[Sca-cooks] Looking for help in Fla

[Terry Decker]

To be fair, I'm less concerned with BP's liability than I am with resolving 
the situation.  As Wally Hickel put it years ago, "I'm not concerned with 
who's fault it is right now.  Let's handle the crisis, and then settle who 
gets the blame."

Rather than being obstructionist, I think you are seeing a failure of 
command and control with lower level management trying to implement 
imprecise policy directives to deal with the oil and limit the company's 
liability.  They are doing the kind of thinking that got them an MBA rather 
than the rational process of doing what is necessary, getting the job done 
and making sure everyone is a safe as possible while doing it.  A case in 
point is the announcement yesterday that crews would be sent to beaches 
where they have found tar rather than being positioned on beaches where they 
expect tar (duh!).  I sorta wonder if we have too many educated people 
involved with this to be smart.

The individual(s) who made the decision to save money by incurring risk may 
be responsible for negligent homicide.  If their negligence caused the 
accident, then BP is probably on the hook for wrongful death.  And there are 
almost certainly a few government regulators who need to go to jail on 
corruption charges.  BP is responsible for making whole the people they have 
injured, but that is a tort rather than a criminal violation.  By 
establishing the 20B claims fund, BP acknowledges the tort and will probably 
save a bundle in litigation by their action.

In my opinion, the Gulf Coast has suffered a major shock that is likely to 
change the environment in ways we can not calculate.  To offset the damage 
to the people there, BP and some of the other oil companies that have large 
stakes there, might consider establishing some of their alternative energy 
facilities there.  The area might be a good place to research, test and 
build oil spill recovery equipment.  It might also be a good place to create 
better and more protected aquaculture centers.  So while we assign blame and 
punish the guilt for the "murder" of the Gulf Coast, why not consider how 
best to "resurrect" it?

Bear

----- Original Message ----- 

I agree with your concerns...it has been proven over and over again that BP
is lying to us, to the people in the affected areas and to the government.
And, IMHO, they are playing obstructionist in the cleanup and in the rescue
of wildlife affected by the spill.  I actually believe that criminal charges
should be brought against these people for murder...the 11 lives that were
lost when the rig exploded, plus the "murder" of a way of life on the Gulf
coast and amongst its wildlife.

Kiri