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Who should pay for oil spill? Have your say
(CNN) -- The sinking of the Prestige oil tanker and its 70,000-tonne cargo has prompted a blame game between governments, environmentalists and the oil industry. So who is to blame and who should pay? CNN's Richard Quest asked for your views. Here are some of your comments. Have your say by sending an e-mail to quest@cnn.com.
It should be the owner of the ship (and its insurance company) but oil companies should also be made responsible. Alfonso L. de Arenosa, Sevilla, Spain It should be paid by insurance companies but the real payment will be made by individuals like us because it increases the possibility of higher oil prices. Rajeev, Nepal The owners of the tanker should pay. This is a tragedy for our region, where thousands of families work in the sea everyday. We will suffer the consequences for years, so those responsible should pay. Jorge Guitián, Santiago de Compostela, Spain Any and all parties that stood to benefit directly from the transaction should pay. The shipping company, the captain of the ship, inspectors, seller and buyer of the oil. We all suffer from this kind of laissez-faire attitude towards the environment and the laws designed to protect it. As long as there exists the potential to profit from skirting environmental laws there will be disasters of this magnitude. Chris Martin, Montreal, Canada The oil and shipping companies should pay the entire cost INCLUDING the ecological damage cost which is actually calculable. Unfortunately, our system has a very dirty secret: no one acknowledges their basic responsibility to the job they do, including protecting against potential problems. The only way to protect our society is to make it very painful for those that violate the rules because they won't acknowledge their basic responsibility. Gregory Garnant No amount of money can cover the environmental loss caused by such an incredible disaster. You can't write a cheque and make it go away. Sure many, many people will do all they can to clean it up, but it won't be the same. It is an outrage of monstrous proportions that these single-hulled, old and rotting vessels are allowed to transport deadly toxic material. If this isn't changed today, and not 2015, then we will all be paying for a long time. Tom Cameron The buyers and sellers of the oil as well as the shipping agents should pay for this oil spill/disaster. However, ultimately, we all pay. Especially Mother Earth. Kathie Buchanan-Evans, Berlin, Pennsylvania Which ever country inspected that ship and deemed it safe should be responsible for the clean up. All single-hulled vessels should be banned immediately from transporting oil in any form. R. E. Farina, Waterville, Maine Governments and politicians should pay for the damage done to our people and environment. They are the only ones responsible for it, after allowing these ageing ships to sail on dangerous waters like ours, because we know that the other parts involved in this catastrophe are there just for MONEY, and they don't care about anything else. Antonio, Galicia, Spain All of humanity will be paying for it for a very long time, along with all the other species on this planet that we humans disregard as unimportant. I would say that the issue here is not who's going to pay, but what will we learn from this? Dana Michelle Clark, USA There was full awareness of the potentially horrific destruction if the vessel fractured and lost all its cargo, and yet the tanker was selfishly (and perhaps illegally) towed out to sea to minimize damage to the port, shoreline and fishing fields without regard for anything and anyone else "downstream"! Under these circumstances, the liability of the oil producer has to be minimal, if at all. Terry Sherbondy, New York State Until insurance rates for hazardous liquid cargoes being shipped on single hull ships is raised to the level that makes it unprofitable for the ship owners to use single hull ships this problem will persist. Unfortunately, it will NOT be the "end" of the problem. The power of the sea being what it is and ship captains who make bad choices will still be out there. But everyone who uses oil based products must be willing to protect the planet by paying more so the world can have a safer fleet of tankers. Lance S. Kounitz, New York City I was under the impression that in a free enterprise system, high risks are normally rewarded with high profits. If the oil industry is making so much money for taking on the high risk of oil spills, should they not bear the cost of that damage? I wonder if our U.S. president and vice-president would agree, or whether they believe that cleaning up oil spills is one of the few worthy uses of tax dollars. Beth Forsythe As we all move towards a global economy and the threats from terrorist groups around the globe, we should push (as citizens of this world) to have better treaties and remedies in case of a tragedy. It is the responsibility of the people who ordered the oil, and the company who sold it, and the company who transported it as well as the Spanish government for not being careful enough to monitor its shores. Miguel Gonzalez, Dominican Republic Whoever allowed that vessel to sail, knowing its age and the fact that it is single-hulled, should have to shoulder the majority of the cost. The captain, who refused to let authorities touch "his ship" after he called for help, should also have some of the financial burden thrust upon him as well. The ramifications of this are going to be long-reaching in several different areas and because the ports of Spain and Portugal refused to let it into their harbours, they too should be made to help pay for the cleanup effort. Tania Anderson, USA Ultimately the people that profited from this operation must be made to pay for the cleanup. By enforcing an operator pays rule, we can let market forces reduce the chances of this kind of thing happening in the future. Dominic Williams There is nothing anyone can do now, just accept the fact that this ship has sunk, roll up your sleeves and get to work cleaning up this as fast as possible. The real solution is to find a new power source; solar, wind, water, hydrogen, anything. The world no longer should be dependent on an archaic source of power such as oil. Matt, Dallas Any party that participates in the shipment of oil knows the risks involved and, therefore, should be held liable for all "preventable" damages or those costs not covered by insurance providers in the case of "unpreventable" spills. Trevor Page, San Diego The governments that turned the distressed ship away from their ports should be forced to deal with the consequences of their actions. Christopher Anderson First of all it is the owner of the ship (or rather its insurance company ) who are liable to pay for this disaster -- but I will in this case also blame Spanish