Somebody had a plan

Photo by Karen G

Nobody could have predicted this "unique and unprecedented" event. (Except that it wasn't and they could have) And so naturally nobody could have had anything like a response plan in place until way after the "impossible" (except that it was quite possible) worst-case scenario had already blown everything to hell.

Except, of course, BP had some forethought. They at least had the presence of mind to distribute the little forms that say each individual is responsible for his/her own safety (photo above). Oh and they brought their liability waivers too.

This morning on WWL David Vitter and Steve Scalise were questioning why it was that as late as this weekend, all command and coordination for clean-up and response efforts were still going through BP. We all know Vitter and Scalise are pretty thick but you'd think the answer would be obvious to even them. BP was still in charge because BP had the closest thing to a plan. Of course, that plan was lie for as long as possible and then deploy the ass-coverage but hey at least it was something.

Update: Via Oyster, we are informed of this sobering look at BP's motivation to avoid as much liability as possible for the potential black hole of a financial and economic crisis that looms ahead.

Thousands of small and independent businesses as well as larger public companies in tourism are hurt here. This is not just about the source of half the nation’s shrimp. That is already a casualty. It’s also about the bank loans for the $200,000 shrimp boat and the house the boat owner and/or his employees live in and the fact that this shock piles on a fragile financial system that is trying to recover from a three-year financial crisis. Case study, my fishing guide in the Everglades splits his time between Florida and Louisiana. His May bookings in LA have cancelled. His colleagues lost theirs and their lodge will be empty. They are busy trying to find work in the clean up. For him, his wife and eleven year old daughter, his $600 a day guide fees just went “poof”. When I asked him if he thought he had a legal claim on BP, he said he hadn’t thought about it yet but it gave him pause. As we suggested above, the $12.5 billion loss estimate is only a starter.

But hey, I hear everyone had a great time at Mary's brother's inaugural prom this morning. T-P's Stephanie Grace was on hand to tweet out the big fashion news.

End of an era: City Council decided en masse to ditch the traditional white linen suits.

We forgot to tell her the linen was requisitioned yesterday to make more useless boom.

Upperdate: The doc in the photo is a certification that the ad hoc employees had completed a "training " course. This implies that they bear a degree of responsibility for their safety. Not exactly rock solid exculpation of BP. But it's designed to discourage the workers from challenging anything in court.

However BP did try getting these folks to sign more detailed disavowals of company responsibility which you can read about at The Lens.