Sharyl Attkisson: Government Estimates on Oil Release Low-Balled
CBS legal correspondent Sharyl Attkisson on Face the Nation discussed their investigative report that revealed the latest estimates on the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf from the government are being low-balled, contrary to Admiral Thad Allen's statements earlier in the same program.
How The Oil Leak Estimates Got Low-Balled:
Just last week, the Interior Department released a range of 12-to-19,000 barrels a day -- up to four times what the government and BP had claimed. That's 504,000 to 798,000 gallons each day. That's bad enough. But it turns out that's not exactly what the scientists conducting the analysis found.
Sources tell CBS News that 12-19,000 barrels a day is actually the minimum believed to be leaking from the well based on the most "conservative assumptions." The upper end of the range, a maximum, hasn't yet been released. But those facts were lost somewhere in the translation between the scientists and the Interior Department press release. Read on...
Attkisson also explained how the differences in the estimates could mean a difference in the amount of fines BP ultimately pays.
Transcript via CBS below the fold.
BOB SCHIEFFER: And, with us now around the table three people who I’m sure have all the answers--CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford, Dan Balz of the Washington Post, and CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
Sharyl, I want to start with you because you did quite a bit of reporting on this this week. You were the one who said, wait a minute, these estimates that they’re giving us; this is the low end of the estimate of how much oil is coming out. First, what about the numbers we heard today and what really is the significance of those numbers?
SHARYL ATTKISSON: Well, Commandant Allen, if he’s saying that twelve to nineteen or twelve to twenty-five thousand barrels a day is the range, the estimate of oil coming out of there as figured by the independent scientist that he hired to do this or that he’s tasked, that’s incorrect. I have the actual report, which shows the plumemodeling team said at least twelve to twenty-five-thousand barrels a day are coming out of there. And, that is the lower bound. They have yet to release the upper bound, which sources tell me will be significantly higher. That has not yet been released by the government. But the government has been treating the low bound as if it’s the entire range.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So, what-- what’s the big deal about that? What difference does it make?
SHARYL ATTKISSON: Well, it makes a huge difference to perhaps, the com-- how the competency of the government looks but from a financial standpoint for BP, it’s the difference between millions of gallons and billions of dollars in fines, because they will be fined ultimately based on some government estimate by how many barrels that they've released, as much as four thousand three hundred dollars per barrel. So, in just the first forty days of this crisis, if you go with the low-end estimates, you’re talking about two billion dollars for just the first forty days.
If you go with higher estimates, even slightly higher estimates, we’re looking at four billion dollars and that’s just for the beginning of this. So, you can see how important those estimates are.
[...]
BOB SCHIEFFER: Ah, Sharyl, what do you think is going to happen now? What can we expect
on this?SHARYL ATTKISSON: Well, I think the government will continue on all levels to try to look like they’re getting in front of this, which will be hard to do because the initial perception was that they were not. And almost every action that comes now appears, whether it is or not, reactionary instead of proactive. But they’re going to try to continue to get ahead of it. I recommend they post documents on the oil flow estimates, which they haven’t posted yet but they promise to do. They come clean with a lot of questions we’ve asked about how these numbers are being calculated and they quit stalling and giving the appearance whether true or not that they may have an interest, the government, in low-balling these figures.
Scientists who appreciate the difficulty of measuring these flows give broad ranges, and lawyers who get a piece of settlement fees highball. Welcome to reality.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Those cases are handled by government attorneys who are paid by salary.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Do you have any idea how many tort cases have been filed to date? Punitive damages will be assessed on the severity of the tort. Works for the government too if they want it to. A little over 4000 bucks a barrel if the EPA wants it and why wouldn't they?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
All the cases are going to be combined under one class action suit.
Watch.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
If you look at the model for the lawsuits by various states against the tobacco companies the participating states made out fine, the lawyers made out spectacularly well and the families of people killed by smoking got sweet nothing.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
In those cases State Attorneys General contracted with private counsel to pursue damages for health care and other damages suffered by the states.
