|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
|
 Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 12:50 am Post subject: New Civilian Conservation Corps RE: Oil Spill? |
 |
|
Article here.
| Quote: |
Friday's job report was awful. For most new high school and college grads finding a job is harder than ever. Meanwhile, states are cutting summer jobs for disadvantaged young people. What to do with this army of young unemployed? Send them to the Gulf to clean up beaches and wetlands, and send the bill to BP.
Florida's panhandle beaches are already marred with sticky brown globs of oil. Workers with blue rubber gloves and plastic bags are already losing the battle to keep them clean. Pelicans and other wildlife coated in oil tar are dying by the droves.
It will get far worse. Most of the oil hasn't hit land yet. When it does, hundreds of thousands of workers will be needed to clean beaches, siphon off oil from wetlands, and rescue stranded wildlife. Tens of thousands more will have to bring in new landfill, replace tarred sea walls, and rebuild shoreline infrastructure.
Yet we've got hundreds of thousands of young people sitting on their hands right now because they can't find jobs. Many are from affected coastal areas, where the tourist and fishing industries have been decimated by the spill.
The President should order BP to establish a $5 billion clean-up fund, and immediately put America's army of unemployed young people to work saving the Gulf coast. Call it the new Civilian Conservation Corps.
(The old CCC -- created by FDR at another time of massive unemployment and environmental stress -- gave millions of young Americans jobs and training to reforest lands that had been degraded, provide emergency flood relief in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and build the infrastructure for our national parks.) |
What do you think of this proposal? I think it has some potential, especially if an emphasis were put on learning skills applicable to future private industry jobs were included. It's work that's temporary by nature, which needs to be done, and which can be funded without a tax increase due to the fact that BP is liable for the damages in question (or should be; the ridiculous cap on corporate liability could be removed as part of the bill that would begin the program). |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 1:05 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I'm all for it. Of course, any way you look it BP is going to come out smelling like a rose, because they will just pass on the losses to consumers by increasing fuel prices starting this Fall. I expect one long crisis after another from this. It's the under and unemployed who will pay and suffer most the negative consequences of corporate irresponsibility. Folks you've seen nothing yet. How much more unemployed and tapped out can the average American get? I'm quite very pessimistic about America, but putting the young people and any other able bodies coming forward to work is a good proposal. Mr. President, it's time to stick it to BP and make a law stating they can't pass on their losses. Of course that's tough as their manufactured economic news will justify the higher prices by news of reduced supply and domestic drilling. I expect serious inflation and hard times in the coming years. Things were already bad, but this is another nail in the casket. Don't believe anyone who says there's an economic recovery taking place right now. Sound overly pessimistic? Nope, just fed up with the garbage. CEO of BP complains, "I want my life back." LMAO! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
There will have to be a massive government funded and directed clean up effort. I can't even ponder the impact on the Florida Keys.. From South Beach all the way up the Florida coast. That's just beaches. The marine life, the collapse of the fishing industry in the Gulf. New Orleans.. That city did not need another punch to the gut. This is a catastrophe. Hotel bookings are down in Key West 70%.
I am not generally in favour of stimulus but on this I make a big exception. I have no specialized knowledge on how to clean this up but thousands of people will be needed.
| Quote: |
| The President should order BP to establish a $5 billion clean-up fund, and immediately put America's army of unemployed young people to work saving the Gulf coast. Call it the new Civilian Conservation Corps. |
$5bn will not be anywhere enough, I reckon. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
|
| Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 12:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| The President should order BP to establish a $5 billion clean-up fund, and immediately put America's army of unemployed young people to work saving the Gulf coast. Call it the new Civilian Conservation Corps. |
The President has no authority to give such an order. He can make a request, pound his fists, demand, cry like a baby, but he can't give an order. A judge might be able to, subject to appeal.
The President has no authority to start another CCC, but Congress can.
| Quote: |
| ... the ridiculous cap on corporate liability could be removed as part of the bill that would begin the program). |
Agreed there should be no caps, but retroactive legislation is, and should be, illegal.
OTOH, so far BP has been paying out for damages in excess of the legal cap. Obviously the public outcry would be too great for BP to try and hold to the $75 million damage cap. It would be PR suicide. They will, however, use that cap, plus the fact that they will have already paid billions for damages, to save billions more down the road when they face the multibillion dollar damage lawsuits that will inevitably follow.
BP has lost over 1/3 of its stock value, tens of billions of dollars, and will be lucky to survive. Just the clean up costs without damage awards will be well in excess of $10 billion, and that for a less than adequate job. A thorough cleanup could easily cost more than the entire net worth of BP.
