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U.S. Coast Guard via Reuters
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns on April 21, 2010. Eleven workers died and 4.9 million barrels of oil were spilled.
BP and the Obama administration have made progress toward a criminal and civil settlement over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill --narrowing their differences to $6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported -- but Gulf Coast lawmakers from both parties are worried the terms will send most of the money to the federal government instead of the affected states.
"The Obama administration could be cutting a deal that allows BP to write off much of the fines as a tax deduction," Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., said in a statement this week. "What’s more, the bulk of the penalty collected by the federal government would essentially be walled off from local control to be doled out as the administration sees fit."
The Journal, citing people familiar with the talks, reported Wednesday night that BP and the Justice Department are close to a broad deal but that a key obstacle is what degree of negligence, if any, should be attributed to BP. The more negligent, the higher the fines under the Clean Water Act.
Civil penalties under the act could range between $5.4 billion and $21 billion. One person familiar with the talks said that as of last month, the two sides were about $6 billion apart on a final settlement figure, the Journal reported.
The talks are separate from a March settlement whereby BP agreed to pay plaintiffs $7.8 billion for damages.
The Justice Department is weighing whether to levy fines not through the Clean Water Act but through a provision of the Oil Pollution Act that would allow BP to deduct the fines from corporate taxes, the Journal reported.
Moreover, funds in the Oil Pollution Act are controlled by the federal government, whereas Congress passed a law requiring that 80 percent of any BP fines via the Clean Water Act go to the five Gulf Coast states.
Two years after the BP drilling rig exploded and triggered the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, some scientists and residents say they are starting to see signs of environmental damage in fish and other marine life in the Gulf Coast – which is a vital part of the local economy. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., discusses.
Louisiana could actually benefit from fines via the Oil Pollution Act, since those must go to environmental cleanup and Louisiana was the hardest hit state in terms of spill damage.
But seven House lawmakers from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas last week sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder saying they object to any deal "that disproportionately applies penalties" through the Oil Pollution Act.
Related: Oil sheen coming from Deepwater Horizon site
A similar letter was sent by eight Senators, including Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who co-sponsored the RESTORE Act requiring that 80 percent of any Clean Water Act fines go to the gulf states.
"Circumventing the will of Congress by short changing the RESTORE Act is wholly unacceptable to us," they wrote.
An explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, 2010, led to deaths of 11 workers and the worst oil spill in U.S. history -- 4.9 million barrels of oil.
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Leave a Comment:
are you chitting me? gas prices through the roof for damn near 4 years.... this close to election..... and Obama is offering a bailout to big oil?
talk about clueless, how oh how will they be able to spin this? Common libs explain your "saviors" latest lunacy.
sorry folks that was suppose to read come on libs ...not common ....i was laughing too hard at this absolute absurdity to type.... but then again "common" works as well..............
Agreed. What the hell kind of laws do we have that allow fines from DESTROYING OUR ENVIRONMENT to be tax deductions. By that logic, anybody that has to pay speeding tickets, child support, sin taxes, etc. and any of the various payrole deductions that are forcably stolen each and every payday should be allowed to write them off. This is one of the biggest indicators of a morally broke federal government that I have seen so far. BP should be responsible financially for any and all negative effects this spill has on people and the environment indefinately. The fine should be open ended.
God damn it!!!!!!! WTF man!!! Our government is BROKEN because ALL of the politicians are OWNED by the financial industry a-holes, Oil industry D_ckheads and the wealthiest citizens of this country. It is PAST time that ALL private money is removed from elections. Until then our government will be and act as a slave to these F_cking criminals and scofflaws. Until this happens WE THE PEOPLE will never truly be represented.
so not.....who do you plan to RE-elect...................
scooter... I am forced to vote for Obama because Romney is GWB 2.0 in EVERY single effing way. Our country can not withstand 4 years of Romney/Bush type policies.
so you rant about a broken govt, yet vote to keep it in place? and somehow that makes sense to you if you can subsidise it by invoking the word bush? ...........wow...............that does it ...too much spin baby spin for one day....bye all.
I'd have to disagree that Romney is GWB 2.0. Romney is way more articulate and way more experienced. He doesn't even make his own words up and at least knows how to pronounce "nuclear" correctly. Past that, in all fairness, I don't think there is a single politician in the world that isn't shady.
