BP oil spill suggestion box

Michael J. Evans

Oil Spill Suggestion – Dear President Obama: please take over the oil spill cleanup, and send BP the bill.

Updated oil spill suggestion June 7, 2010: BP has paid only $48 million to 18,000 of the 37,000 who have filed oil spill claims. About 90% of the oil spill claims have been paid to individuals, reported the Wall Street Journal. Compare this to the amount BP television ad campaign, plus an unknown amount being spent on pay-per-click Google ads.

Oil Spill Suggestion Updated June-2-2010 – B.P has been, at best, ineffective in running the Gulf oil spill cleanup, and here at BP Oil News, we’ve published over 800 oil spill suggestions. (As of June 7, 2010, we’ve published over 1,400 oil spill suggestions). We’ve had suggestions for plugging BP’s oil leak, and for reducing damage from the Gulf oil spill. Now I want to make a suggestion of my own. No, I don’t have an idea for plugging the hole. But I do think I have a common-sense suggestion for cleaning it up in a way that also minimizes economic losses to people and businesses on the Gulf Coast.

One of the first things to recognize is that BP has the financial ability, and the legal obligation, to pay the federal government a large amount of money because of this spill. Any money the federal government spends on my plan will be recovered in fines and penalties from BP.  (Calculations are explained in a paragraph at the end of this article).

When oil hits the beach, tourism takes a nosedive. The federal government should rent those vacant hotel rooms (fines and damages from BP should easily cover the cost of the rooms). Then fill those hotel rooms with volunteers and unemployed workers who are willing to travel to the beach to help in the oil spill cleanup effort. Additionally, hire fishermen and other Gulf Coast residents who are out of work due to the oil spill. The government could either rent hotel rooms and hire workers directly, or it could contract with private companies/individuals who would rent hotel rooms and supervise workers. Or, perhaps even better, let the government give the money to state and local governments, and let people like Gov. Bobby Jindal and Billy Nungesser make the decisions about how to deal with BP’s oil spill. [click to continue…]

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