re: #158 Cato the Elder

2) I was not talking about seizing the companies and having the government run them. I am most definitely expecting them to run from their responsibility above a bare minimum and try to avoid paying the damages. If I were to do that in the backyard oil-tank example, neither you nor any reasonable person would object to the City of Baltimore seizing enough of my assets to pay for the cleanup. That’s the type of seizure I’m talking about, and I would cry no tears for Big Oil if it happened.

Couple things on this CtE. The CEO of BP was on NPR this morning and accepted full responsibility and said BP would pay for the cleanup.
See NPR npr.org
Take that with a block of salt if you’d like, but there it is. Also, there was coverage last week on the insurance issue. BP apparently doesn’t insure against spills because it earns so much that the cost of clean up will depress earnings for a few quarters then it will be back to making billions. So it’s unlikely that a seizure will ever be necessary.