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Quick Wrap Up ? Supreme Court, Auto Safety and BP

By Joe Consumer

Supremes: Mike Allen at Politico is reporting - Elena Kagan is most probably it (for the U.S. Supreme Court.) 

Auto Safety: On the front page of the New York Times today, you can find an article called, "In Washington, a Renewed Taste for Auto Safety" (see some of our earlier coverage here):

For the first time since Firestone tires were exploding on Ford Explorers a decade ago, Congress on Thursday began working on legislation that would impose far-reaching safety standards on the auto industry, including some steps that advocates have been seeking for years.

What began in September as a crisis for Toyota, which has recalled more than nine million vehicles worldwide because of safety issues involving accelerator pedals, has become a catalyst for regulatory change. ?

Federal regulators, who have come under fire for reacting too slowly to Toyota?s problems, have said they would welcome stronger standards allowing them to order immediate recalls if consumers are in danger.

BP: Also in the Times, a ?Q & A? with veteran reporter Matt Wald, putting the BP spill in perspective.  On the liability question (which we've been covering here, here), he writes:

BP and Transocean have been named by the Coast Guard as ?responsible parties,? which means they must cover all cleanup costs, including those incurred by the Coast Guard and other government employees.

They will also have to compensate people and businesses for things like property damage, lost business revenue and harm to ecosystems. BP?s liability bill is capped at $75 million and Transocean?s probably at $65 million, but those caps could be lifted if the companies were found to have acted with gross negligence or to have broken rules that led to the spills.

Or the government could rule that the spill involves more than one incident, which would mean higher caps. And three senators have introduced legislation to raise the $75 million cap to $10 billion.

Cameron, the company that manufactured a ?blowout preventer? that failed to function after the explosion, and Halliburton, which performed drilling services like cementing, could in turn face claims from BP or Transocean.

Third parties like fishermen could sue the responsible parties or companies like Cameron and Halliburton. The companies? insurers face claims, too.

MORE BP: Speaking of both BP negligence and the need for regulatory change, this just in from the Times:  

More than 10 years ago and as late as 2009, the Minerals Management Service and the Interior Department ?charged both with regulating the oil industry and with collecting royalties from it,? warned offshore rig operators that they needed to install ?blowout preventers, used to cut off the flow of oil from a well in an emergency.?  But they never did anything about it, ?relying instead on industry assurances that they were on top of the problem.? ?Everything that?s done by the oil industry is done for profit,? said Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, who demanded this week that the Interior Department investigate these backup safety systems. ?Throw in the fact that regulators have taken a lax attitude toward overseeing their operations, and you have a recipe for catastrophe.??

Have you noticed how confusing it?s been lately trying to figure out which corporate and regulatory disaster we?re discussing?

Full post as published by ThePopTort on May 07, 2010 (boomark / email).