Who should pay for the oil spill?
| 10:29 UK time, Thursday, 13 May 2010
The oil's still spilling, the angers still raging and people are asking one question - who should pay?
The White House has announced a tax hike for oil producing companies in the U.S. by one cent.
Is a tax hike unfair to those companies with a good track record or should the entire industry be held responsible for the oil spill?
The proposed package would provide $118 million in additional funding to pay for the recovery and allow the industry to maintain an emergency fund.
"We cannot allow the potentially protracted pursuit of claims to prevent us from swift action to help those harmed by this spill," said the President.
Do you agree that there isn't any time to waste?
The debate's hot on Twitter and here's a taste of it:
implicitmarkets: oil fund - what a ridiculous move; the govt made this bed and now it should lie in itGinnieColson : But I hope he will also add regulations to prevent the oil companies from passing their costs off to the regular consumers.
Blogger Orwell Dreams isn't impressed.
'Instead of holding BP accountable for paying for the cleanup Obama wants to pass the bill to the American public. Obama's new plan is to levy a new tax on the entire oil industry to pay for the cleanup. This means that the American public will be paying this tax in the form of higher prices at the pump, not BP.'
Is it the US government's responsibilty to pay for the oil disaster recovery?
