President Obama is demanding that BP set up a victims compensation fund to assist businesses and individuals who have been and will be impacted by millions of barrels of crude oil that are still spewing from the company’s broken well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
Initial reports indicate that the company will agree to develop the fund that will require billions of dollars.
This should not have required a demand from the president. BP should have been proactive in establishing this account long ago, knowing that it would be responsible for a financial catastrophe for fishermen and businesses.
But, true to the company’s apparent standard operating procedure, it has dragged its feet in setting up the fund.
In the meantime, the company was reportedly meeting today to consider deferring its second-quarter dividend to fund the escrow account.
It’s inconceivable that the company would consider awarding a dividend after causing one of the worst – if not the worst – environmental disasters in the history of our country.
Missing a dividend is a risk that investors take when putting their money into a business. It happens, and it should happen here.
