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BP Oil Spill- Day 37
It is hard to believe that over a month has passed since the tragic accident which catapulted BP’s Gulf drilling operations into the national consciousness. The economic scale is assuming Katrinaesque proportions. And BP, unlike a hurricane, is exposed to the full force of our legal system.
Bloomberg Television interviewed with Daniel Riesel, principal at Sive Paget & Riesel PC, the oldest environmental law firm. Riesel believes the scope of the disaster in terms of legal liability exposure will dwarf anything we’ve seen previously, including the well publicized Exxon Valdez and Merck Vioxx cases. The Oil Pollution Control Act of 1990, which removed many of the constraints on environmental liability settlements, is ramping up BP’s exposure.
Stay tuned.
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OPA 90 set the liability limit at $75 million. Deepwater oil wasn't really contemplated at that time (1990). The idea is that in a really national-scale event, wild claims of economic damages can come from most anywhere – I imagine that somewhere in Montana, there's someone who thinks that he's been economically damaged by BP.I'll blog about it later, but if you want to shut down all offshore activity, then push for a $10 B cap, or no cap at all on liability. Except for Shell, BP & Exxon, everybody else would have to buy insurance for that amount. It won't happen. Operators can't afford it, and there are not enough underwriters to write that kind of insurance.
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There is another Bloomberg video of a lawyer positively drooling to get the right to get class action status, but didn't have time to post it.
I guess the legal eagles are searching for the Holy Grail- class action status and a determination that BP was grossly negligent. That's where the gravy is.
Thanks for commenting. If this turns out to be a de facto uninsureable event, we are entering more uncharted territory in terms of the broader economy.
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OPA 90 set the liability limit at $75 million. Deepwater oil wasn’t really contemplated at that time (1990). The idea is that in a really national-scale event, wild claims of economic damages can come from most anywhere – I imagine that somewhere in Montana, there’s someone who thinks that he’s been economically damaged by BP.
I’ll blog about it later, but if you want to shut down all offshore activity, then push for a $10 B cap, or no cap at all on liability. Except for Shell, BP & Exxon, everybody else would have to buy insurance for that amount. It won’t happen. Operators can’t afford it, and there are not enough underwriters to write that kind of insurance.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0