Obama has plans for big fines and new legislation.

This spill will be the new global warming scam. It will be global oil protection in a massive oil and government over site protection scam. Possibly all the wells will be shut down until a new over site committee can be enacted and the wells inspected. Or at the threat will be made to scare everyone.

WHY YOU ASK....MONEY!!! Big money at the pumps.

Expect the oil companies to laugh it off and react...at the pumps... NO ONE PAYS...EXCEPT US!

Oil firms need bigger fines, senator says
BP assessed $555,000 for 11 violationsThursday, May 27, 2010 By Bruce AlpertWashington bureau
WASHINGTON -- From 2001 through 2007, BP was assessed $555,000 in fines by the Minerals Management Service for 11 separate violations in its Gulf of Mexico operations, according to records obtained by a Rhode Island senator.

A staffer for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the number of violations, for BP drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, weren't out of the norm for other major companies.

But Whitehouse said he submitted the list of BP violations to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week to make the case that penalties for violations of MMS safety standards need to be significantly increased. President Barack Obama is expected to announce today that it will strengthen inspections and the permitting process related to offshore drilling.

The list does not say where the problems occurred, but John Rogers Smith, a petroleum engineering professor at Louisiana State University, said three of the 11 violations relate directly to well control, an issue with the current BP rig accident that killed 11 and triggered a spill that threatens fisheries, marshes and beaches along the Gulf Coast.

In 2004, for example, BP was fined $190,000 after a fire involving a diverter system the agency says was not installed as directed in the "approved plan."

In 2007, BP was fined $41,000 because the "operator failed to verify employees were trained to competently perform the assigned well control duties." In addition, MMS said, the company failed to "have a remote-controlled station that could operate the valves in the flow and vent lines of the diverter."

Whitehouse is proposing legislation that would increase penalties for violations that pose a "threat of serious, irreparable or immediate harm to life, including fish and aquatic life," from $38,000 per violation per day to $150,000 per day. Criminal penalties under his bill would increase from $100,000 per violation per day, to $10 million per violation, per day.

"Enhancing these penalties will go a long way to deter oil companies from cutting corners on safety measures that can prevent disasters like the Gulf spill," Whitehouse said.

And the higher penalties, he said, are far cheaper than the cost of dealing with a major oil spill, such as that created by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/in ... xml&coll=1