And I know you are. Check out
Bob Marshall's assessment of the recent BP plea agreement with the feds. Marshall is more upbeat about the news than
I was when it rolled out a couple of weeks ago. You should probably put more stock in
Bob Marshall's opinion than in mine in these matters.
Here's why: Some $1.2 billion is directed to go specifically to
Louisiana river diversion projects and/or barrier island creation or
restoration. BP will send the money to the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, which then must work with state and federal agencies.
There's no wiggle room here -- that language is in the plea agreement.
You can read the whole thing here: (www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/43320121115143613990027.pdf).
And that is good news. My concern, though, was that the big pay day we've been waiting for via the Clean Water Act hasn't arrived yet. As Marshall points out, the fact that we didn't hear anything about that with regard to this settlement may be a good thing.
Finally, and just as significantly, BP's guilty plea would seem to
make it impossible for the company to argue it wasn't criminally
negligent in violating the Clean Water Act. And that means it will be
liable for the higher fine schedule that could top $20 billion. BP's
only escape would be if the criminal plea was part of a larger global
settlement for all exposures -- including Clean Water Act and Oil
Pollution Act -- which Holder's office said was not the case.
So our $50 billion Master Plan 2012 could be coming in for more billions.
They'll need more billions, though. Many more.
The sooner, the better, too, of course.
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