It was in no way a class action suit for damages suffered by the individual victims.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I agree. But, that's why it will be pulled together into a class action suit.
However, there will be a payout to individuals should the prosecution win.
The facts are that the chances of any one individual waging a successful fight against a corporate giant is slim. It goes one of two ways. Either the corporate giant negotiates a settlement to avoid being dragged throught the press, or they fight a battle of attrition that the injured party can't afford to fight.
This whole thing is a political and public relations mess. The Justice Department will file a class action suit on behalf of the individual States for overall damages and MAY file a separate case on behalf of the fisherman in the region for lost wages and damages.
A settlement will be reached. BP will pay X amount to each state, and the States will funnel that money down to the individuals. I'm sure the name gathering is already going on.
That's my prediction.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
There are likely to be a number of different things going on. The people and businesses damaged will certainly have their cases consolidated in a class action. This will be private individuals versus BP, TransOcean, Halliburton etc. These cases will be handled by private counsel with one firm probably taking the lead.
The federal government may also sue for civil fines (I think they can go as high a s $4300/barrel, but I'm going on memory). This will be a separate proceeding from the class action suit and will likely finish sooner.
The states may also pursue damages, but this is yet another proceeding led by the Attorneys General of each state (which could also be consolidated). The Attorneys General could hire private counsel, but I don't believe the Justice Department would be involved in these (the states') cases.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I don't believe that option one is ever going to come to fruition. This isn't the 80s. The political atmosphere is different, and people are much more maleable (did I spell that right).
The government is going to cut "private" class action suits off at the pass, and use "expediency" and "saving the injured parties money" and not wanting to "enrich the lawyers" as the excuses.
Two and three are going to be combined into ONE suit, and the GOP will play their part but will want it that way 'cause they know it helps their benefactor, BP.
Bottom line. People will get paid (not enuf). BP will pay (not enuf). The politicians will be able to wave the flag of populism. The birds and fish will die, and we'll get on with our humdrum little lives.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
But we seem to be losing rights and remedies so fast you need a scorecard to keep up, so, who knows?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I don't enjoy those times when I'm right.
But, I've lived to long to not expect that the path of least resistance will be taken and that people will go along with it.
Ask the dead Gaza humanitarians about justice.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
karoli just put up a post on Helen Thomas.
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/where-helen-...
Corruption favors the wealthy.
will claim/file bankruptcy and not pay a dime.
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
In which country?
And punitive damages are assessed only with relation to the damages caused - in maritime cases the ration is 1:1. See e.g. Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker.
And maybe you hadn't noticed, but the government has been helping BP low-ball the damage.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
to any foreign company that operates in the US (like maybe Service Corps international.)There are no limits on punitive damages in tort cases involving foreign owned corporations.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
. . . regulates how punitive damages are assessed? That's a pretty radical change in the law.
Link please.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
There are counties in Mississippi where the number of lawsuits against foreign corporations exceeds the population of the county. It's a freaking industry.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
You do understand that an out of state corporation is sued as "a foreign corporation," right?
I have no clue how a foreign corporation's status -- regardless of definition -- would remove the limits on punitive damages placed by the Supreme Court in cases like Exxon Shipping and Campbell. But, oh well, the sun is finally shining, and I'm out of here for now.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
The only problem is, the Government appears to believe its job is to cover up for BP.
Too bad their job isn't stopping the gusher.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I suppose we should be thankful that the Army, Navy and Marines, as well as national and local police forces aren't yet involved in cover-up, news suppression and seditious-blogger-elimination duties.
today joining in on the let's crush Helen Thomas's skull bandwagon.
the surviving oil companies will probably pack up for the west coast of Africa where supervision is almost non-existent. The US will produce less oil and import more, and have to rely on the political stability of places like Angola and Nigeria, not to mention the simmering Middle East.
The clean up? Anyone's guess who the bag holders end up being.
15 minutes ago
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A crew drilling a natural gas well through an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle hit a pocket of methane gas that ignited, triggering an explosion that burned seven workers, state and company officials said Monday.
