Republican Apologizes to BP!

[jsteele]

Wow, just wow. What can you say about this? Joe Barton, R-Texas, who is the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, apologized to BP today!

He called the $20 billion escrow account agreed upon with President Obama yesterday "a tragedy" and said he was "ashamed" of it. Unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

He might as well have said "Thank you to the oil and gas industry for giving me $100,000."

[jsteele]

Apparently, Fox News cut Barton's apology out of it's coverage of the hearing. So, the Foxbots aren't going to know this happened. Well, maybe a chain email will come along to tell them. They seem to put full confidence in any email that is forwarded to them.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I really hope we haven't Tony Hayward's year by giving him such a hard time. I hear he wants his life back.

[Anonymous]

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/how-george-bush-joe-barton-dick-cheney-and-tom-delay-caused-the-gulf-oil-spill-and-made-sure-bp-wi/question-1050475/

In 2004 a second legislative assault on our coastlines was mounted. This time Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) worked with DeLay to get a bill through the House with the assistance of oilman-turned-lobbyist Andrew Lundquist and Abramoff crony Stephen Griles.

CAP reports:

One of the worst elements of what has come to be known as the “Dick Cheney energy bill” had a direct role in eliminating the kind of regulatory oversight that may have prevented the blowout of BP’s Mississippi Canyon 252 well on April 20 of this year. Section 390 of the legislation dramatically expanded the circumstance under which drilling operations could forego environmental reviews and be approved almost immediately under so-called “categorical exclusions” from the National Environmental Policy Act.

There you go. Fast-track approvals by waiving environmental reviews and granting "categorical exclusions". In other words, tell the oil companies like BP that it's totally okay to ride their iron horses out to the wild coastal frontier without regard for safety or environmental damage. Worth noting: BP liked those categorical exclusions so much they were lobbying as late as April of this year for more of them.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Apparently, Fox News cut Barton's apology out of it's coverage of the hearing. So, the Foxbots aren't going to know this happened. Well, maybe a chain email will come along to tell them. They seem to put full confidence in any email that is forwarded to them.

I watch Fox and I was in the loop, so maybe someone else was misinformed.

Look, DOJ threatens to take you down, Obama says pony up 20B before we sue you... I get Barton's apology.

Has there been ANY indication BP would not make their legal obligations without strong arm tactics? I get both sides, this is more than a little un-Presidential and seems to some, including apparently Congressman Barton, to be just a bit more than overbearing.

BP is going to pay, grandstanding or not

[Anonymous]

Wait! The Republican leadership has forced him to apologize for his apology!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37759828/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/

By midafternoon, Barton was back on the dais with a statement that was something short of what the leaders had demanded.

"I want the record to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident," he said. "If anything I said this morning has been misconstrued, in opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstruction."

Barton then issued, and House Republican leader John Boehner's office forwarded out, a somewhat different written statement.

"I apologize for using the term 'shakedown' with regard to yesterday's actions at the White House this morning, and I retract my apology to BP," it began, and finished: "I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident."

His mistake wasn't in sucking up to big oil. It was doing it on camera.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is more than a little un-Presidential

This is precisely what the President should be doing. This disaster affects the environment and economy of multiple states and was caused by a foreign company. Who do you propose should have taken the responsibility of dealing with BP? A quorum of state governors? The faceless DOJ? The attorney general? This matter is squarely in the federal executive branch's court.

Anonymous wrote:to be just a bit more than overbearing.

Requesting/Requiring a company as large as BP to set aside $20 billion is, if anything, too little. That amount of cash will barely affect the company and will likely not be enough to pay out the damages caused.

Anonymous wrote:BP is going to pay, grandstanding or not

Sure, because things always go well when we just trust large corporations.

[Anonymous]

"Anonymous wrote: BP is going to pay, grandstanding or not"

I'm always amazed at how people do not understand business. A company has a responsibility to its shareholders to make as much profit as possible. It doesn't have a responsibility to the environment or people in a fishing town just the bottom line. There is nothing evil about this it simply is what it is. Regulations, laws and the market all work to create some boundaries to control damage and bring better, safer products to the market.

It would be irresponsible for BP to not fight every claim or employ legal tactics to delay any pay out to anyone to address the damage. The gov't was smart to push to have this fund set aside as it will provide faster relief to individuals who have suffered losses. BP was not exactly an innocent victim here of shakedown. They have a massive PR problem and they have been making it worse. They could never have just decided to put this money aside and they would kill their PR if they keep avoiding compensating people. This way they can tell shareholders they were forced and would never have done this if worse conseuqences were not facing them while at the same time trying to repair some of their image by saying they put up no objection to establishing the fund.