I'm beginning to think that BP will not survive this Gulf crisis.

[AndyA]

Scientists say one of the oil plumes is as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick.

And it's still gushing.

I think BP and this crisis will be the undoing of oil's control over our government. This is too big to walk away from with an "Oops, that valve failed. Shit happens."

Congress WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE ACTION. They know they must if they want to keep their jobs. This is going to get much, much worse before it gets any better. :(

I'm so sorry to everyone on the Gulf coast. So many down there have endured so much over the last few years, they just can't seem to get a break. I hope the wildlife and the fish survive somehow, too.

[Scuba]

1. Why would Congresspersons care if they keep their jobs....

....when they have higher-paying ones waiting for them with the crooked corporations they shill for now?

[AndyA]

9. If those corporations are under more regulation because of this crisis,

(and they will be) Congress will be a better place for them.

We need new members in Congress anyway, most of the ones we have now aren't worth the water it would take to flush them down the toilet, like the turds they are. (That goes for both sides of the aisle.)

[Scuba]

17. How effective can/will the regs be if....

...these corporate-bought-and-paid-for congresspersons write them?

[annabanana]

2. Ah. . the silver lining. . . n/t

[dipsydoodle]

3. Congress WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE ACTION ?

Oh. I'm remote from this but from past performance I'd say don't hold your breath.

[AndyA]

7. This is unprecedented. We haven't even begun to comprehend the damage yet.

The environment and the local economy will both be devastated by this. Hurricane Katrina was nothing compared to this.

[RC]

14. Hurricane Alex or Bonnie will clean that oil slick right up and

deposited it all over the Southern/Eastern states.

There really needs to be people in prison for 15 to 20 years for crimes against humanity over this. Send the message that "We the people..." are fed up and are taking the keys away. They've had their chance and now it is time to ground them for stupidity and incompetence. Time to sent the worst to their rooms without supper.

[arcadian]

32. Holy crap, I didn't even think of that.

People in Little Rock AR and Birmingham AL will be wondering why their houses have a brown, shiny slick on them after a hurricane tracts up the Gulf and slams into the southern states.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. As long as oil is needed to make 97% of everything we own,

oil's influnence in the government will remain.

Now, BP may cease to exist as a company. But they will simply be broken up, repackaged, and come out with a shiny new name, I suspect something like the COC (Clean Oil Company) or GO (Green Oil).

[dipsydoodle]

8. BP ceasing to exist

is extremely doubtful. If anything was going to be restuctured it would just be BP America and I sincerely doubt even that would happen.

[Ozymanithrax]

11. I agree, that they will likely survive this crises...

British Petroleum seems as resiliant as the Queen.

My answer to the OP was to point out that the worst we will see is a change of name. The U.S. is at the pinacle of an oil civilization. I suspect that we, as a nation and culture, will rise and fall with oil.

[AndyA]

13. I just repeated what the local oil insiders are very quietly saying.

I think they're in a pretty good position to know. The situation seems very grave for BP.

[AndyA]

12. That's not what the local oil guys are saying.

And they would know. Very few think BP will survive this. This will be an unprecedented environmental disaster brought on by a corporation. The public mood toward corporations right now is hostile after the Wall Street and auto maker bail outs, the mining deaths, etc.

BP doesn't have the resources to deal with this.

[Ozymanithrax]

15. You are right about "resources."

My thinking on this has changed, and I think we face ecoside in the gulf, and perhaps the gulf region. Every state and nation that takes a fish out of the gulf will be gravely impacted by this.

Ultimately, I think BP will be broken up and repackaged as a different company.

Whether or not people are angry at corporations, we are an oil civilization. Almost everything we have uses oil in some capacity. Without changing that relationship, oil retains its influence. But names can change to protect the guilty.

[dipsydoodle]

18. BP doesn't have the resources ?

Can't speak for BP America but here's BP PLC's balance sheet 16 months ago - that's the UK one. I suggest you print it and stick under the nose of your "local guys" who seem to be the accounting equivalent of barrack room lawyers. What is there about over US$66 billion in current assets they can't quite grasp. Doesn't have the resources ? - get real.

