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BP's Nuke-Powered Liability Cap
May 18, 2010
As BP destroys our priceless planet,
its lawyers gear up to save the company from paying for the damage. The
same will happen---only worse---with the next atomic reactor disaster.
By law, BP may be liable for only $75 million of the harm done by the Deepwater Horizon.
Ask yourself why the federal government would adopt legislation that
limits the liability of an oil driller for the damage it does to us
all.
Ask the same question---on another order of magnitude---about nuclear power plants.
Some lawmakers have tried to raise this cap so BP could be made to pay for the wounds they have not yet stopped inflicting.
By any calculation, BP did more than $75 million in harm during the
first hour of this undersea gusher. That sum won't begin to cover even
the legal fees, let alone the tangible damage to our only home.
But "free market" Republicans have resisted raising the limit. So BP
will walk away virtually scot free. All this will be tax deductible. So
will the millions they'll spend changing the name of the company, and
dumping all those pathetic "Beyond Petroleum" pamphlets.
Now imagine a melt-down alongside the blow-out. See the Deepwater
Horizon as a nuclear power plant. Think of the rickety Grand Gulf, a
bit to the north, or the two decaying reactors at South Texas, a ways
to the west.
Imagine that apocalyptic plume of oil ravaging our seas as an airborne radioactive cloud.
Feel it pouring like Chernobyl over the south coast, enveloping all of
Florida, blowing with the shifts of the winds up over the southeast,
irradiating Atlanta, then Nashville, then New Orleans, then Houston,
all through Mexico and the north coast of South America, the Caribbean,
then around again across Florida, through the Atlantic and all over
Europe, then around the globe two or three times more.
The instigators of such a nightmare are currently on the hook for a
maximum of $11 billion. Ask yourself why the federal government would
limit the liability of a reactor owner for the damage it imposes on the
public.
There's a clear historic answer: In the 1950s, when the
bomb-making Atomic Energy Commission wanted a civilian PR front, it
asked the private utility industry to build commercial reactors. The
electric companies refused, fearing that a melt-down could cost them
everything.
So Congress passed the 1957 Price-Anderson Act, limiting a reactor
owner's liability to a paltry $560 million. They promised that private
insurers would soon take up the risk.
A half-century later, taxpayers---and victims---are still on the hook.
The feds have raised the liability limit to an utterly inadequate $11
billion.
A melted reactor today would do that much harm in the first
hour. By any sane calculation, the non-radioactive Deepwater Horizon
has long since done more.
According to the comprehensive study just published by the New York Academy of Sciences, the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl has killed some 985,000 people. The governments of Belarus and Ukraine estimate more than $500 billion in damages just to their countries alone.
Reactor advocates say with a corporate sneer that no such accident is
possible in the United States. That's exactly what those Bumbling
Petro-criminals said before they erupted this gusher.
The current "Climate Bill" would use billions of your taxpayer dollars to fund new nukes all rigged up with all those ancient liability caps. Like Deepwater Horizon, the owners of these "advanced" reactors not yet built will be liable for virtually nothing.
Before tomorrow's radioactive cloud follows today's oil-soaked
plume...before the next melt-down follows this blow-out...we need a green-powered Earth.
We have no choice. Our economy, our planet, our bodies cannot handle more public-funded corporate-imposed suicide.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Harvey Wasserman
Harvey Wasserman is an activist and author. His first book "Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States" was published in 1972. Harvey edits www.nukefree.org.
As BP destroys our priceless planet,
its lawyers gear up to save the company from paying for the damage. The
same will happen---only worse---with the next atomic reactor disaster.
By law, BP may be liable for only $75 million of the harm done by the Deepwater Horizon.
Ask yourself why the federal government would adopt legislation that
limits the liability of an oil driller for the damage it does to us
all.
Ask the same question---on another order of magnitude---about nuclear power plants.
Some lawmakers have tried to raise this cap so BP could be made to pay for the wounds they have not yet stopped inflicting.
By any calculation, BP did more than $75 million in harm during the
first hour of this undersea gusher. That sum won't begin to cover even
the legal fees, let alone the tangible damage to our only home.
But "free market" Republicans have resisted raising the limit. So BP
will walk away virtually scot free. All this will be tax deductible. So
will the millions they'll spend changing the name of the company, and
dumping all those pathetic "Beyond Petroleum" pamphlets.
Now imagine a melt-down alongside the blow-out. See the Deepwater
Horizon as a nuclear power plant. Think of the rickety Grand Gulf, a
bit to the north, or the two decaying reactors at South Texas, a ways
to the west.
Imagine that apocalyptic plume of oil ravaging our seas as an airborne radioactive cloud.
Feel it pouring like Chernobyl over the south coast, enveloping all of
Florida, blowing with the shifts of the winds up over the southeast,
irradiating Atlanta, then Nashville, then New Orleans, then Houston,
all through Mexico and the north coast of South America, the Caribbean,
then around again across Florida, through the Atlantic and all over
Europe, then around the globe two or three times more.
