BP Will Pay $4.5 Billion to US Government

Two employees charged with manslaughter

BP will pay $4.5 billion to the US government as compensation for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The London-based oil giant pled guilty to 11 felony counts relating to the deaths of 11 men who were killed in the explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. BP also pled guilty to obstructing Congress, another felony, and two employees will be charged with manslaughter. The payout sets a new record in criminal fines.

BP has already paid $7.8 billion in compensation to people who were harmed by the oil spill.

Deepwater drilling resumed in March after a year-long ban. Meanwhile Gulf fishermen are still discovering mutated sealife post-BP spill, including eyeless shrimp and shrimp with tumors and lesions.

Via the AP.

Is $4.5 billion enough to compensate for the oil spill?

[ctc]

BP made a $25 billion profit in 2011.........this fine is simply the cost of doing business passed down to the consumer.

[Zoe2012]

Sure it is, now who will pocket it, democrats?

[woodtick57]

hopefull, a lot of it will go to the regulatory agency that covers deep water drilling so we can do it in a better, safer way.

[MRMacrum]

@woodtick57

[MRMacrum]

@woodtick57 - well now that was embarrassing. I had a snarky comment and decided it was out of line so I didn't post it and posted nothing instead. Nothing was better. You'd think they would make these two buttons different colors.........oh. The are. Nevermind.

[classychazy]

No that would go to your side of the fence that's where all the cheats and crooks are.

[woodtick57]

@MRMacrum Well, if you were worried about me, i can take snarky. i appreciate and applaud snarky. especially if it is intelligent snark...my favorite flavor...

[Thegrif]

I say it is a fine, fine.
Look we all use oil, we love oil in America. Screw ups are going to happen. Mistakes happen even in the most well intentioned things. It was a accident, they cleaned it up, and they are paying the fine.
Next problem please.

[woodtick57]

But thhey did bypass several industry standards for safety. it was not just the oil spill, people lost teir lives in that explosion.

[Thegrif]

@woodtick57 yea I understand and loss of life is a sad reality of business practises sometimes. But since no real dollar figure can be put on a life, then I was assuming 4.5 billion would cover fines, and give survivors something

[woodtick57]

@Thegrif Actuaries put a dollar figgure on it all the time...

my point is, it was not an 'accident' I work with hheavy equipment. Acccidents do not just happen. 99.9% of te time they are caused by not following procedures, as was the case here.

[marine1]

Maybe if we had drilled for our own oil, this would not have happened??? 4.5 billion could have brought in a lot of our own oil and kept the money at home. How many jobs could that have been?

[Thegrif]

@woodtick57 see, I get all that. So it wasn't an accident? Because some did not follow procedure? That is still an accident unless you think the meant to spill oil and for people to die. Because I am sure that was not their intent. Now was it neglectful? Absolutely.
Well if everyone followed procedure, all the time, and made no wrong moves or choices, then there would be no accidents. Okay I agree with that, and what now?
I wasn't making light of what happened at all. Just saying I figure they paid fine, they cleaned up, and I assume they paid out any law suits.
Headline says 4.5 billion is what BP will pay, so obviously we have a agreement between the those concerned. Thats good enough for me.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

That'll learn them for doing business in our country.

[PNWest]

You ought to talk to some of the people in Louisiana whose livelihoods were destroyed by this oil spill. This was pure and simple greed on the part of BP ignoring safety rules and pushing the contractors to bend/ignore as many of the rules as possible to get the well online. The middle managers that made those calls should be jailed.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

@PNWest - And let's not forget the Minerals Management Service as well.

[PNWest]

@Neo_NtheMatrix Any of those inspectors that were too cozy with the decision makers on that rig should be tried also - agreed.

[Xenocracy]

@PNWest “Livelihoods Destroyed”,,No Worries,, Get In Line For All Those Green Jobs!!

[PNWest]

@Xenocracy There are good hard working Americans who have been shrimping in the Gulf for generations that have had their lives destroyed by this disaster. Most of these people are probably republicans. The disaster in the gulf has devastated entire communities in the region and you make a joke about it. To joke about something like this is pathetic. I'd go further but if I did the moderators would remove this post.

[DARSB]

It's not really enough - no one seems to be going to jail, for example.

But what really irritates me is the way BP, after the most destructive spill in history caused in large part by its own negligence, had the brass to deduct clean up costs from its corporate income tax, thus offsetting those costs to the American taxpayer. http://goo.gl/HeGQX

[woodtick57]

Damn, i want those tax lawyers working for me!

[tomincali]

who gets it if it does not go to those effected? fines do nothing other than give gov more to waste.

[DerivePI]

They wasted that money decades ago.

[Xenocracy]

I Would Rather Have $4.5 Billion In Free Gas !! Think That Would Jump Start The Economy?!

[woodtick57]

how fast would the US burn through that much gas? any research/numbers junkies out thhere?

[woodtick57]

real rough...less than 4 days worthh af gas for the US?...

[Xenocracy]

@woodtick57 Think It Would Last A Little Longer Than That..Rough Estimates Are That Americans Spend Over $1oo Million On Gas Each Day, Over $300 Million Back Into Our Pockets Could By A lot Of Beans!!
Plus,,We Aren't The Bad Guys When It Come's To Using Gas..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/04/gas-...

[woodtick57]

@Xenocracy My stats showed we use 375 million gallons of gas each day. use whatever price you pay in your area and do the math.

[TheLoneRanger]

After we kick BP out of the United States as a foreign criminal enterprise we should incarcerate it leaders for a long time.

[GetAwake]

I'll believe it when I see it. Q: What do you think the government's "student loan-forgiveness" program is modeled after? A: Their treatment of large corporations for nearly a century.

[Mercury34]

Yep. $4.5 billion is enough for the damage they caused. It's what they get for poisoning the gulf.

[Thunderchicken]

I still want to see the records on the blow out preventer. I know is was a Cooper unit. (They make good stuff) But I've also heard it was an older one. I'd like to see the maintenance records.

[DerivePI]

I heard it was a GE product that failed? You sure about Cooper? Wiki's BOP lists Hydril (GE)

[Thunderchicken]

@DerivePI

Not completely sure but that's what I heard from a couple of guys who were in the gulf on another project.

[PoliticalSpice]

They still made enormous profits, and murdered people without doing even an hour in jail.

[jessejaymes]

If the comment that BP makes 25 billion a year in profit is accurate then I think a combined fine and payout of 11.6 billion is too little. They should have been hit with at least two years worth of profits to get them to actually think safety is important. At least to their bottom line.

[KyleMFb]

Nope...they need to give that money to the people along the cost

[KyleMFb]

Coast

[RoyFloyd]

Something like 1.5% of BP's total assets. Average American gets a speeding ticket and the fine is the same.

[Keyjo]

GOOD!

[SavageMazx]

Hmmm and the federal government will piss it away on Obama phones and entitlement programs.....

[Yellowrose]

Corporate criminals. They should be in jail, not collecting profits!

[sholove]

They should be shut down or sentenced to developing cleaner energy.