Maybe, just maybe, you simple minded tools need to start talking about getting rid of the deadheads in Congress, like ALL of the feeble minded TEA-pots and quit blaming or crediting the President with everything. It was Congress that wrote the tax code, not Obama or Bush! Get rid of the Repubs in Congress who write every law to subsidize and favor the rich, big business (including oil), big banks and in general BIG MONEY.
Whenever you see the word "DEAL" involving government (i.e., Mandated Universal Health Care Reform legislation....Corn-husker kickback, Louisiana purchase, pharmaceutical back room deals), expect the worst.
It is really surprising that the "oil plumes" have yet to surface in the Gulf. If they did, it would certainly put BP's advertisements in the dirt.
Yep, just before the Presidential election. What a frigging deal.
Oh yeah, per Mr. Obama to Senator McCain: "We won, my way or the highway."
@IA.ScooterTramp
You are clueless, these tax deduction and subsidies are supported majority by Republicans. If you think this is bad, wait until GOP is able to get approval "Keystone Pipeline" from Canada. You know the one that attached at the end of every bills as a condition by GOP.
Can you imagine if a spill like that happens at multiple states? The oil company will get record profit and we US tax payers will have another oil company to bail out and pay for every expense if anything happens.
Okay. Go back and read carefully - for content and not political opportunities to slam "the other guy". This is a negotiation between BP and The Justice Dept. not the Executive Branch. And, when you peel away the layers, there's not much justice to be seen.
"Deduct the fines from corporate taxes"? Are they serious? Allowing BP to take the fines & fees as tax deductions is not making them pay the penalties for their negligence. They are merely indulging in a little corporate sleight of hand, moving their money around from here to there. This is not justice. It is collusion. It is corporate theft (on top of environmental rape). And, if the DOJ goes along with it, they are guilty as well.
BP is taxed on profits, which are revenue less expenses. Paying for disasters = expenses.
How do you also tax the income you intend to seize from BP? That makes zero sense, of course BP gets to deduct the expense of the losses and fines.
As badly as BP behaved, and it's paid dearly, BP provides needed oil, needed jobs, and its stock provides a good dividend-lots of retirees in Britain hold it for retirement income.
Finally, BP is a big part of the struggling British economy. The Brits are great allies, and have really taken one on the chin for the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let's treat them the way we'd like to be treated, and make BP pay for the damages from the spill, but not destroy them so they can thrive in the future as a better company.
Common sense tells you even if the fine was $20 billion, BP would right it off as taxes, and thus its not a fine at all. Its how they operate when they ignore regulations and safety controls. They weight the profit against the fines and go for the profit. It will not hurt this company one bit and they will still thrive and prosper, it will merely make it hurt a bit and though you can't "teach" ignorant people who think only in business terms of profit versus cost, they wil suffer the losses, make up the deficit in the long run and financially probably make more than they lose.
The government should NOT control the money as they will disperse it as they see fit, and just like Katrina, they will delay the process through bureaucracy rules, time delay applications for refunds and rewards to those who really lost and then once a deadline date passes, keep the balance that remains.
Chicago politics at it's best. What's in it for me.
Sounds more like a variation on Republican politics to me. "I'm for me and screw you!"
Except it's the dems doing it. The feds want the money,@!$%# the states.
Expect Biden to say this.......But know THAT...
the vice president repeatedly claimed that that the Romney/Ryan ticket “says that we’re cutting Medicare and " Nothing could be further from the truth"....... reality says: Sorry, Joe: It’s exactly the truth.
FACT:
The Congressional Budget Office confirms that the Obama health law cuts $716 billion from Medicare’s future
funding over the next decade. That will result in less money to pay hospitals, doctors, hospice care, dialysis centers
and Advantage plans that care for seniors.
Hospitals will have $247 billion less to care for the same number of seniors than if the law had not been enacted.
So when you hear Biden, like his boss Obama lie again and again, know that he's thinking you a fool.
Which you are...if you vote for the Obama/Biden ticket.
ah yes Biden the gift that just keeps on giving...........think that will this be another big F--ing deal as well?.............as biden put it....
