Under Federal law, BP’s liability is capped at $75M.
Time to undo that one ...
I can assure you that BP’s costs including the loss of the rig, hundreds of lawsuits, a PR disaster and the years of cleanup efforts will not stop at $75 million. Believe me, it is in BP’s interest to stop this leak ASAP, and every day that goes by is another financial and image disaster. There is no amount of Corexit that could gain them a profit from this mess. What is in jeopardy for them is the prospect of ever again getting the rights to drill in deep water. This is uncharted territory; no one really knew what they would do if there was a big problem a mile underwater. There WAS a safety device, a blowout preventer, but it didn’t work. I don’t think anyone had a plan for anything beyond that, so now all the Rube Goldberg, half-assed ideas are being tried. Ultimately, they may have to think of trying some sort of explosion down there if none of the well tampon schemes work.