Spill Claims not Paid Because BP hasn't Deposited Escrow Money

Ken Fienberg on both CBS and CNN via Crooks and Liars where he talks up the current "success" of the program.


Despite all of Feinberg's happy talk above the Press-Register has revealed this.

BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. -- Ken Feinberg said today he hasn't been able to start writing claims checks because BP PLC has not yet deposited any money into the $20 billion escrow fund it promised to create.

Feinberg, who was appointed last month to administer individual and business claims stemming from the oil spill, held an early morning town hall meeting in Bayou La Batre on Saturday before meeting with the Press-Register editorial board in downtown Mobile.

Feinberg said he is leaning toward giving partial payments to companies and people who are indirectly impacted by the spill -- an outlet store in Foley hurt by the decline in beach traffic, for example.

He also said he would do something for real estate owners to cover a decrease in property value.

BP officials and President Barack Obama agreed last month that the oil company would put $5 billion a year over the next four years into an account to pay for spill-related costs, such as claims, environmental restoration and cleanup costs.

This might just be a bureaucratic snafu, and in the long run may not be a big deal, but when we also look at how BP has treated local Scientist and experts by trying to legally shut them up about what the ecological and environment impacts of the spill has really been...

BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company's lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.

add to this the very clear fact that clean up workers in the Gulf are still not using Reperators - (after some were threatened with being fired if they brought their own)



Hugh Kaufman just messaged Crooks and Liars the following, along with a link to the video below:

CNN may not know what they have documented. Will anybody tell them? Will they figure it out? ...

CNN documents, on this documentary airing tonight and tomorrow, that the “air smell’s [sic] bad” (it’s full of carcinogenic and other hazardous material in oil and dispersants). None of the cleanup workers are wearing respirators and nobody is testing the air.

Just like 911 WTC, these workers are gonna be in trouble 5, 10, and 20 years down the line.

Where is EPA and OSHA?

Yeah, good question - they've been MIA for quite some time.

Despite the current Right-Wing Meme that "Obama has been to MEAN to Business, and has scared them to too much change", the fact is that he's actually been pretty toothless in regards to BP.

If anything U.S. Officials have been flacking for BP, not keeping their "Boot on their Neck".

And they're certainly not getting in the way while BP hires Prison Labor - working them for up to 12 Hrs a day, 6 hours a day, in 100 degree plus toxic environment.

Work crews in Grand Isle, Louisiana, still stand out. In a region where nine out of ten residents are white, the cleanup workers are almost exclusively African-American men. The racialized nature of the cleanup is so conspicuous that Ben Jealous, the president of the NAACP, sent a public letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward on July 9, demanding to know why black people were over-represented in "the most physically difficult, lowest paying jobs, with the most significant exposure to toxins."

Hiring prison labor is more than a way for BP to save money while cleaning up the biggest oil spill in history. By tapping into the inmate workforce, the company and its subcontractors get workers who are not only cheap but easily silenced—and they get lucrative tax write-offs in the process.

...

Work release inmates are required to work for up to twelve hours a day, six days a week, sometimes averaging seventy-two hours per week. These are long hours for performing what may arguably be the most toxic job in America. Although the dangers of mixed oil and dispersant exposure are largely unknown, the chemicals in crude oil can damage every system in the body, as well as cell structures and DNA.

Did someone say Slavery was over? Fact is - it's not, particularly if you read all of the 13th Amendment which has an bright bold exception for the "Duly Convicted".

The Oil Spill itself may be stopped for now, but it's long term environmental and health impact remains a giant dark cloud looming just under the surface of our full comprehension, one that is likely to continue taking it's toll - for generations.

Vyan

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Obama Gets BP to Create $20B Escrow Fund for Gulf Victims

Less than 24 Hours after President Obama's first Oval Office Address - he delivers on one of the primary promises he made. via Huffpo.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senior administration officials tell The Associated Press that BP has agreed to finance a $20 billion fund to pay the claims of people whose jobs and way of life have been damaged by the devastating Gulf Coast oil spill.

The independent fund will be led by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw payments to families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It wasn't a spectacular speech, but it seems to have begun to accomplish what it needed to accomplish.



Look, I know that many people are upset that various MSNBCC hosts criticized Obama's address so heavily - but we all have to admit this is good news. It accomplishes a large part of what Congress had been attempting to do for weeks with modifying the Oil Spill Liability Cap.

I think this shows, maybe, that BP is finally starting to get the message after having all the other heads of Big Oil do donuts over them with the bus in front of Capital Hill.

This country, big slow giant boat that it is, just might be turning a corner - and corporations might start to realize they have responsibilities to their customers and workers, not just their shareholders.

