How long have they had these leases?

Why haven’t these companies, if not going to use the present multi-million acres of leases, not giving them to other companies or startups?

According to the Norwegian firm MMS that did the official report from the disaster reported the following:

Unsurprisingly, this devastation caused significant spillage, according to the official report prepared for the MMS by a Norwegian firm:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs. [MMS, 1/22/07]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.” [MMS, 5/1/06]

Add into the fact that the onshore spills from Katrina were in excess of 9 million gallons, and even the Houston Chronicle stated:

“The quantity and cumulative magnitude of the 595 spills, which were spread across four states and struck offshore and inland, rank these two hurricanes among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.” http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3457319.html

This was not a low impact story.

The market will correct out this problem, just like it does every other one. If government performs bailouts [of any player] it will prevent creative destruction to restore balance and promote growth. Bailouts only encourage future bad behavior. Moreover, it is blatantly unconstitutional for the government to interfere with private contracts [ie the agreement between you and your loan underwriter]. If the loan agreement is too much for a person [and the interest rate is not buried deep in it but it's the crux of the loan and prominently on page one], there is recourse, such as having a lawyer represent your self interest. What’s a few hundred dollars in the face of a several hundred thousand contract?

Poor Adam Smith spins in his grave to hear such talk as governments as a solution to these matters. America’s market economy is a direct result of Smith’s Wealth of Nations and we would not have become a world power with the finest economy ever seen without him. This style of economics ignited world productivity after a thousand stagnate years of mercantilism and feudal economics that failed to raise the standards. Smith’s theories gave birth to the Industrial Revolution and the quality of life we now enjoy.

America’s problem now [which I see in Elizabeth] is that we all are capitalists when we are enjoying profits but suddenly turn fabian socialist when we are expected to take a loss.

This is just another example of the disastrous free market fundamentalism that has been sold to us by Republicans. When will we realize that if we drastically deregulate we will continue to have these destablilizing boom and bust cycles that hurt everyone, even those who are acting responsibly. There is no way for individuals to protect themselves from these system-wide failures.

As for who is to blame, the majority of borrowers were deliberately misled by the “experts” into loans they could not afford. Approximately 40% of those who took out subprime loans could have actually qualified for better terms but were bamboozled into taking out more risky sub prime loans. Others were not told that their rates could go up drastically. You can say they should have read the fine print but I challenge you to find anyone that actually read all the papers they signed when taking out a mortgage, let alone understood them.

Yes some people deliberately took risks but they were a minority. Why punish them when we are also punishing the entire country?

We need reasonable regulation if we are to have a healthy, stable economy and society. Government is the only solution in this situation to stop the bleeding and to prevent more of this insanity in the future.