Today, US District Court Court Declares BP GUILTY of Gross Negligence

Of course, BP isn't happy.  Over at Rick's Blog, there is an article about it.

Quote :

The statutory maximum penalty is $1,100 per barrel where the court finds simple negligence and $4,300 per barrel where the court finds gross negligence or willful misconduct.

Lessee, at a Government estimate of 4.9 million Barrels (Wikipedia), times $4,300, that is a $21.07 BILLION fine.

Wowzers!

It's about time.

I highly doubt anywhere near that much is ever collected. The govt was in bed with these ventures going so far as to extend them liability caps to cut out the costly private insurance policies. The govt inserted their own regulators and inspectors... of course we have heard next to no coverage of that corruption. There's much more blame to spread around than simply the deserved blame bp has... but would there have been an event had the govt not been so involved? Probably not is my guess.

Subsequent articles have said the proposed fine is 17 Billion dollars. I don't know how they pared 20% off the fine I calculated, but I aints good at the maths, y'know.

It certainly will be appealed... the fine and the determination of Gross Negligence... which quadrupled the fine. Like Doood said, it will be a cold day in hell when the gubment sees any of that money.

Who here got any money from BP?

It ruined my life because I lived on the bay. Got depressed, couldn't go boating which was my only entertainment. watched the crabs die, carcuses float up onto the shore etc etc, then I moved.

I want $50 grand now!