BP becomes "desperate" after state pressure mounts to stop the Gulf Oil spill;Flocks of lawyers descend;Human costs Mount

BP is finally waking up from its stupor and looking for help on stopping the oil spilling for its rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While it was doing precious little for the past week , Obama’s visit and state and federal criticism has made it sit up . BP CEO says its an industry problem and asked for help from its rivals in the business.

BP Seeks Help From Other Oil Companies – WSJ

BP has defended its handling of the spill, saying it has mounted the biggest emergency oil spill response in the history of the oil industry. But officials are accusing it of not doing enough. Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, said this week that her agency was urging BP to “leverage additional assets to help lead the response in this effort.” “It is clear that after several unsuccessful attempts to secure the source of the leak, it is time for BP to supplement their current mobilization as the slick moves towards the shore.”

Local officials have also been critical. Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, said he had “concerns that BP’s resources are not adequate.” “I urge them to seek more help from the federal government and others,” he told reporters.

The request for help reflects growing desperation within BP. The company was initially sure it could deal with it offshore. But the subsea robots it deployed to the seabed failed to activate a device called a blowout preventer that would have closed off the well. BP has come up with an alternative—a dome to cover the well and siphon off the oil, but that could take weeks to install. It is also planning to drill a relief well to permanently isolate the leak, but that will take even longer.

Yesterday in my post I was mentioning how they were trying to damage control by bravely saying they would bear all the costs . I think they are going to have to more than cover up for the  costs as legal vultures descend to feed on the BP carcass.

Gulf spill draws flock of lawyers – MSNBC

Teams of lawyers from around the nation are mobilizing for a gargantuan legal battle over the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, filing multiple lawsuits in recent days that together could dwarf the half-billion dollars awarded in the Exxon Valdez disaster two decades ago.

If the oil slick fouls popular beaches, ruins fisheries and disrupts traffic on the Mississippi River, attorneys say there could be hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs from Texas to Florida seeking monetary damages from oil producer BP PLC and other companies that ran the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

While the lawyers,politicians and oil executives all fight it out for money and power , the human costs mount for ordinary people.