TomCADem (1000+ posts) Mon May-16-11 10:50 AM
Original message
Taxpayers on the Hook for BP's Gulf Spill
Source: Fox Business
The oil hearings last week revealed that BP (BP: 42.76, -0.17, -0.40%) is moving to cut its tax bill by about $11.8 billion by writing off the costs of its devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as an ordinary business expense, a spill which wreaked havoc on the Gulf, killed wild life and damaged the local economy.
BP booked $11.8 billion in tax savings in its fourth quarter as it partly wrote off the costs for the clean-up, the $20 billion victim compensation fund, and legal expenses.
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Taxpayers are on the hook for about 29% of BP's overall costs, says Senate Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida, who has introduced a bill that would shut down deductions for legal, clean-up and other costs associated with oil spills in U.S. territorial waters as "ordinary and necessary" business expenses.
The legislation would apply to most of BP's expenses, Nelson has said.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/05/16/taxpayers... /
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Notably, even Fox Business is noting this story, which occurs as Republicans insist that tax breaks to oil companies are off the table while insisting that they are the ones who are serious about deficit reduction.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4852692Hey! ****-nugget, remember this:
berni_mccoy (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-16-10 01:04 PM
Original message
BREAKING: BP Agrees To Deposit of $20 billion in Escrow Account
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/us/politics/17obama.h...
The White House and BP tentatively agreed on Wednesday that the oil giant would create a $20 billion fund to pay claims for the worst oil spill in American history. The fund will be independently run by Kenneth Feinberg, the mediator who oversaw the 9/11 victims compensation fund, according to two people familiar with the deliberations.
The agreement was not final and was still being negotiated when President Obama and his top advisers met Wednesday morning with BP’s top executives and lawyers. The preliminary terms would give BP several years to deposit the full amount into the fund so it could better manage cash flow, maintain its financial viability and not scare off investors.
Obama delivers on one of his Oval Office Address points from last night.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8571274&mesg_id=8571274Obama couldn't deliver pizza.
News flash: if he announced it the previous night the deal was already struck. He's just playing you saps for saps just so he can make himself look big and powerful ala post-bin Laden antics. But he's a shitty negotiator or a total sell-out because he let BP kep their tax write-offs unwittingly or otherwise.
And you idiots were all about pant-hooting the whole time.
Now you idiots want to **** over working class people by jacking the price of gas by denying the same deductions every other corporation uses to the companies that had nothing to do with the spill. These are some of the few companies aching to put Americans to work. Meanwhile, our jobs and drill rigs an money go over to fatten a bunch of misogynists who would nuke us given half the chance.