Maybe, just maybe, BP might finally begin to realize that you can't buy good publicity by trying to bribe the media, you do it be actually doing good things for the public, rather than nickle and dimeing them to death on damage claims.

We have to remember just what Obama is up against, as the Head of the Republican Party - Rush Limbaugh - complains that there isn't any FEDERAL MONEY included in the Escrow Account...



Meanwhile the Senate just today pretty much tabled the latest Unemployment Benefits Extention. (Why? He asks... silly rabbit because Governmentin' is Hard Work)

Score one for the O-Man, now we move toward getting some kind of serious Green Energy Program going to ensure this can never happen again.

Vyan

BP Blocks Media Access to Cleanup Workers

Despite the announcement two day ago by BP Exec Doug Suttles that "No one is to prevent the media from access" -

Recent media reports have suggested that individuals involved in the cleanup operation have been prohibited from speaking to the media, and this is simply untrue. BP fully supports and defends all individuals rights to share their personal thoughts and experiences with journalists if they so choose.

BP has not and will not prevent anyone working in the cleanup operation from sharing his or her own experiences or opinions.

Really Now?

Then why did BP Security - on a Public Beach - respond this way to a reporter?

OFFICIAL 1: Every single security guard here has given the instructions to every single news crew that you can be outside of 100 yards of the workers or along the boom.

WALKER: And who’s saying that? Because no one can tell me that, unless you’re the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, you’re the Coast Guard, or you’re the military, can you tell me where to go on this public beach.

OFFICIAL 1: I can tell you where to go because I’m employed to keep this beach safe. And right now, those are my instructions. I’d like to keep the workers safe as well.

WALKER: I’m going to try to talk to the worker under the tent. Can I do that?

OFFICIAL 1: No, no.

WALKER: He’s on break.

OFFICIAL 1: You are not allowed to interview any workers.

WALKER: The workers can talk to the media, according to the BP CEO two days ago. Still hasn’t trickled down to you all?

OFFICIAL 2: We already heard that one too.

WALKER: What do you mean you’ve “heard that one”? It’s true.

OFFICIAL 1: The e-mail did not explicitly give you permission to do that.

Can you believe the NERVE of these Lying Rat-Bastard Fucker-heads?

From DAY-ONE BP has been Bullshitting Us about how much oil was coming out of the well, about how safe the dispersant Corexit 9500, they've used and manipulated the Coast Guard to keep the Press and even NOAA away from the Underwater Death Plumes.

The sad part is that there isn't a lot the local or federal authorities can do. Even after Sherrif's finally escorted these reporters over to the workers They refused to Talk (because they most likely knew there would be reprisals) Legally their silence can be contractually maintained and mandated.

Work and Shut Your Mouth - Or Starve!

American Freedom in operation.

Update 1 This isn't the first time this has happened as shown by ABC News. Via Thinkprogress. This report does a good job of pointing out how the workers are essentially terrified of BP, trapped in a situation where their normal jobs are gone - and this is all they have left. It's like a Slave Labor Force. Also note in this video - NO RESPIRATORS!

ABC News reporter Matt Gutman “was hassled by the manager of a nearby crew, asking Gutman why he was on the beach.” Gutman captured the interaction on video, and said “several people” had asked him “not to talk to any of the workers here”:

Here's another example with Alabama Firefighters complaining that BP is keeping them from HELPING, when they actually have the training to do this job.



Update 2 I've been meaning to write this as a separate diary, but I think making this point here - since this is now Rec'd will probably have more impact. Obama is not Dumbledore!.

We'd all like to wish that Obama was Dumbledore and could solve this with a wand flourish and a loud - Expelliarmus Shout, but that's not the case.

If we want to avoid putting this spill fix and clean up on the public dime as John Beohner suggested (and has already walked back) we have to recognize some practical realities.

The US Military does not possess a Fleet of Oil Tankers or Fishing/Skimming Vessels. The Ships needed to clean the oil from the water have to come from private companies. Either BP is going to pay for it and hire those ships as sub-contractors, or the government will. The problem is if the government takes this over, exactly how long will it take to get the funds appropriated with people like Jim Bunning in the Senate running around saying - "But it has to be PAID FOR"?

Tax payers are not footing the bill for this. Not. Gonna. Happen. Unfortunately if BP is passing out the checks, then BP Calls the Shots! It's a total Catch-22.

It may make Obama "look weak", but really the reality is that International Corporations have become This strong. We saw it during the Housing Crisis and Bank Bailouts and we're seeing it now. These people are modern day King's, with their own private armies of thugs and serfs to do their bidding. Governments are just an inconvenience to them, which they can simply buy off in time.

