What does BP get for putting $20bn in escrow?

What they get out of it is the ability to claim the 20 billion as a loss on their taxes. If they kept the money in their wallets until such time as a judgment were made they lose this ability to write it off.

So they will “do the right thing” and hope that people will see it as an admission that they were “wrong” and help their public image…while we, the humble taxpayers, will make up the difference out of our own pockets.

Good news is, with all that oil, their dick will slide right into our asses.

Read it and weep

VP Biden leaned across the table and said to BP officials, “You have no choice.” The 20 billion greatly exceeds the maximum liability established by law. However, when White House officials were asked about the law, they replied that the president didn’t need any law to impose that on the company and its share holders.

The right to pollute .

I heard that their stock went up as soon as the agreement was announced. It brings some stability to the future of BP (or looks like it does), and so investors can have more confidence the company will survive and make money. BP desperately needs to stabilize itself and the way its future looks.

Who says they’re supposed to get anything? Is there something they deserve in return?

@Icky, I’d daresay their shareholders and pensioners would like to know the benefit.

On NPR yesterday, they were saying that the $20 billion doesn’t have to be deposited all at once. Like @envidula61 said, the agreement allows the company to remain stable, which benefits the investors and employees. It’s also supposed to be used to provide relief for people whose livelihood has been ruined by the spill. BP isn’t in charge of distributing the money, they just have to provide it.

So, what BP “gets” is the ability to stay in business even while paying for the mess. Only time will tell if $20 billion is the right amount or if it goes to the right people.

I suppose they avoided having the president literally “kick their ass” but he did “kick their ass” figuratively. Now the president says that they may have to pay more into the fund. So perhaps instead of getting kicked they got screwed.

They have gained some minor increase in credibility that they intend to pay up and cover legitimate claims arising from this catastrophic, and preventable oil spill.

Admitting that they fouled up and coughed up some money isn’t really going to help anything. As ItsAHabit stated, it’s for show.

First, running ads saying what a great, caring company they are probably won’t work. They need to regain the trust of the public. Then there is the likelihood that soon the Republican efforts to keep the $75 million liability cap will fail, and the cap will be altogether eliminated. If that happens, and BP is taken to court, their abysmal list of safety violations and the disastrous cost cutting decisions they made with the Deepwater Horizon well will leave them in a virtually indefensible position. The litigation costs would add to the costs of awards. It will surely cost them far more to fight it.

The Exxon Valdez spill has now cost Exxon $4 billion in liability losses and this spill, now going for 2 months with no end in sight, is equal to an Exxon Valdez every 7 days.

@robmandu , the benefit is that their share price went up after the deal was announced. The markets don’t like uncertainty. Now if it was me, I would have dumped their stock after they killed those 15 refinery workers in Texas a few years back; they got a felony conviction out of that one. But that’s just me.

Funny: in the stock market, consider betting on the bad guys.