Papantonio: BP Can't Hide From Their Criminal Past

[GoLeft TV]

Mike Papantonio appears on The Thom Hartmann Program to discuss BP's disgusting history, from their Texas refinery explosion to their Gulf Coast oil spill catastrophe.

More at Ring of Fire.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

1. Proving Corexit Poisoning-Civil Engineer Marco Kaltofen-Gulf Oil Spill

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The mass spraying of the widely banned and highly toxic Corexit dispersant, once mixed with the oil, was/is far more damaging to the marine environment in the Gulf than the oil alone would have been. Experts now, and at the time, advised that the dispersant would only worsen the problem and expressed dismay that BP didn't simply use skimmers.

Was this decision to use such massive amounts of Corexit, amazingly, spraying even at night using aircraft with their nav lights off, all the while ignoring the Coast Guard's order to curtail the use of Corexit, driven purely by money and greed, or was there a more sinister agenda at work? I wonder.

[Dustlawyer]

2. BP did this just to avoid having the oil skimmed up where it could be counted by the barrel and have

to pay a per barrel fine by the government. They ruined the fishing industry and put all who swim in the Gulf at risk for several terrible, sometimes life threatening diseases. BP would have many of the "vessels of opportunity," usually the out of work fishermen, leave port every morning and sail 20 miles out where they would rendevous, at the end of the day they would sail back in as if they had been working the spill all day. Instead, BP wanted the boats in one place out of the way so they could spray Corexit everywhere else. I have spoken to many of the fishermen who say that they were sprayed anyway several times. BP is the worst corporate actor i have seen in 23 years of practicing law. They even top the asbestos companies I have dealt with!
Everything Pap has said recently about what BP is doing, blaming the victims by saying that all the claimants that are left are frauds pushed by us greedy trial lawyers. Most of my clients are still waiting for their 1st offer some 3 years after the fact, and i can tell you they all have very legitimate claims that BP just doesn't want to have to pay!

[silvershadow]

3. How do you pay for the ruination of the Gulf for all manner of life, for who knows how long to come?

Do they really think they won't eventually be held liable for that? It may take many, many years to get there, but it will get there someday. They'd have been better to have done the right thing.

[Dustlawyer]

4. They don't pay for it all. Many people will not file a claim, and the ones that do, BP will always

want one more document, pretend to lose your documents, blah blah blah. Delay, deny, defend. Most people give up or take a lowball offer just to finally be done with it. After the spill BP was required by the Oil Pollution Act to pay interim quarterly benefit payments to keep the victims from losing everything. BP refused to pay most victims even 1 payment. When the Shrimpers, Crabbers and Oystermen were starving and being evicted, BP told them $5,000 was all they could get and if they did not take it right away they would get nothing. BP settled about 250,000 claims like this, they just outright lied to these people! Now their livelihoods are gone or barely hanging on and they have settled their cases losing several hundred thousand that could have started a new life for them.
Our firm was the only firm to take BP to trial in the Texas City blast, and we will probably be one of the few that will do so in this case. I am real proud of the work that we do, but at the same time it just breaks your heart to see so much unnecessary suffering!