There should be no caps, limits, regulations ... government liability limits are directly responsible for this mess. BP and every one of its managers and employees directly involved with this drilling site should share in the financial cost of the cleanup and the damage payments. It's time to change the way we allow government liability limits to increase the risks people take. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 6:26 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Did your representative vote to limit oil company liability?
In 1990 Congress adopted the Oil Pollution Act. This act set liability limitations to $75 million for oil spills like the one we are witnessing in the Gulf Coast today. Setting a liability limit on damages created by oil drilling can only encourage the lowering and neglect of safety standards and procedures, ultimately causing more oil spills.
The congress-persons who voted for the Oil Pollution Act are directly responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf. They enabled British Petroleum to loosen their safety procedures, to operate without redundant oil spill prevention systems, to take risks, etc. This is the very reason the same oil spill clean up technologies used the in the late 70�s are still in place today. The Oil Pollution Act destroyed any motivation for improvement in oil spill safety, prevention and oil spill containment procedures by removing the penalties for neglect.
Many congress-persons who voted for this act are still in office today. They must be removed from office. They are in the back pocket of the oil industry and they are directly responsible for this catastrophe. Please join this facebook page and invite your friends to spread awareness for the election season >> I encourage irresponsible oil drilling, please vote me out of office.
Here are their names (these congress-persons voted for the Oil Pollution Act of 1990):
United States Senators
Richard Shelby � Alabama
John McCain � Arizona
Barbara Boxer � California
Chris Dodd � Connecticut
Joe Lieberman � Connecticut
Joe Biden � Delaware (currently Vice President)
Tom Carper � Deleware
Daniel Inouye � Hawaii
Daniel Akaka � Hawaii
Dick Durbin � Illinois
Richard Lugar � Indiana
Chuck Grassley � Iowa
Tom Harkin � Iowa
Pat Roberts � Kansas
Jim Bunning � Kentucky
Mitch McConnell � Kentucky
Barbara Mikulski � Maryland
John Kerry � Massachusettes
Carl Levin � Michigan
Thad Cochran � Mississippi
Kit Bond � Missouri
Max Baucus � Montana
Harry Reid � Nevada
Frank Lautenberg � New Jersey
Jeff Bingaman � New Mexico
Kent Conrad � North Dakota
Arlen Specter � Pennsylvania
Orrin Hatch � Utah
Patrick Leahy � Vermont
Robert Byrd � West Virgnia
Jay Rockefeller � West Virginia
Herb Kohl � Wisconsin
U.S. Congress
Don Young � Alaska
Jon Kyl � Arizona
Howard Berman � California
David Dreier � California
Elton Gallegly � California
Wally Herger � California
Jerry Lewis � California
George Miller � California
Nancy Pelosi � California
Dana Rohrabacher � California
Henry Waxman � California
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen � Florida
Cliff Stearns � Florida
Bill Young � Florida
John Lewis � Georgia
Jerry Costello � Illinois
Dan Burton � Indiana
Pete Visclosky � Indiana
Hal Rogers � Hal Rogers
Barney Frank � Massachussets
Steny Hoyer � Maryland
John Dingell � Michigan
Dale Kildee � Michigan
Eliot Engel � New York
Charles Rangel � New York
Howard Coble � North Carolina
Marcy Kaptur � Ohio
Peter DeFazio � Oregon
Paul Kanjorski � Pennsylvania
John Duncan � Tennessee
Bart Gordon � Tennessee
Joe Barton � Texas
Ralph Hall � Texas
Jim Sensenbrenner � Wisconsin
Not in office but still active politically
Newt Gingrich |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
The Happy Warrior
Joined: 10 Feb 2010
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| bacasper wrote: |
Did your representative vote to limit oil company liability?
In 1990 Congress adopted the Oil Pollution Act. This act set liability limitations to $75 million for oil spills like the one we are witnessing in the Gulf Coast today. Setting a liability limit on damages created by oil drilling can only encourage the lowering and neglect of safety standards and procedures, ultimately causing more oil spills. |
Bacasper, I have some good news.
| Quote: |
The liability cap probably doesn't matter, anyway. Lawyers won't prosecute claims in court under the Oil Pollution Act's legal authority, according to Boston College law professor Zygmunt Plater, who chaired the State of Alaska Oil Spill Commission's Legal task Force for two years after the Exxon Valdez spill.
Instead, they'll use maritime tort law, which will allow more options in pursuing those claims. [b]The $75 million cap only applies to statutory damages under OPA, while a host of non-statutory damages can be pursued under maritime tort law, which will allow lawyers to name more defendants (e.g. Halliburton and Transocean) and pursue punitive damages, as claimants against Exxon did after 1989.
The $75 million cap is a "red herring," Plater said. "OPA '90 is probably going to be a sideshow." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