So do you support a $20Billion fund for BP to pay into in order to cover the costs of cleanup in the gulf? If so, then why do you have texas republicans saying that this is a government shakedown and apologized to BP for the Obama admin and Dem led house proposing this cleanup fund?
So who is in charge of the House now? Why are they not enforcing this $20billion fund? Let me guess, they hate regulations and they don't want to hurt BP(big business).
As for your Medicare cuts comment, not sure where you get your news from and facts for that matter, but if you say Obama's healthcare reform is cutting $716billion out of Medicare, then you HAVE to say Romney/Ryan plan does too. Do you know what where that $716billion comes from?
From Politifact.com:
What Obamacare does
The cut Romney spoke of refers to an aspect of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
Obamacare does not literally cut funding from the Medicare program’s budget. Rather, the health care law instituted a number of changes to try to bring down future health care costs in the program.
The spending reductions were mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. The law made significant reductions to Medicare Advantage, a subset of Medicare plans run by private insurers. Medicare Advantage was started under President George W. Bush, and the idea was that competition among the private insurers would reduce costs. But the plans have actually cost more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law scales back the payments to private insurers.
Hospitals, too, will be paid less if they have too many re-admissions, or if they fail to meet other new benchmarks for patient care.
The overall Medicare budget is projected to go up for the foreseeable future, even with the health care law’s cost-saving measures. The law tries to limit the program’s growth, though, making it less than it would have been without the law, but not reducing its overall budget. So claims that Obama would "cut" Medicare need more explanation to be fully accurate. In the past, we’ve rated similar statements Half True or Mostly False, depending on the wording and context.
$716 billion
In 2011, the CBO determined that the federal health care law would reduce Medicare outlays by $507 billion between 2012 and 2021. In a more recent estimate released this year, the CBO looked at the years 2013 to 2022 and determined the health care law affected Medicare outlays by $716 billion.
So it’s timing that’s making the cuts bigger, not changes to Medicare. And the cuts are from future spending, not the program’s current budget.
You are telling me that Obama/Biden lie more than Romney? Sorry I mean pivot? I don't know if I would support a candidate if he pivots on everything he campaigns on just because of the audience he is speaking to. If Obama would say, YES I do NOT support taxing the top 1% and if he does that across all the issues he has campaigned on...I WOULD SAY THE SAME THING THAT I AM SAYING ABOUT ROMNEY.
IT goes back to the stupidity of the electorate. If you have been paying attention for the past year or two, you would have been scratching your head on every comment that Mitt made at the debate. Unfortunately, people who don't pay attention tuned into the debate and thought WOW Mitt is saying a ton of things that I support like preventing insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions, hiring thousands of teachers, investing in public schools, not cutting taxes on the rich, supporting medicare and they way it currently is, supporting social security and they way it currently is, saying his main priority is the middle class, being serious about reducing the deficit (romney and ryan's math = the square root of WTF). Those are all pivots, and if you believe what he said in the debate was ingenuous/sincere, then you don't know what the HELL you are talking about!
Biden is simply Barry's assurance that he won't be assassinated while in office.
Obozo isn't as stupid as he looks.
well spoken. I cant imagine anyone in their right mind voting for Obama.
:Barry promised to cut the deficit in half when he took office. 10 trillion down to 5 trillion. Instead he spent another 6 trillion we dont have. Thats an 11 trillion of broken promise. now he says he has another plan to cut the deficit 4 trillion. Does anyone out there actually believe a work this guy says. He obviously failed his math classes in college. Maybe thats why hes hiding all his school records. Its also obvious that anyone who would vote for him cant add. Numbers dont lie, just Barry.
the one thing i have not seen is making sure the oil companies when drilling and they have a fracture that sucks all the mud outa the hole, be required to leave the pipe in the ground and fill it back up with mud. BP tried to pull the drill bit off, where they could pump mud in the hole faster and save money. Course, when the gas bubble rose, the collars were in the Blow out preventer, which is made for drill pipe, and when the rams closed down on the collars it ruptured the BOP, causing the spill. An last ditch attempt by the driller to contain the blowout.
So after all this time, wheres the actual reason for why the spill occurred? Still haven't heard it. And wheres the law making sure the oil companies don't do this again? If the drill pipe had been in the BOP, the spill would not have occurred. And yes, I worked years on rigs. Don't believe me, ask a roughneck. So this could happen again. Why no laws from the liberals in washington that love regulation? Perfect chance for them that i would not complain about one bit.