officials who made the decision to tow the tanker away from the coast, instead of towing it closer to any remote shore on the Spanish northern coastline, and then try to contain the oil spill to a smaller area. What they did was to broadening the catastrophe to involve Portugal to be caught up in this " ticking bomb ". Arild Warud, Portugal Let the court decide this eternal question. Leonid Doljenkov, Moscow, Russia I am in favor of the shipowners, the fuel oil owners and those who last allowed this ship to transport dangerous cargo paying for this disaster. Matthew Borgens, Madrid, Spain Shipping and oil companies along with insurance companies should pay the damages. Annza The owners of the now sunk tanker should pay. The clean-up operation may take many weeks, many months and somebody has to pay for the time and energy spent. It is neither the Spanish or the Portuguese who should pay, as they are the unfortunate victims of this ecological disaster is nature. Even if someone was found to be responsible for the disaster, what price do we put on the many stricken birds and other wildlife that may be harmed by this disaster? Michael Mostkow, Utrecht, The Netherlands Who has to pay? 1. Owner of the tanker; 2. Owner of the oil; 3. Inspectors who checked (this year) if the tanker was in good condition (That has received little attention in the news -- but it is interesting that those persons have to be responsible -- THEY GAVE LICENCE TO THE TANKER TO BE USED. This is the moment when we have to ask ourselves -- WHY THOSE inspectors if they do not do their primary work. Aldo M. Pervanic Bosnia and Herzegowina Questions: Why wasn't the oil pumped off the Prestige prior to towing it into deeper water? What can be done now? Is it possible to safely retrieve the oil from the sunken portions of the ship? How could that be done? Who is responsible for preventing further environmental damage? Who ever was selling the oil should pay! Let them pay for everything and I am sure they can sort out who is responsible themselves. Laws should be put into place immediately, not in 2015 to prevent future tragedies. I am sure that oil and shipping companies can reduce their annual profits a fraction in order to comply with international laws, if the laws are enforced! My condolences go out to people who lives have been devastated by inadequate international laws. Kit Maharajh, Austria You all failed to mention that the destiny of the tanker was Gibraltar, a British colony in Spanish soil. I think this is also important to mention when talking about the who is to pay for this disaster, and raise the questions of why this tanker was heading towards Gibraltar. As it is well proven in today's Spanish newspaper, this is happening quite often in Gibraltar and it is calling Bunkering, and it is a way of financing from the rock without paying tax. Thanks in advance for publishing my opinion. Andres Juarez The oil spill of the prestige is going to take at least 10 years of litigation. No1. According to international law, if the captain put out a distress signal and the rescue vessel responded from a home port, the home port has to allow towing to a safe harbour. There are exceptions, if the cargo is considered dangerous. In stormy seas, the refusal to allow a ship entry into safe ports constitute possible breaches by at least two countries. There are a lot of international legal complications that have to be unravelled before we find out who is ultimately liable. B. Hill, Switzerland. I am surprised that all oil companies are not either voluntarily or forced to have a global fund to deal with oil spills anywhere on this earth? Dave Garton, Australia Yes, the ship's owners should pay. Who owns the ship? Who benefits from the ship's work? All those companies must take their cuts when this particular vessel does a job and gets paid for it. It will probably be a huge job to track them all down, but justice demands that the effort be made. Also, maybe this episode will lead to international reforms on ship ownership. Rich Johnson, Portland, Oregon Why, oh why, are we all debating about who is going to pay? The entire planet pays for any ecological disaster regardless of international boundaries. Disaster does not respect nationality, belief or race. We are all human and therefore are all susceptible to these kind of accidents. We should all focus on how to clean-up the spill not who should pay for it. With all our technology why can't we just dive down to the ship, seal the hole with some kind of valve, attach a hose to the valve and pump the oil into another ship? Doesn't sound too hard for a race that created the atomic bomb!! Wesley de John Zimbabwe The big oil companies should pay the bills. To stop this trans-national ecologic catastrophe, it's imperative to develop also a global and trans-national approach to tackle the problem, such as prevention policy, for example, to create an inter-governmental surveillance organisation with coercive juridical powers. About this particular incident in the Galician Territorial Sea, now spread to the zone between the Portuguese EEZ and the Spanish one, one has to condemn the lack of political courage from the Spanish central government when it decided not to take the oil tanker into Galician harbours to clean the tank and instead took it to high sea to please the voters, by creating a much bigger catastrophe. Nuno Solano de Almeida, Portugal Your oil tanker report did not address the technical question of whether double-hulled ships prevent oil spills. Many environmental laws, such as the double-hull requirement, are passed with strong environmental community support but lacking in technical support. There is plenty of evidence that double-hull tankers create as many problems as they solve. Your report leaves the impression they are a panacea. They are not. Jim Collier, Norway Who makes the profit from the tanker? And then follow it up the line. The capitalist system bases return on capital around shareholder risk, but the system now contains little risk to the shareholder since prices simply rise to meet the cost of unforeseen events like sinkings and spills into the oceans and harbours. The long term damage will be immense due to the pervasive effect of the fuel oil. At the end of the day, it won't be the profit-takers, or the current consumers, that pay but our children and their children. Nigel Wyse, New Zealand I think that the 'owner' of the oil should pay at least 50% of the bill...who was the purchaser? Where did it leave from? Where was it heading to? Robyn Williams Napier, New Zealand A global fund for environmental remediation should be created ASAP by all countries and companies according to their demand on oil and involvement in production. Insurance policies and legal costs could be lowered by the management of such fund. Emilio Cano Ecobanca, Mexico
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