I think what needs to happen is that we need to allow the EPA and OSHA to contract out the cleanup and skimming crews and then directly BILL BP for the costs. Don't let BP decide how things should be cleaned up, where, or what protective gear should be used since - they're LIABLE for it all, and it's in their corporate interest, and their share-holders interests to minimize and limit their liability as much as possible.



Right now a mechanism to actually TAKE THIS AWAY FROM BP and "Commandeer their ships" as Michele Bachmann insanely suggested - doesn't really exist without declaring Martial Law and seizing the assets of BP and all the other ships involved - we'd have to have the Coast Guard and Navy become PIRATES in international waters. And after that the really bad stuff happens, we'd have to start placing the workers into Forced Labor without compensation. Nobody wants to see anything like that happen.

This isn't Obama's problem to fix, not all by himself. He doesn't have that kind of authority over private companies, but Congress could create it with some amendments to the Clean Water Act to allow this kind of Ad Hoc Clean-Up Crew Contracting and Billing to ensure BP stays on the hook, but not in the driver's seat.

Vyan

Liz Cheney is from Mars!!

Ok, maybe not Mars - some other world, like Titan or maybe Wyoming, either way she's not from This Planet.



After Liz directly Slams Dailykos for spreading a rumor that "George Bush broke up Al and Tipper" (a claim that can be easily disproven as bogus and inane with a simple search) - the fireworks really start:

Huff vs Liz - Round One: DING!

HUFFINGTON: Right here, we have the poster child of Bush-Cheney crony capitalism. Halliburton involved in this, and we haven’t said about that. They after all were responsible for cementing the well. Here’s Halliburton, after it defrauded the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars –

CHENEY: Arianna, I don’t know what planet you live on, but that’s not –

HUFFINGTON: — it’s involved again. I’m living on this planet. ... Halliburton was involved in this. How can you say it is not?

TAPPER: Well, Halliburton was cementing the pipe.

HUFFINGTON: How can you say Halliburton has no relationship?

CHENEY: Her assertion that Halliburton defrauded the U.S. government –

HUFFINGTON: It did. It did.

CHENEY: It was Bush-Cheney cronyism is the left talking point –

HUFFINGTON: It was — hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraq.

CHENEY: Arianna, is absolutely not true. It is absolutely not true.

Despite Liz Cheney's extra-terrestrial flights, the Wall Street Journal has this to say about Halliburton's involvment in the BP Disaster.

An oil-drilling procedure called cementing is coming under scrutiny as a possible cause of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that has led to one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history, drilling experts said Thursday. [...]

The scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co., the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week. The disaster, which killed 11, has left a gusher of oil streaming into the Gulf from a mile under the surface. ... According to Transocean Ltd., the operator of the drilling rig, Halliburton had finished cementing the 18,000-foot well shortly before the explosion.

The other issue with Ms. Cheney objects to is the assertion that Halliburton "Defrauded the Government" in Iraq. Well to be far more fair to Ms. Cheney than she would certainly be with Arriana or Dailykos - she's half right. It wasn't just Halliburton that defrauded the government, it was also Halliburton's Subsidiary KBR.

From Thinkprogress.

Second of all, Halliburton became notorious for its malfeasance in Iraq. It allegedly tried to cover up the gang rape of one of its contractors, knowingly exposed U.S. troops to deadly toxins, and ignored warnings of unsafe electrical wiring that led to the death of U.S. soldiers. In 2007, federal auditors told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the government had wasted $10 billion on “overpriced contracts or undocumented costs.” Of that amount, $2.7 billion was charged by Halliburton.

See, Arriana was wrong there - she only said Halliburton defrauded the government for "hundreds of millions" when in fact - It Was $BILLIONS!

Now technically Halliburton began selling off it's minority shares in KBR in 2006 and some of the more eggregious actions by KBR didn't occur until after that - but the report from the House Auditors, wasn't directed at only KBR, it was Halliburton too.

The larger claim, that this explosion was the result of corporate malfeasance coupled with regulator paralysis - is also true. via - ahem - Huffpo

Both companies failed to provide a competent crew, failed to properly supervise its employees and failed to provide Rushto with a safe place to work, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The lawsuit also names oil-services giant Halliburton as a defendant, claiming that the company "prior to the explosion, was engaged in cementing operations of the well and well cap and, upon information and belief, improperly and negligently performed these duties, which was a cause of the explosion."

Yeah, and who was doing the cementing again?

Must have been Martians.

For the record I have no knowledge or comments about George Bush being involved in Tipper and Al's breakup - other than if Liz Cheney wants us to think she actually read Dailykos I've got this drilling platform off the coast of Louisiana to sell, that's available for Absolute Rock Bottom prices...

Vyan