As to the other.
Paying doctors less will save money. Course then theres the problem of doctors and hospitals refusing to take the lesser payment, ergo, you cant go to that doctor. every system the govt runs is a bankrupt institution. Like the post office. So why will health care end up a differant. You dont have to have buy health care but in 2016 you will be fined, er, taxed, $1,200, so what is the govt going to use with that tax? and in general, when your young and in good health you wont buy health insurance, when trying to pay for say $5 gasoline.. And the health care system works on people how are healthy paying for insurance they dont need to pay for those that have medical problems. If the people in good health dont buy insurance wheres the money coming from for the ones that need it.
Heard a laughable statement by Ovomit the other day. Save money by having all the tests done at once instead of over several days. When the medical issue has not been identified, the reason for the tests is the doctari takes his best shot and guesses whats wrong with you and prescribes certain tests. If he gets lucky voila you get whatever it is fixed. And that saves money. If he aint, you get more tests which cost more money. Course we have had the occasional incident where a clinic was taking street people and just running tests on them, and then making claims against tests that were never run.
Medicare and Medicaid could save money by having someone check on at least some of the bills. Course that costs money also. So its easier to pay false bills and wait till someone turns in the doctor.
Same thing goes for food stamps. Now there is a lot of waste. Waste being people that who have the money making false claims.
I finished raising two kids by myself without any child support. Course i tried for food stamps and was told i made too much money and my car was too new. Go buy and old car i was told. Course i coulda bought a clunker and got it registered but did not. A guy who worked with me, under the table, got food stamps, that was 1994. him, his wife and two kids. $660 a months then. He was eating steak and using his money for beer. Yeah they could do a lot of savings getting that money to where its needed.
those poor "collapse this post" people are going to get finger cramps from todays workout.....in the name of free speech of course.
HELLO....ANYONE THERE? .... isn't this the same thing Barry has been doing with his executive orders ( over 900 thus far) for 4 years?
flaunt the Constitution, bill of rights , and the will of the people who elected congress to represent US. and then
Wich leaves the U.S. taxpayer the bill.....
give me one good reason anyone should be RE-elected.
They bought the election! Best I can do.
Do you think Iowa will Go Romney? former Iowan.
AND
Translation;
they bought their way out.....with i may add obamas blessing.............hysterical
how in the world did this ever get out right before the election, without your normal blowing sunshine spin
time to sign off here today my stupid@!$%#-o-meter is done pegged out.
6 Billion is peanuts compared to the damage that was done to the gulf eco system and the amout that we have paid out BP should be ran out of this country.
and as its a write off on tax's they otherwise would have to pay, its a non payment. what part of that are people not understanding?
Negotiating criminal penalties is absurd. If criminal negligence is found then some of these BP executives need to go to jail. Simple as that.
Also, whichever act is used to settle and collect the civil penalties 80% should still go to the affected states no matter what. If it doesn't, it will just end up in some Republican Super PAC fund and we'll all get screwed over even more than what Romney and the rest of his organized crime family has planned for us.
so its romney and the republicans fault the obama administration is cutting a deal with BP?????
are you on drugs?
Yeah, dude says lets just keep the organized crime family we already have! Really dude? Your perception of reality is skewed.
just one more example of why a group of baboons are referred to as a "congress"
and corporate terrorism is bad why?
How about we wait and see if the money fined goes to the states affected or if Obama diverts to some other socialist experiment or gives to his political contributors such as Solandra... Lets judge the man by his ACTIONS...
Kent, first off, what socialist experiments has Obama attempted in his first 4 years? ObamaCare? That is NOT NOT NOT a federal takeover and is NOTHING close to an actual socialistic program like Medicare. So there goes your argument. Second, you talk about the failure of a loan that was given to a startup/Renewable energy company. This program started under Bush(good for him) and over that course a minimal percentage of those have actually failed like Solyndra. Also, you clearly get your news from Fox and Rush, because there are absolutely NO FACTS to support your statement that Solyndra was a political contributor to the Obama Campaign.
How much money do you think the loan was for? I have heard estimates on Fox that they loan was for billions of dollars. HINT: that's not even close to being true.
