Oil Spill liability caps too low. The taxpayer gets screwed by Big Oil and Gov'ts again.

BP and all their corporate oil buddies, and I have talked about this when the BP spill first happened, pay virtually nothing for liability caps (30-40 million).This is a real subsidy from Gov'ts. By making these caps so low there is little incentive for the oil criminals to put in proper safety mechanisms. Oil companies logic: Why pay 200-300 million drilling safety wells or putting blow out controls on producing wells when we are only required to pay (30-40 million) if something goes very wrong? These low liability caps essentially  make it economically attractive for Oil Companies to take risks. (Newfoundland and labrador have a 150 -200 million liability cap but even that amount of cap is paltry when it costs billions for clean-ups). These liability caps essentially shift the risk from the Oil criminals (whoops corporations) to taxpayers. 

Of course our beloved political representatives who all get benefits of one form or another from Big Oil have made sure that those liability caps stayed low. The Liberals now criticize the Conservatives for low liability caps while ignoring their role in keeping them low while in power. The Conservatives reply that Canada has one of the most rigorous regulatory systems in the world. But just how much will a Big Oil company have to pay for a spill in say the arctic? How much will the taxpayers have to eat in order to continue to "create a positive business environment in Canada" (in other words keeping corporate costs down for greater shareholder profits while screwing the rest of Canadians)? Perhaps oil spill clean-up jobs are the Conservative's new job creation plan?

See today's G and M on page B4 for the article I am basing this on.