August 24, 2010

DON'T REVOKE BP'S CORPORATE CHARTER!



DON’T REVOKE BP’S CHARTER!


Then they’ll be off the hook, and stick the US taxpayer with the bill! Right?

Besides they stopped the spill, everything is cool now.


FALSE! OPPOSITE!


In fact, quite the opposite! Currently, BP has an escrow fund of 20 billion dollars, but there's a catch. Just like after 9-11, if you make a claim to this fund, you have to sign away your right to sue for damages later on. And we all know how well that's worked out for the 9-11 Rescue workers. (Or do you? They're being fucked over and they're all dying of lung disease, that's how well it turned out)


We have no idea what the long-term health effects are going to be from this spill. From the oil, as well as the dispersants used to send the oil to the ocean floor, and is now allowing unnatural toxic compounds to work their way through the food web.


BP's clean-up responsibilities are capped at a mere $75 million-- which is absurd when compared with the actual cost of long term damages to the environment, to people’s health, to people’s livelihoods, etc. If BP spends more than this, they can call it quits at any point in time, no matter how much mess is left. And that's exactly what they're doing.


--And it seems even MORE absurd when you account for the fact that BP made more than 186 times as much as that in profits alone JUST LAST YEAR.


That’s PROFITS. That’s what they had laying around after they got done paying for all their expenses, after paying out all their wages, after paying for all their leasing rights, after paying pensions, after paying for equipment purchases.


Hey Taxpayers, Don’t want to get stuck with the bill for cleaning up all that oil that's on the ocean floor (thanks to Corexit)? Well you should know that right now, BP is claiming a nearly $10 BILLION dollar tax credit for the spill. Yeah that’s right: they want the US taxpayer to PAY THEM for doing what they should be doing anyways.


What about legal claims against them? Well, if this spill ends up being anything like the Exxon Valdez spill, legal claims could well be tied up in courts for the next 20 years, many of the plaintiffs will die as a result of toxins they’ve been exposed to, and then after the claim is finally won, it will be reduced to a mere pittance.


Another possible outcome if we fail to revoke BP’s corporate charter: They could pull a Union-Carbide. After an explosion at a Union-Carbide plant in Bhopal India released toxic gases that killed or injured thousands, Union Carbide simply folded, and sold everything to Dow Chemical. Dow Chemical has refused to pay out any of the claims held against Union Carbide, and the CEOs of Union Carbide jumped ship with millions of dollars.


If you REALLY don’t want the US taxpayer to get stuck with the bill, and you REALLY want to see things done right, then you REALLY should be in favor of revoking BP’s corporate charter.


If BP’s corporate charter is revoked, they won’t have the right to do business in the USA anymore. Their assets will be seized, and they will be put into receivership- which means that the Government then has control of their assets, AND the legal obligation to pay out all the bills, fines, and lawsuits that BP has racked up.


Rather than holding on to those $14 billion of annual profits to pay out to shareholders, those $14 billion dollars in profits could go to doing what’s right-- cleaning up the gulf, and paying for the damages to people’s health, people’s livelihoods, and our planet.


And the most upsetting thing of all, is that this is just ONE SPILL, I'm talking about here!


BP has been playing it fast and loose with safety procedures for YEARS. How the hell are we supposed to trust that when they go up to Alaska to drill, they're going to do better?

Or when they come back to drill in the same spot as the Deepwater Horizon? They didn't smarten up after any of the OTHER times that they've fucked up, in Alaska, in Texas City, and so on, why should this now be any different? It's obvious that so long as they keep making profits, they couldn't give a rat's ass what the consequences are.


Please join me in the push to revoke BP’s corporate charter. As Tony Hayward once said: “We can get this done. We can make this right.”


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