Baldone: BP’s attempt to quell future claims is ‘horrible’
July 19, 2011
Floyd Toups
July 21, 2011
Saying the Gulf Coast region’s underserved and underrepresented have gone unpaid, members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are traveling later this month to London, England, to meet with British Petroleum’s shareholders and corporate leaders.
Joining SCLC special assistant to the chair Dr. Art Rocker on the trip will be comedian and activist Dick Gregory and Dr. E. Faye Williams, chairwoman of the National Congress of Black Women Inc.
The group met in Houma Monday with Jerome Boykin, president of the Terrebonne National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It was their first visit to the area since holding a protest vigil in front of BP’s local site on La. Highway 311 in March.
The Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill April 20, 2010, killed 11 people. A torrent of oil spewed from the well, located 41 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast, for four months before it was successfully capped in July 2010.
Rocker said by the time the well was capped, more than an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil had spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, significantly impacting the ecosystem and economic activity in communities along the Gulf Coast.
“We’re going to ask them for $488.5 million,” Rocker said. “We have been waiting for more than two months for [BP oil spill fund administrator] Ken Feinberg to provide some sort of resolution and it just hasn’t happened.
“Feinberg, with BP, met with our group again on Sept. 2, 2010, and since then has met with us over a dozen times and corresponded with us through several dozen emails concerning our 10,000-plus claims for the underserved,” Rocker continued. “Why must we continue to endure the pain, suffering and lack of economic recovery of the poor people’s damages from month to month. We have recognized that billions have been dispersed over the past eight to nine months, yet this group has intentionally denied payments due to its diverse audience.”
Rocker charged Feinberg with distributing funds “without any accountability or transparency, saying deals were struck as part of “the good ol’ boy buddy system.”
“We will not continue to sit by idly in this country and allow this firm to come in, kill 11 Americans, destroy our waterways and continue to not answer the needs of the poor people in the area … who deserve to be made whole,” he said.
Gregory likened the BP trip to “meeting with the people who killed Christ. We’re not hustling money for hustlers,” the comic said. “We’re hustling money for people whose lives BP damaged. And we’re following the Shepherd who was made the sacrificial lamb, so BP won’t be able to stop us.”
Drawing upon an African proverb, Williams said, “…until the lions tell their story of the hunt, the tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to tell the story of what happened here to BP for those folks who can’t.”
If BP does not comply, Williams said the next step could be costly for the company. “We’re going to meet and, if we don’t get the answers we’re looking for, we will call for a nationwide boycott of not buying BP gasoline,” she said.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference Special Assistant Dr. Art Rocker, National Congress of Black Women Chairwoman Dr. E. Faye Williams, and comedian/activist Dick Gregory announce plans to travel to London to meet with British Petroleum shareholders and corporate executives. HOWARD CASTAY JR.
