Gulf Coast Disaster - Friday, September 10

Day 144

Highlights in this issue
- Another day, another delay in killing the well
- BP does plan to go ahead with final death blow
- BP lawyers reviewed incident report
- Oil claims center finds BP records a mess
- Dilemma for Gulf victims: Take the money and run or stay and sue

Today’s summary
We’re not there yet. Engineers were hoping the final kill would take place this week or next. The ultimate sealing of BP's Gulf oil well may not get underway until late this month or early October. The experts want more time to analyze the well, fish out a broken pipe and possibly apply another cement seal on the top for "more insurance" against unlikely troubles, according to National Incident Commander Thad Allen. It means the federal government is not going anywhere anytime soon in overseeing this catastrophe. And neither is BP which continues to run its TV commercials promising the public, “We’re going to stay until we make this right.” Plenty is still broken along the Gulf. Claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg is finding that BP’s oil claim records are a mess, helping to delay payments that have been promised within 48 hours. Gulf oil victims are facing pressure about whether to take a BP check now and waive their right to sue or wait to sue which could drag on for years. Meanwhile, it’s been disclosed that BP lawyers eyeballed the internal incident report before it was released to the public on Wednesday, raising the question about how impartial it really is.

Quotable Quote
“There are many, many claims where we have violated our own rule” of paying within 48 hours or seven days. “It's taking longer than I had hoped,” claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg said. 

“Those critics who say Ken Feinberg raised our expectations and then is not living up to those expectations, they're absolutely right, and I owe them an apology," he said.


National News

Los Angeles Times: Another day, another delay in killing the well
The drama is not over yet. National Incident Commander Thad Allen is now saying the final process of sealing the broken well process could begin around Sept. 18 or Sept. 28 and take about a week. The drilling of the relief well's final 50 feet was supposed to begin this week. But Allen said that engineers wanted to conduct further diagnostics on the well.

Read more by Richard Fausset
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/09/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20100909


Houston Chronicle: BP does plan to go ahead with final death blow
BP will go ahead with plans to deliver a death blow to the blown-out well that spilled almost 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico even though findings in its own investigation of the disaster raise questions about whether the procedure is still needed.

Read more by Monica Hatcher
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7193994.html


Wall Street Journal: BP lawyers reviewed incident report
BP’s own report analyzing the Gulf oil spill was reviewed by its lawyers before it was published Wednesday. While that is not really unusual for a company under fire to turn to its lawyers, it does raise the question about the independence of BP’s self-assessment. But who can blame BP? The stakes are high and the oil giant was trying to point its best face forward, right?

Read more
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575481841496497502.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories


USA Today: Oil claims center finds BP records a mess
It’s no surprise at all that BP’s claims processing system was a mess when claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg took it over on Aug. 23. Claims administrator Ken Feinberg says there’s a jumbled database and hundreds of individual claims of loss with no documentation. It remains a logistical tangle of unpaid requests for help and missing documentation.

Read more
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-10-gulfclaims10_ST_N.htm

Check this one out, too
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39084094/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/


Bloomberg: BP delays Q3 earnings report
The accountants are getting in the way. BP announced Thursday that it’s delaying its third-quarter earnings report by a week because it needs extra time to account for the costs of the leak response. The company will report the earnings on Nov. 2. The postponement will “allow a little extra time for the more complicated and extra volume of accounting needed as a result of the Gulf of Mexico spending,”  a spokesman said.

Read more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/bp-delays-third-quarter-earnings-report-on-oil-spill-costs.html


Editorial

Tampabay.com: Keep Gulf oil spill on the radar
The Gulf region needs more inspectors to keep up with the vast expansion of deepwater drilling. Inspectors need the right tools to get a rig operator's attention, from the ability to make more surprise inspections to the authority to impose hefty fines, writes the Tampabay.com.

Read more
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/keep-gulf-oil-spill-on-the-radar/1120571


The Cavalier Daily: Built to spill
Though the damage is done, the future is not yet written. Rather than wait for the next catastrophe, the U.S. government must take the initiative to regain control over the oil industry. We cannot allow private companies to regulate themselves and we must stop taking risks we have no ability to manage. It’s time to be a world leader and embrace new energy initiatives, Ashley Chappo writes in the University of Virginia’s newspaper.

Read more by Ashley Chappo
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2010/09/10/built-to-spill/


Times-Picayune: The flaws in BP’s own report
The companies will surely fight in court over all this, and BP will probably cite its internal probe to boost its legal arguments. That's why government investigators looking at the disaster and considering criminal charges should not be swayed by BP's investigation, the Times-Picayune writes.

Read more
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/09/bp_blaming_others_for_oil_spil.html


Regional

BP: Restoration offices to open in 5 states
BP's Gulf Coast Restoration Organization expects to open state offices in each of the four Gulf Coast states affected by the oil spill by October, according to Mike Utsler, the company's chief restoration official.

Read more:
http://www.sunherald.com/2010/09/08/2461157/bp-official-restoration-offices.html#ixzz0z88TrATX


Baldwincountynow.com: Gulf communities fight back with a website
Two Alabama coastal towns are going digital in getting out information about their communities. The city of Bayou La Batre and town of Dauphin Island joined forces late last week to launch www.AlabamaCoast.org, a new website designed to serve as a clearinghouse for up to date information on upcoming events, tourism related questions and the latest information on seafood safety.

Read more:
http://www.baldwincountynow.com/articles/2010/09/10/local_news/doc4c881902f19de445979257.txt


Feature

AP: Dilemma for Gulf victims: Take the money and run or stay and sue
Thousands of business owners, fishermen and others along the Gulf Coast are confronting a conundrum. Those who accept a check for their long-term losses from the victims' compensation fund will have to give up their right to sue BP. And the question becomes one of playing the odds. “At this point, we've got to give BP a chance to do what they said they were going to do," says an Alabama seafood market owner. "I can prove my loss. Sales were just way off, and I couldn't get what I needed, and people weren't coming in to buy either."

Read more
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gL54wt6jsLZzo7eVJ8E7UBVRnqLAD9I4HN700