EXCERPTS:
"The BP oil spill is already a calamity for the Gulf Coast ecosystem and economy, but now that Washington is looking to deflect all political blame it could also became a disaster for the rule of law. Exhibit C ... is the new White House demand that BP pay into an escrow account controlled by government to pay for the economic costs of the spill....
Then came the President's suggestion that BP suspend its dividend, which is crucial to the retirement of thousands of shareholders. BP may decide it is prudent to suspend its dividend while it gets a better handle on its ultimate liability. But the White House has no legal basis to compel such a decision. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are preparing to lift their own $75 million liability cap and apply that retroactively to BP, another move of dubious legality.
No wonder Britain's Prime Minister and other officials are alarmed about the fate of one of their country's foremost corporations. This is the kind of treatment that Americans would protest if it were applied to U.S. companies by Venezuela or Russia.
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None of this is to absolve BP for any bad judgments or shortcuts that contributed to this disaster....
BP is financially responsible for the Deepwater Horizon gusher, and the White House should want the company to stay healthy enough to honor those obligations. Instead, the Administration's denunciations and legally dubious demands are compounding the damage.
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Offshore drilling, even in shallow water, is coming to a stop as the entire industry considers the additional political risks of operating amid a political panic in which even the President of United States seems oblivious to the rule of law....