So to sum it up, you are telling the US government to no longer give loans to startups or renewable energy companies because 1 failed out of hundreds? That to me, sure sounds like you don't know what you are talking about. So, how is that loan to GM working out? So yeah, let's judge obama on his actions. But those actions needed to be supported by fact and Kent, your comments are not supported by any facts.
John,
Is Obama subsidizing you kool-aid habit. You need an intervention. Get help. Maybe you will be covered by Obama care.
Lets face it, any time you deal with a socialist government, you will receive what they, the government see's fit. Take from the rich and give to the poor. Sounds like Robin Hood.
BP is paying a penalty for despoiling one of the most important natural resources we have access to.
That's a bad thing?
And they are able to deduct it from their TAXES,is that a bad thing? If Bush had arranged a deal like that what would you be screaming about? (stupid question I know)
The Justice Department caved to the banks, they will certainly cave to Big Oil and are pretty much owned by Big
Pharma. What else is new?
Obama is letting the contractors drill again, I live in Louisiana and there is a lot of new drilling going on in our swamps, and pushing these rigs through 3 ft of water is destroying our fisheries in those areas. Churning up the sediments off the bottom of the canals is destroying the dissolved oxygen for our fish, most will move out to deeper areas of the river, but a lot will be trapped. It effects not only fish but crustaceans as well. But I was amazed at how much oil is leaking out while the drill and they do not even have containment lines up.
And this is other Oil companies contratctors, not just BP.....thanks Obama, hope your votes were worth it.
Is anyone surprised by this? I'm betting the people expecting payments from the Exxon Valdez aren't. That started at $5 billion punitive damages, was cut to $2.5 billion and then finally $508 million. 20 years later, they were supposed to get paid. With that much money at stake, they will throw lawyers at it until it goes away.
This is only the beginning.
I'm so sick of people telling me about Obamacare---have you actually read the 11,000 pages of it to make sense of---I'll bet NOT!~!!
Not such a big raise when you consider there had been NO increase for two years.
$6 billion?....that is to BP like $1000 is to the rest of us!
I obviously don't understand the process of applying the amount of culpability to the company that is responsible but why do they even get a say as too what they will be "charged" with or forced to pay? The other thing would be why would any company be able to write off any of the penalties they pay because of this? This is another example of big business negotiating their way out of responsibility for their wrong doing. Why have our lawmakers on both sides of the isle allowed this to happen?
This isn't an issue because the Obama Administration changed the rules this is an issue because of the laws that have been passed over time the Presidents on both sides have signed into law.......It is interesting though that the lawmakers who wrote those letters are more worried about the money than they are about holding the companies responsible as well as making sure this doesn't happen again and you would think that both political parties would agree to that but they don't and that is sad....
The real problem is that most of those laws were lobbied for and written, by big business for big business. God forbid that they would ever take responsibility for any wrong doing.
Kind of like the current administration taking responsibility for anything.
I just changed my vote, I will now be voting for Mittens and Frodo. BO can remain friends with BP but it stinks.
What? I thought this was already settled! Where is the gulf states getting money to pay for the so called clean up we see in BP television ads?
Another under the table, behind the back of Americans deal by BO to put more cash into his piggy bank, so he can spend spend spend, until November, then Barry is unemployed. The moving trucks are getting warmed up and someone needs to make sure Barry and Michelle doesnt steal the White House blind, like the Clintons did.
Get rid of Barry and America will have a chance to return to prosperity and pride. Other nations will not laugh in our face and Barry's four year vacation is over.
God Bless America
The Federal Government to the state's affected, we know best how to spend that money, better then you. If your nice and play ball with us we might give you a little, maybe, maybe not. We haven't decided yet it really depends on how much we get, but we here in Washington do need a raise.
Another great topic for the Romney/Obama debate. Now, what was that about enough rope to hang himself comment I heard from the libs after the first debate? As the Republicans have said time and time again, less government and more state control. The Feds will give the oil company responsible for polution and damage a tax break instead of the states where the damage occured, relief funds.
Romney/Ryan 2012 ......more good reasons pop up every day.
People say they have "No Choice" yet you do. Why not write in UnSub? Really how much more could even me mess things up? I got a plan to, that would work. You see I trust NO ONE, not even myself. Thus I would be listening to common sense, not who's paying the most.