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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (32293)	6/24/2010 3:22:17 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

BP would almost certainly not have been as negligent or as poorly prepared for a spill if it had been legally required to pay the complete costs of the clean up. Oil companies had little incentive to be appropriately careful. As Michael Greenstone says: "the cap inevitably distorts the way companies evaluate their risk. Locations where damages from a spill may be costly—for example, places near coasts or in sensitive environmental areas—seem more attractive for drilling with the cap than if firms actually were responsible for all damages." By limiting oil company liability, we effectively provided oil companies with enormous amounts of free insurance, allowing them to play with house money—that is, with public money.