SUVs for Gulf cleanup? BP money spent on gas guzzlers

[n2doc]

By Melinda Deslatte, Michael Kunzelman, Mike Schneider

updated 4/11/2011 2:25:12 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS — Tasers. Brand-new SUVs. A top-of-the-line iPad. A fully loaded laptop. In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets and other gear — much of which had little to do with the cleanup, an Associated Press investigation shows.


The oil giant opened its checkbook while the crisis was still unfolding last spring and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.

In sleepy Ocean Springs, Miss., reserve police officers got Tasers. The sewer department in nearby Gulfport bought a $300,000 vacuum truck that never sucked up a drop of oil. Biloxi, Miss., bought a dozen SUVS. A parish president in Louisiana got herself a deluxe iPad, her spokesman a $3,100 laptop. And a county in Florida spent $560,000 on rock concerts to promote its oil-free beaches.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42537387/ns/us_news-environment/?GT1=43001

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. That doesn't really seem all that unreasonable to me.

Laptops can cost a lot more than that and framkly I'd rather they use BP's money than taxpayer money.
The concert seems like it was justified.
And the suv's well, that's what officials use. gotta get around, would you rather they use lexus?

[KittyWampus]

2. Um. so? Computers/iPads are pretty much a common tool these days. SUV's are Americans choice of car

Hopefully the reserve officers are trained when/how to use a taser properly.

The concert sounds like a good PR idea and I hope it was successful.

[AlabamaLibrul]

3. As someone who actually lives in the affected area

It seems to me that it is easier for them to give out little bits of graft here and there than to do the right thing for all those harmed by the incident.

[KittyWampus]

4. I'd love to know what BP Executives spend their overpaid salaries on.

[AlabamaLibrul]

5. Me too? n/t

[n2doc]

7. Yachts. Big ones.

In Pictures: BP Boss Tony Hayward’s Yacht Sails The Isle Of Wight’s Pristine Waters
http://www.anorak.co.uk/251319/sports/in-pictures-bp-boss-tony-haywards-yacht-sails-the-isle-of-whites-pristine-waters.html


and houses. Also big ones.
Escape to Andalucia’s ‘Oil Corner’

Hayward's new Costa del Sol villa, a green escape from his oil nightmare
http://www.greenguidespain.com/andalucia/2010/07/escape-to-andalucia’s-‘oil-corner’/

[FLPanhandle]

6. Our Florida county spent money on the concerts.

Considering BP killed our tourist trade, it was a solution to help bring people in and maybe save a few businesses.

Well spent. It wasn't all about cleanup. It was cleanup and economic impact.

[ret5hd]

8. Did it get cleaned up?

[FLPanhandle]

9. We got off easy compared to locations further west

The cleanup got all the oil dug off the beaches. I know commercial fishermen who still see oil mats out in the gulf, what's settled down out there will never be cleaned up.

[ret5hd]

10. So would you rather get a concert, ipad and suv's or get it cleaned up?

[FLPanhandle]

11. It's not an either/or option

The cleanup that happened is all that is technically possible to cleanup.

My choices are a) the cleanup we did get plus the other stuff, or b) just the cleanup without the other stuff.

I'll take the cleanup plus the other stuff.

[ret5hd]

12. The cleanup you got was the absolute minimum they could get by with...

NOT what was technically possible.

[AlabamaLibrul]

13. I can certainly confirm this to be 100% true in my area

YMMV but I can't imagine it's much different anywhere else

[FLPanhandle]

14. Maybe, but the rock concert didn't make it less of a cleanup

That's my point. The other stuff didn't take away from any cleanup. BP was going to do the minimum possible regardless. Might as well get some other stuff too.

As for the oil mats on the bottom, I'd prefer they don't try and dreg them up as the solution may be more environmentally harmful. When they float up, BP is still paying for them to be collected and hauled off.

.

[ret5hd]

15. By buying you off with concerts and ipads they lowered the minimum.

But hey, as long as you (in the generic sense) are satisfied, why should the rest of us care, right?

[FLPanhandle]

17. I disagree those things lowered the minimum

The minimum was always to get what was visible cleaned up. They were never going to do more than that.

I attended every session I could during this disaster and watched the cleanup personally. They didn't do less because of a rock concert. Your premise is incorrect.

The other stuff was to keep the bitching down.

[ret5hd]

18. And you disagree that "keeping the bitching down" lowered the minimum?

They don't care about bitching---as long as it costs them nothing. Howl to the moon, they don't care---as long as it costs them nothing. They bought people off, cheaply. They did what they could to minimize what that fiasco cost them. They bought peoples silence with geegaws and music. They bought a regional economy with geegaws and music.

And people laugh at Native Americans for selling New York for beads.

:rofl:

[FLPanhandle]

20. All I can do is tell you my experiences

I was here. I was part of the local sessions with the BP guys. I also knew the concert was going to happen.

Maybe some other areas sold out, but Okaloosa County didn't.

Where were you?

[raouldukelives]

16. Everything is cleaned as best as humanly possible

and all legitimate claims have been paid in full from what I understand. I fail to see how a few SUV's makes a difference. They couldn't deliver all the checks and door to door apologies to residents on foot.

[AlabamaLibrul]

19. You've been lied to about both of those aspects

but otherwise, welcome to DU!