meee eet me VERY EASY SUDOKU 6 i io hinrctimmiinictaeicotet senthicemiaatitniweraeenn © 2008 PageFiller Ltd and Associates www.pagefiller.com ae e) - be = a) | Drill, baby, drill Liam Britten editor in chief never I go and think something silly—something like, corporations are responsible, or that government works, I can always count on someone, somewhere, to remind me how frightfully silly those ideas are. This time, it’s my good friends at British Petroleum stepping up to the plate, by spilling 9,100 square miles into the Gulf of Mexico from their Deepwater Horizon oil rig, ruining the natural environment and the fishing economy of the have-not Southern United States. Way to go, BP, for a minute there I was almost optimistic. Yes, with the oil making landfall this past weekend, the South is facing what could be the worst ecological and economic disaster since Hurricane Katrina. The $3 billion yearly Gulf Coast fishery is going to be shut down, tourists will be swimming in sludge on the Paradise Coast of Florida and as for the wildlife... well, who’s going to miss the sea turtle, anyway? What really gets me is that ultimately, there won’t be any punishment for BP or their associated business partners for this mess. Oh yes, there will be a fine; President Obama has already said that he intends to make BP pay for the entire clean-up operation. But under federal law, BP can only be fined a maximum of $75 million in penalties to the feds, plus they'll be forced to make payout under the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. That’s not a huge penalty considering that BP made about $27 billion in profits—0.003 per cent loss of profit is not going to change a company’s attitudes or safety procedures in any meaningful way— and they probably won’t even pay $75 million once they spend 10 years in court fighting the fine tooth and nail. Governments and corporations are way too close for regulatory penalties to really work. When corporations finance entire campaigns and control political destinies the way they do, it’s unreasonable to expect politicians to be objective when passing legislation that affects them. And when corporations have a negative effect on the environment, which doesn’t have an inherent, objective dollars-and-cents value you can put a price tag on, why would anyone expect the politicians to choose the environment over the powerbrokers who put them in office? It’s not like politicians are alone in being influenced by corporations. Regular people , have regular people concerns—about the economy, about their jobs, and most importantly, will their jobs be around tomorrow. So it makes sense that companies like SynCrude, who are major players in fe the tar sands of Alberta, exploit people’s fears about job security whenever regulation rears its ugly head, like in 2007 when the — Alberta Royalty Review Panel held public hearings about how high royalties paid to the government from oil companies should be. The public was concerned that royalties would cost business too much, layoffs would ensue, and then, lo and behold, the government decided to forgo charging $828 million in royalty fees. ue It’s fair and reasonable to be concerned about your livelihood, but if corporations are allowed to ruin the environment and receive slaps on the wrist for doing so, why would they change? Remember, corporations are out to make money, not maintain your well- being. And if it’s more profitable to pollute the environment and pay a fine than to clean up their act for real... well, I guess that’s just good business. Your friend in high fidelity, Liam Britten Editor-in-chief The Other Press WRITE FOR US!