BP Has Agreed To $20 Billion Escrow

Apparently BP has agreed to set up a $20 billion fund for compensation for the current oil disaster, as reported by CNN. This comes after repeated attempts to plug the massive oil leak in the Gulf Coast. There is also a $100 million fund put in place for the oil workers that are out of work due to the disaster.

This announcement came after President Obama met with his personal response team and BP chairmen. According to President Obama he told BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg that for the people involved it wasn't a matter of money, it was a matter of accountability. Which is very true, and in some ways a welcomed view from President Obama; BP is to be held accountable for their actions which caused this disaster.

The fund will not be controlled by BP but by an independent third-party. The process for the claims will be handled by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the claims for victims in the September 11th, 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

Hurricane Season On The Horizon

According to weather experts this hurricane season is going to be a very busy one. This can make the recovery effort on the Gulf Coast even more difficult to accomplish than it already has been. If a hurricane were to hit now it would essentially scoop up a lot of the oil that has spilled into the Gulf and send it away, and predicting where that 'away' will be is going to be even more difficult than cleaning it up.

It is kind of back and forth whether or not the spilled oil could slow a potential storm off the coast or if it would actually make a hurricane even more massive than it would be in the first place. President Obama is to be visiting the oil spill and monitor how the ongoing effort is proceeding before heading back to Chicago that night, hopefully when he sees the site for himself he can be better prepared for the future weather that is forecasted to hit.

The Gulf Coast isn't the only one at risk if a hurricane were to hit, in Haiti there is roughly 1.5 million displaced people that will be severly at risk after a devestating earthquake hit there this past January. If a hurricane were to hit the already struggling portion of the Dominican Republic the end result could be catastrophic.

BP Oil Spill - Who's Fault Is It?

Well, this started off well, didn't it? Apparently on April 20th, a blast killed 11 BP workers and released a massive flow of oil into the Gulf, and so far it has been a finger-pointing game. The government pointing their mighty finger of political power at BP, and BP? Taking the blame, well, they should, it is their fault afterall. But that isn't what gets me, no, I'm not concerned that BP is the fall-guy of the oil spill. I'm more concerned with the governments lack of response.

So I began to read on this issue a bit, and came across this blog entry at WashingtonPost.com which goes into pretty good detail as to what the government is doing, and, well, what they cannot do at this time. As that article explains, the government really couldn't do any more than what BP is already doing.

They have already had some remote vehicles get tangled, which only resulted in an even longer operation and if anything hindered the attempt to cull the situation.

The government has also already started to review a plan to place sand berms up to keep sensitive wetland protected, but as the blog above said 'it would take months to execute.'

What do I think? This country is angry, for multiple reasons, and quite a few of them pretty good reasons. However, we need to analyze a situation before we jump down the governments throat and claim them for the fault, we really can't have a 'jump first, check later' attitude at this point in time. We have to be more selective on what we jump on, and how we jump on it, throwing brash insults towards our government isn't going to fix anything.

More to come, I used to love my country.