[Jamastiene]

5. No, they won't.

They'll just get a bailout courtesy of our corporate welfare loving politicians...using more of our tax money to pay idiot corporations who are not doing their jobs. BP won't suffer a bit. I can guarantee you that much.

[AndyA]

10. That won't happen. The political environment is too poisonous for that.

If this had happened before Wall Street, yes. But not now. I can't see any company getting a bail out now. Public sentiment is against it.

The local oil people (and there are a LOT of them where I live) say BP won't survive. Period.

[Jamastiene]

27. We'll see.

I still say they'll get a bailout of some kid. It might be quieter than the last bailouts for the others, but it'll happen.

[Shining Jack]

16. Maybe I've become extremely cynical...

But I totally agree.They'll be rewarded for badly screwing up and the people will suffer the consequences and be left to fend for themselves.I progressively lost my last illusions since January 20, 2009.:(

[Jamastiene]

28. You can bet the locals won't get anything.

They'll most definitely be left to fend for themselves.

[Kolesar]

6. Collections for the Gulf clean up could bankrupt BP,forcing the federal government to take ownership

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x26412

[ladjf]

19. The destruction of BP as a business entity would be justice. But,

that won't save the Gulf from devastation. nt

[woodsprite]

20. I'm afraid when the ecosystem is dead, BP will still be buying politicians and drilling for oil. n/t

[Donnachaidh]

21. Congress will be forced to take action?

:wow: :rofl:

you mean like with Healthcare Reform that turned into the Health Insurance Profit Protection Act? If they are *forced* to act along those same lines, not only will the American taxpayer be on the hook for the costs of ecological clanup, we'll also be giving a great big bailout to BP because they are *too big to fail*.

:rofl:

:rofl:

[FSogol]

22. Sorry but that is just wishful thinking. BP will only take a minor

financial hit. They'll change CEOs sometime next year and it will be forgotten. Did Exxon take a long term hit for the Valdez? No, they are as strong as ever.

[marmar]

23. I hope it doesn't. ...... And it shouldn't.

Given the potential ecosystem-shattering consequences, perhaps the oil industry should be nationalized. Any industry that has the ability to completely destroy a huge ecosystem perhaps shouldn't be in the hands of a private, profit-driven entity.

[dipsydoodle]

29. You may be able to nationalise BP America

but not BP PLC.

[noamnety]

24. Maybe they'll pull a blackwater and change their name.

That seems to be how companies address full scale corruption and incompetence.

[CanonRay]

25. Man, I just love optimists.

I sure wish I could be one. But I believe they'll find a convenient scapegoat to hang this all on, spend a billion buck on lawyers to duck 90% of their responsibility, spend the rest on a whitewash Congressional investigation, and business as usual.

I know, I know, what a cynic. That's 59 years of this bullshit.

:banghead:

[Jamastiene]

26. Optimists build houses of glass

and then play hardball with rocks inside those houses...at least those who are optimistic about anything to do with our government's response to disasters created by huge corporations.

[undeterred]

30. More importantly, the Gulf of Mexico will not survive this crisis.

Fuck BP - they should throw all the executives into the mess they've created.

[KharmaTrain]

31. It'll Take Decades To Get A Settlement...And Then Try To Get Them To Pay

Two things you can count on...the long arm of litigation that is sure to take many years to sort out...then appealed and appealed again. I'll bet in 15 years we'll still be counting the costs and not a dime will have been spent by BP or any of the other ligitants...meanwhile it'll be the American taxpayer that will be doing all the heavy lifting.

Second is inflation. A dollar today is not the same one in 1990 and I'm sure the money we use in 2025 or 2030 will not have the same value as the dollar today. In the meantime BP will rack up profits where they can when they can...and whatever liabilities will be worth less and less. Thus if they are forced to pay, it will be many, many years down the road and they'll never put out the true value of the destruction they caused.

Will this cause BP to go under? Yes and no. If the company name is poisoned by this incident, no law says they can't change names or reinvent themselves in a new corporate arrangement.

As always the business of American comes first and foremost. Wildlife? No so much.