It goes to show the economic might of the US and the advantage of having a relatively uncorrupted government and legal system when dealing with industrial pollution on a catastrophic scale.
The US government is demanding BP set aside $20 billion in a fund for the clean up of the Gulf blow-out.
Say we take the worst case of 100,000 barrels a day or around 12,500 tons a day.
This gives a total of 690,000 tons since the spill began, low end estimates are around a quarter of that say 175,000 tons. Horrifying to say the least no matter which figure you take, and it may well destroy BP as a company, however:
This pales into insignificance compared to the Niger Delta where significant environmental vandalism has been going on for nearly 50 years.
In 2006 alone approximately 1,500,000 tons were spilt into the delta.
Nigerian sweet crude probably the best there is provides around 40% of our oil requirement in the US.
The whole oil pipework system, hundreds of miles of it, are rotting and falling apart. Drilling is moving towards more isolated and deeper areas, thus compounding the problem.
And you know what?
Nobody really gives a damn.
Compensation so far $0, if you exclude buying the Nigerian Government.
continued at Daily Kos....
