If you cut yourself and call the doctor, it's important to know what type of bleeding and how much.
If you have a plumbing problem and call the plumber, it's important to know what type of leak and where it is coming from.
If you have to serve lunch to a bunch of people and you call the caterer, it's important to know how many people will be served and how much time you have to serve them.
BP's own regional plan for dealing with offshore leaks calls for this same sort of approach to defining the problem. BP's lack of interest in measuring the amount of oil spilled doesn't make sense... if you are trying to define the scope of the problem.
So why isn't BP following its own procedures? Turns out the answer to this riddle is very simple. BP is more interested in avoiding a legal problem than solving an engineering problem.
McClatchy News has figured out why BP is slow walking this problem. They are trying to low ball this number.
- The longer you keep people away, the more time the oil has to disperse.
- The more time it has to disperse, the harder it is to tie to BP.
- The harder it is to tie to BP, the less damages BP will have to pay.
Legal experts said that not having a credible official estimate of the leak's size provides another benefit for BP: The amount of oil spilled is certain to be key evidence in the court battles that are likely to result from the disaster. The size of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, for example, was a significant factor that the jury considered when it assessed damages against Exxon.
"If they put off measuring, then it's going to be a battle of dueling experts after the fact trying to extrapolate how much spilled after it has all sunk or has been carried away," said Lloyd Benton Miller, one of the lead plaintiffs' lawyers in the Exxon Valdez spill litigation. "The ability to measure how much oil was released will be impossible."
This is an age-old legal trick. We saw it with tobacco. We see it routinely with the pharmaceutical industry. We see it with most polluters. But this time, there is another piece of damning evidence that shows BP is being wilfully negligent in failing to measure the leak.
That decision, however, runs counter to BP's own regional plan for dealing with offshore leaks. "In the event of a significant release of oil," the 583-page plan says on Page 2, "an accurate estimation of the spill's total volume ... is essential in providing preliminary data to plan and initiate cleanup operations."[emphasis added]
These ratfuckers are trying to hide the body.