The instigators of such a nightmare are currently on the hook for a
maximum of $11 billion. Ask yourself why the federal government would
limit the liability of a reactor owner for the damage it imposes on the
public.
There's a clear historic answer: In the 1950s, when the
bomb-making Atomic Energy Commission wanted a civilian PR front, it
asked the private utility industry to build commercial reactors. The
electric companies refused, fearing that a melt-down could cost them
everything.
So Congress passed the 1957 Price-Anderson Act, limiting a reactor
owner's liability to a paltry $560 million. They promised that private
insurers would soon take up the risk.
A half-century later, taxpayers---and victims---are still on the hook.
The feds have raised the liability limit to an utterly inadequate $11
billion.
A melted reactor today would do that much harm in the first
hour. By any sane calculation, the non-radioactive Deepwater Horizon
has long since done more.
According to the comprehensive study just published by the New York Academy of Sciences, the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl has killed some 985,000 people. The governments of Belarus and Ukraine estimate more than $500 billion in damages just to their countries alone.
Reactor advocates say with a corporate sneer that no such accident is
possible in the United States. That's exactly what those Bumbling
Petro-criminals said before they erupted this gusher.
The current "Climate Bill" would use billions of your taxpayer dollars to fund new nukes all rigged up with all those ancient liability caps. Like Deepwater Horizon, the owners of these "advanced" reactors not yet built will be liable for virtually nothing.
Before tomorrow's radioactive cloud follows today's oil-soaked
plume...before the next melt-down follows this blow-out...we need a green-powered Earth.
We have no choice. Our economy, our planet, our bodies cannot handle more public-funded corporate-imposed suicide.
Harvey Wasserman
Harvey Wasserman is an activist and author. His first book "Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States" was published in 1972. Harvey edits www.nukefree.org.
As BP destroys our priceless planet,
its lawyers gear up to save the company from paying for the damage. The
same will happen---only worse---with the next atomic reactor disaster.
By law, BP may be liable for only $75 million of the harm done by the Deepwater Horizon.
Ask yourself why the federal government would adopt legislation that
limits the liability of an oil driller for the damage it does to us
all.
Ask the same question---on another order of magnitude---about nuclear power plants.
Some lawmakers have tried to raise this cap so BP could be made to pay for the wounds they have not yet stopped inflicting.
By any calculation, BP did more than $75 million in harm during the
first hour of this undersea gusher. That sum won't begin to cover even
the legal fees, let alone the tangible damage to our only home.
But "free market" Republicans have resisted raising the limit. So BP
will walk away virtually scot free. All this will be tax deductible. So
will the millions they'll spend changing the name of the company, and
dumping all those pathetic "Beyond Petroleum" pamphlets.
Now imagine a melt-down alongside the blow-out. See the Deepwater
Horizon as a nuclear power plant. Think of the rickety Grand Gulf, a
bit to the north, or the two decaying reactors at South Texas, a ways
to the west.
Imagine that apocalyptic plume of oil ravaging our seas as an airborne radioactive cloud.
Feel it pouring like Chernobyl over the south coast, enveloping all of
Florida, blowing with the shifts of the winds up over the southeast,
irradiating Atlanta, then Nashville, then New Orleans, then Houston,
all through Mexico and the north coast of South America, the Caribbean,
then around again across Florida, through the Atlantic and all over
Europe, then around the globe two or three times more.
The instigators of such a nightmare are currently on the hook for a
maximum of $11 billion. Ask yourself why the federal government would
limit the liability of a reactor owner for the damage it imposes on the
public.
There's a clear historic answer: In the 1950s, when the
bomb-making Atomic Energy Commission wanted a civilian PR front, it
asked the private utility industry to build commercial reactors. The
electric companies refused, fearing that a melt-down could cost them
everything.
So Congress passed the 1957 Price-Anderson Act, limiting a reactor
owner's liability to a paltry $560 million. They promised that private
insurers would soon take up the risk.
A half-century later, taxpayers---and victims---are still on the hook.
The feds have raised the liability limit to an utterly inadequate $11
billion.
A melted reactor today would do that much harm in the first
hour. By any sane calculation, the non-radioactive Deepwater Horizon
has long since done more.
According to the comprehensive study just published by the New York Academy of Sciences, the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl has killed some 985,000 people. The governments of Belarus and Ukraine estimate more than $500 billion in damages just to their countries alone.
Reactor advocates say with a corporate sneer that no such accident is
possible in the United States. That's exactly what those Bumbling
Petro-criminals said before they erupted this gusher.
The current "Climate Bill" would use billions of your taxpayer dollars to fund new nukes all rigged up with all those ancient liability caps. Like Deepwater Horizon, the owners of these "advanced" reactors not yet built will be liable for virtually nothing.
Before tomorrow's radioactive cloud follows today's oil-soaked
plume...before the next melt-down follows this blow-out...we need a green-powered Earth.
We have no choice. Our economy, our planet, our bodies cannot handle more public-funded corporate-imposed suicide.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.