Depressing, isn't it? We've tried for decades, maybe centuries, to get business (and individuals, for that matter) to do the right thing, but there seems to be an endless supply of ways around the regulations. It's like they say: you can't legislate morality.

The reality is that, when cornered, most of these corporations will finally admit that ethics have nothing to do with it. It's all about profits and improving their stock price every quarter.

Whatever gets in the way of that - people, the environment, ethics - is simply not part of their business model.

Hello folks, this won't stop the mantra drill baby drill by those who don’t understand that we have a symbiotic relationship with our mother earth. If she dies we die. The sad thing with this ongoing problem is that they are still using Corexit to mask the oil slicks.

Scientific experts claim that the carcinogenic nature of Corexit causes chronic and acute health problems which kill red blood cells causing liver and kidney damage. Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit, which is owned in part by Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, will not list all of the chemicals in Corexit as they claim proprietary privilege. The known chemicals in Corexit are Bio-concentrating in the aquatic organisms which will affect the entire food chain in the Gulf including mother earth and us. This doesn't even take into account the emotional and economic devastation that has been forced upon the Gulf residents.

Nobody in their right mind can minimize this catastrophe, except BP and their paid off Public Relations flunkies, because they are beholding to their board of directors and their greedy stock holders. In what I believe is an act of the most perverse propaganda by BP, people are being encouraged to bathe in and eat the byproduct of BP’s toxic stew. After all BP has been running the show and people are just collateral damage and will be used to help mitigate reparations. Please don't let them con you and the American public. This has been going on much too long. Don’t you think we should fix our worst manmade disaster in history before we contemplate creating another?

Just in case you need more evidence of which party is owned by the oil companies:

DeFazio loses fight for federal funding for bike, pedestrian programs

Over the objections of Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., a House committee votes against restoring federal money for bicycle and pedestrian programs.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., delivered a particularly scathing attack on Republican attempts to cut the programs. He noted that Safe Routes to Schools -- which provides money to help local schools provide ways for kids to safely walk and ride to schools -- was passed by a Republican Congress in 2005 and signed into law by a Republican president.

"Now we're going to say, 'Sorry, we can't even provide a safe way for your child to ride a bike to school,'" said DeFazio.

Amendment to Restore Bike/Ped Programs in House Transpo Bill Fails

An amendment that would restore the popular Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements programs to the House GOP’s transportation bill has just been defeated in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by a vote of 29-27. Supporters of safer biking and walking sent thousands of messages to Congress supporting this amendment in the short time that advocates had to mobilize. In the end, however, the three Republicans who joined the Democrats in favor of the amendment were not enough to deliver a majority. Rep. Tom Petri of Wisconsin, the amendment’s sponsor, Rep. Tim Johnson of Illinois (a co-sponsor), and Rep. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey were the three “yea” votes on the GOP side.

Every Democrat on the committee voted for the amendment.

Don't forget the new binding arbitration rules either. Bring your magnifying glasses to read the fine print or you may be sorry.

Companies have had the way cleared for them to put even more defective products on the market then enforce the binding arbitration rules you most likely didn't know about but agreed to by buying the item.

Oh, by the way, the arbitration is paid for by the company. Gee, I wonder which way that will go.

"Neither the government nor Taylor Holder will answer basic questions related to the spill response Fast and Furious, citing privacy concerns."

My oh my.....I thought the above statement was about Mr. Holder's testimony at the Congressional hearing.

My bad.

Oil well..what are you going to do.

So Big Oil, what's going to happen when the tens of thousands of wells in the Gulf finally run dry?

Where's the fund for plugging and cleanup?

Operators need to contribute the necessary funds for plugging and cleanup TODAY.

So they cannot bankrupt out of their responsibilities later on.

.

The 1%ers don't care about anything but suckin that @!$%# out of the ground and fillin their coffers. They will lie, cheat, and steal to cover their asses.

Anyone who says that we must use oil for transportation is a deceiver.

It galls me that the liars on FOX state that only liberal nutjobs think we can end our dependence on oil. Here in Georgia their is a profitable business booming based in collecting the cooking oil from restaurants. They mix it with chemicals and it will run in any diesel engine. They did it on Gordon Ramsey's F-word.

Granted Great Britain also banned the use of Corexit at least a decade ago.

Eating Gulf shrimp is no safer then eating a shrimp from China or Vietnam.

Most of you probably dont have access to a Geiger counter but if you do here is something fun. Walk through your grocery store and check the produce, meat, and seafood.

Granted a little radioactivity cant be so bad considering the ammonium cleaned red slime that McD's has been putting in your hamburgers for decades. Nothing wrong with eating hooves, gonads, and skin as long as its been put through an ammonium nitrate bath!

