President Barack Obama vowed to make BP pay up when the time come to compensate all those who have been affected by the oil spill. He said that he would ensure that BP would not hide behind its lawyers and legal jargon. He also said that since BP had said that it wants to make things right, he would see to it that they stuck to their word.
It has almost been seven weeks since the explosion on the Deep Horizon oil rig and it is estimated that over 181 million liters of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico since then. Louisiana has been struggling to get over the devastation of Katrina and the oil spill couldn’t have come at a worse time. BP has been compensating victims over the last several weeks and a new block of payments is on the way. With this latest payout, BP would have spent $84 million in compensation. But it won’t be the last and certainly the payouts will continue until and after the oil spill has been mopped up.
What has particularly irked Obama is the fact that BP spent $50 million on an advertising campaign which expressed their apologies to the American public. He has also noted that the company paid $10.5 billion in shareholder dividends. Obama said that he understands that the company has legal obligations that have to be fulfilled. But he also said that the company should not forget the obligations they had towards the people around the Gulf coast. Obama warned them not to try and hustle those affected into minor settlements.