$2.8 million in fines? What were the actual costs of damage?
Came here to say this. $2.8 million is pocket change to an oil company (unless W is running it). They can just charge it to overhead as the cost of doing business.
Though in this clip, God says he left corn on on the floor, but actually corn is from man breeding a grass.
Plains All-America Pipeline isn’t ExxonMobil. They might be small enough for the fine to matter. One can hope.
$2.8M?!?
Big money for an oil company
…not
Well, PAA’s net income for Q1 was $202 million and it’s got a substantial amount of cash in the bank.
In its response to the ruling it said it had already “directly or indirectly” spent $150 million on remedying the spill’s impact. It also said it was “disappointed” about the criminal charges and it is going to defend itself vigorously.
In general the idea that oil companies are overflowing with cash is a bad one, particularly at the moment, but the midstream business seems to be holding up better. It’s not Exxon, but it’s not likely to struggle as far as I can tell. Although obviously there’s a counterparty risk if it gets found guilty etc.
Make the fine hurt the company responsible and they’ll stop playing fast and loose with safety rules and the environment. As long as they think they can get away with it, it won’t stop.
I have zero sympathy for the oil companies.
To your point, the company:
reported $43 billion in revenue and $878 million in profit the year before the leak...
Even better:
Since 2006, Plains Pipeline’s rate of incidents per mile of pipe is more than three times the national average, a Times analysis of data from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last year showed.
I’m sure getting caught/fined this time will really teach them a lesson.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