ViVa America!~

What we have here is a failure to communicate - with the sheeple who are more interested in the bread and circuses, excuse me, beer and football, than what and who determines their lives. The Occupy Wall Street people did 'some' good at educating some of the masses until hijacked by the fringe loonies and then even the liberal main stream media had to wash their hands of them.

The shame of it is you guys paint conservatives as all bad...but you are wrong, I think just like you do yet you drive me off - I am a white, independent/conservative who has mostly voted R, is a hunter and BIG supporter of the environment and clean/green... and even as an R, yet voted Obama last time...and agree that the1% is ripping us off..yet I can see that capitalism is not all bad and that we need HEALTHY business to have jobs...and we ALSO must have regulations to keep the greed and cronyism of business AND the bought and paid for Congress n Senate under control. Right now they are running things because the people are still sheeple....What I want to know is - how are we going to keep the healthy golden goose laying eggs (healthy [not taxed too much]business/jobs providing some taxes for the common good) yet not kill the goose with TOO much burden of taxes? When you can answer that, I will be on your side totally in the fight to get rid of the 1% and the corrupt Representatives (and many of them are DEMOCRATS if you look at the votes that benefited the 1%)

Not just American, BP is a brit company.

Its just like the movie Avatar.

And the Republicans want to deregulate more. Cuz that will encourage businesses to act more responsibly and care more about what they're doing than how much money they're making? Not a chance.

Did you notice the part about not gining info because of the privacy act? That law was supposed to protect individuals not companies. Now companies use it for their own purposes. The lending community used it against my daughter and I to foreclose on our house. They would only talk to my dead mother not us and cited the privacy act even though they had 4 copies of the death certificate. I mean did they really expect me to put the phone up to the urn and get an answer.

Green energy my A$$,,,, bet the same people that invented and regulated that PINK SH!T beef producers are allowed to add up to 15% for beef used by McD’S and US school systems will oversee this effort as well.

Thanks NANNY, didn’t know you loved us so much!

If the truth be known we would find that the "green energy" industry's have been infiltrated by oil industry money and has been deliberately stymied in all aspects, from financing new plants (jobs) to loan guarantees and eventually manufacturing OVERSEAS and sold here as cheaper units. China has more solar power industry company's that are unable to provide all the units requested. Germany has more orders for wind generators than they can build YET WE ARE STRANGLED BY THE PRESENT ENERGY CONSORTIUM'S THAT WILL NOT ALLOW COMPETITION. Those same corporations ( that are the most profitable industry's in history) are keeping us addicted to their earth killing products in the guise of "shareholder profit". I wonder why MY shareholder vote is never accepted, and none of my suggestions are implemented. IT IS NOT SHAREHOLDER WEALTH THAT THESE CORPORATIONS ARE AFTER, IT IS THEIR PERSONAL WEALTH THEY ARE AFTER. One of America's best solar power industry's business was strangled by lack of American funding and the theft of procedures and methods they founded, that is being done in China right now. Exxon Mobil will be proved to be a worse corporate citizen than Fidel Castro was a good influence on his citizens.

What I don't get is, why don't the oil/gas companies BUY the green energy methods? If you control the power, you still control the power, whether it comes from coal or wind, fossil fuels or corn, solar or natural gas. People will still need heat, and power, and fuel, so if you control it, you still earn all the profits. Why spend massive amounts of money and expend all sorts of harmful chemicals, to try and siphon out the last little bits of coal, or natural gas out of the ground, when you could spend the same money on a much easier source? Don't compromise our bedrock with blasting, why don't you build a wind farm on top of it?

And as far as the worry about wind power killing birds - nature has a way of self-correcting and evolving to adjust to new "predators." If birds keep dying from wind farms, they will start learning to avoid them. We could also study migratory patterns and make sure we try to avoid some of those highly populated/traveled areas.

Why are we subsidizing farmers, then turning around and fining them for methane emissions, while we in turn are trying to leach methane pockets out of arctic ice? Wouldn't it make more sense to invest in and utilize the free methane that we naturally get from livestock? There are dairy farms on the coast of Oregon that are completely self-sustaining, they use their livestock's by-products to produce methane and power generators. Makes sense to me.

Of course these companies want more wealth and control. But whatever the energy source, if they control it they still profit. Rather than spending money suppressing the technology and efforts, they could spend that same money investing in it and creating a new revenue stream. Are they really so devoted to their nasty, harmful ways? If corporations are "people" they will be harmed just as much by these chemicals as the rest of us (LOL).

Its a shame what businesses will do to turn a profit; complete disregard for the environment. I was reading about the Ocean Conservation Society on the billiondollarcause website and how they are conducting scientific research and educational projects leading to the protection and conservation of our oceans.

Pure greed is the only motivation of big business today, and they are not ashamed of it either!!!!!!

Your right, just look at Apple Inc. They do not seem at all ashamed of all those kids in China that are making their products, and how the loss of those jobs here in the good ole USA effects each and everyone of us.

