his cap-and-trade climate-change agenda — that Obama warmed to his task.
A Gulf Between Obama, Oil Spill
Will We Defend Israel?
Ed Koch, RealClearPolitics
Readers of my commentaries know that I usually send one a week. Last week, however, I sent two because the Helen Thomas incident occurred after I had finished my regular weekly article, and I thought the Thomas affair required a response from me. I called for her to step down, which she did.Occasionally, readers say that I write too much regarding the hostility directed toward Israel, particularly by the United Nations. My reply is this: shouldn't I defend Israel when I believe it is being unfairly attacked day after day at the U.N. and throughout the world? Shouldn't I defend…
The Pulpit of a Bully
Jay Cost, RealClearPolitics
A White House aide has the official word: “President Obama reiterated his call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation to break our dependence on oil and fossil fuels. In the coming weeks he will be reaching out to Senators on both sides of the aisle to chart a path forward. A number of proposals have been put forward from Members on both sides of the aisle. We're open to good ideas from all sources, and will be working with Senators on a comprehensive proposal. The tragedy in the Gulf underscores the need to move quickly, and the President is committed to finding the votes…