Why do we believe this CBS correspondent on Face the Nation when another one on the same show was presented as a liar earlier today?
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
and our team has possession.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
that the facts support one and not the other. Not sure it's the case but it's conceivable.
Cause you gotta change things up once in a while to keep the conversation rolling and the suspicions high
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
.
Dear Mr. President,
Got TRANSPARENCY yet?
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
hope with this administration. They are becoming more incompetent then Bush.
as the GOP hopeful someone asked Ron Paul who he would vote for , he said neither . When asked if he thought Obama would make a good President he said no because he would promise hope and change and produce neither ( or something along those lines ) .
Me , when he picked Biden I knew the fix was in , not to even speak of his other picks . And yes i voted for Obama the lessor of two weavels .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
is capturing over 10,000 barrels a day - and that it's (originally estimated) at 10% of the flow, when they said for the first week or two it was only releasing 5,000 barrels a day?
....ask, the math is over your head. As a matter of, it's over all of heads, and Gulf of Mexico shores, and the gulf's barriers islands, and all over the gulf's birds, and all over the gulf's dolphins, and all over the faces of BP's management.
MZ
while it may be very satisfying to fantasize about oil compnies paying fines, the reality is much more complicated.
any true value comes from actual work being performed, and corporations don't do the work, workers do the work, and produce the wealth and value.
legal entities, no matter what the supremes say, are not actual physical beings, they do not do actual work.
point being, no matter how you shuffle the figures, the workers and consumers will pay for this cleanup; they always do.
Yet another pathetic person garnering their few minutes in the spotlight to pontificate about the quantity of oil gushing into the Gulf...
If there's anything I DO know after the first forty days of this huge ecological disaster:
1) we have no clue how much oil has gushed out of this well thus far, nor can we guesstimate the total volume of oil that WILL gush out before the magical, mystical day upon which they cap it;
2) BP officials and our fearless leaders in the administration du jour have spent a lot more time arguing about who's to blame and not nearly enough time coordinating clean-up and intervention efforts;
3) the delusional among us (mostly wingnuts and corporatists afraid of their own personal financial losses--or future gains) are working their wee tushies off, trying to convince us that we HAVE TO drill for oil ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE, if we are to protect a vital part of our economy, and end our dependence on foreign oil; and
4) not one of the politicians on record about this disaster has the gonads to assert that it's past time we--as a species--end our insane dependence on petroleum.
if oil reserves are in such dire jeopardy, help me understand: why the F**K are we producing massive quantities of PLASTIC, which inevitably becomes landfill fodder or part of the Texas-sized flotilla of detritus in the Pacific?!?!?!
Cause plast is cheap, light and a benefit to mankind.
Get with the program. ;o)
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I know, I know...
I'm just such a rabble-rouser--have been for the last 42 years.
My students think I'm a wee bit quaint because I cajole them to bring me their recyclables. I can only hope that a few of them will catch the recycle bug...
is, to the maximum degree possible, whoring itself out to the corporate world. Anything for a buck, what?
If we'd had just been able to drill baby drill in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, this catastrophe could have possibly been avoided.
The government isn't covering up for BP. They're giving themselves room to UP the estimates at any time they feel like it if BP even so much as appears to drag its feet on getting this job done and the mess cleaned up to their liking.
BP knows very well those are low-ball estimates. The government will "find" those unaccounted for barrels if BP pulls some stunt in the future like balking over payment to the locals. BP knows that, too.
It's simple carrot-in-front, stick-in-back strategy. If BP wants to keep those government estimates on the lower rather than higher side, they're going to have to keep the government happier about the level of their cooperation.
This is the problem with the starry-eyed and ultimately ludicrous call for "transparency" in politics, foreign policy negotiations and hardball business deals. Trying to appear fair-and-square under too much public scrutiny is not how you get the best results for your side and serves only to make you look like a weakling at best and no different from the supposed political whores you replaced at worst.
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