They are not people because they cannot go to jail.

There are actual people who don't have a conscience - just look at Newt.

Keith hinkel, You must be one of those maskerading repub`s tring to snow ball some one to get support for the damn canadian pipeline that we don`t need but they do AT OUR EXSPENCE

When did Congress pass the "NO insider trading" law???? It has only cleared a cloture vote in the Senate and has not been inundated with defeating amendments yet or a final floor vote. The House isn't close to finalizing their version for a vote yet.....then you'll have months of conference committee to further weaken the bill before one ever gets to the President's desk. But that also has NOTHING to do with this thread on the threat of a SEVEN year oil spill and its containment. This is just another example of how Big Oil gets away with murder.

Are you trying to control me? I thought so.

The solution to the gulf oil spill has and will be Oil Spill Eater II. It is just a matter of time before The EPA and BP use it on the gulf.

cORPORATE MONEY AT WORK FOLKS. America to busy drinkin an smokin to give a damn till it1s to late to change it !!!

Embarrassed about what?

That your parties GOD is the greedy oil companies.

Yeah, I'm sure you ride a bike to go cash your welfare check so you don't use any oil instead of borrowing your neighbors car.

Yes crazy, and you dribbled your chaw on your banjo when you hit the jug.

I'm a little right of center it wasn't us that pushed the privacy act that companies use to screw us.

Obama/Biden 2012

Huh? What does Michelle Obama have to do with an oil spill in the Gulf? Stay on-topic much?

I very seldom go off topic. So aren't you off topic, just sayin

If this was a story about Michelle Obama, you would be in the bathroom jerking off.

Like you?

Nice sintament , but America`s to busy smokin an drinkin to get with the program and get rid of the CROOK`S in washington. just look at the history of everything said in America, lot of talk NO action.

And you will stop putting gas in your car in protest if they don't?

I don't drive a car haven't for the last ten years

Well my vehicle only has a 2 1/2 gallon tank that I fill every 100 miles or so. So you guys with the big cars need to fix this problem.

Bet you have a Chevy Volt?

Viewer_Ready - you sure are quick with the sarcastic comments. Do you really think somehow that if people still need to drive, that means the oil companies shouldn't be accountable and utilize safer practices? If we still use gas, or don't own a hybrid or electric car, we're just a bunch of hypocrites? In what universe does that ever make sense? It amazes me the ability of the conservative mind to distort reality to such an impressive degree.

Hey! and a good crop can get you high!

THATS why you don't see it.

Yet again, Viewer_Ready you are quick with the comebacks, only they have no substance except in your distorted world view.

The fact is, Diamond Reptile Breeders has a valid point, both about hemp (which is not the same as marijuana, by the way) and about solar, wind and other alternative energy resources that have been effectively curtailed or made to be cost-prohibitive by the energy industry. Try doing a little research, and if you bother to post try to have a little substance and reality behind you.

Do you live in the Gulf regions like I do and eat the local sea-foods like I do?

And no, I am not paid.

The amount of oil was significant, but it is not a factor in almost any case any longer..

As a matter of fact, I work for a green energy company.

We turn methane from garbage into usable fuel.

It is still fledgling, but will never pass petroleum as long as it can be found and recovered.

I didn't live at the Love Canal in NY to know that it was as bad or even worse than the gulf oil spill. I don't know if you are a paid infomercial, but most tea partiers are, otherwise, how would you explain seniors that can't barely make it from pay check to pay check wanting the kill of Medicare or social security so billionaires can have more billions. FYI, The Exxon Valdez was not as bad as the gulf spill and even today the area is not yet what it was before the spill and it happened many years ago. Aren't you worry, regardless of what you believe, that things are not that bad at the beginning, but years later and then it's when you will say: I should have stopped eating fish from the gulf. Hell no was right, but as stubborn as I am, I refused to believe him and now I'm dying of cancer and I'm only 50! Please insurance companies, have mercy on me. You have been warned. You want to be a dare devil, prepare to die like one. Tears later is not going to amount to a hill of beans.

viewer ready from your previous post I have to call BS on this one and say your lying

I live in the Gulf region so I noticed something in those ads the rest of you probably didn't. They leave out 600 miles of the Gulf Coast from Port Arthur to Port Isabel. I wonder why?

Nobody's ever proposed an "abrupt" halt in the use of petroleum products. Nothing of the sort. But to suppress alternative sources that could begin to supplement or replace our use of fossil fuels is asinine. To simply shrug our shoulders and say "oh well" is stupid. To think we don't need regulations to protect ourselves is misguided and naive, since the oil companies obviously won't. And to admit otherwise is essentially saying that the oil industry rules the world. You're giving them more power than they should have, and they are loving it. Where's James Bond when we need him?