BP Boosted By Oil Spill Settlement

March 5th, 2012

Raw Story

By: Reuters

Shares in BP are expected to rise 5-9 percent on Monday after the oil giant reached a settlement with businesses and individuals impacted by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill worth an estimated $7.8 billion.

Some analysts said the expected payout was less than they had forecast, reduced legal uncertainty and suggested the final settlement with BP’s biggest opponent – the U.S. government – would be much lower than the worst case scenario.

“On a trading basis we see a potentially quite positive reaction … BP moving to the 530-550 pence range near term (if not higher), and possibly higher thereafter,” said Jason Kenny, oil analyst at Santander.

BP shares closed at 496.5 pence on Friday.

Analysts had given a wide range of forecasts for how much BP would have to pay out to compensate fishermen, condominium owners and hoteliers, with many predicting a figure of $14 billion, although BP had taken a provision of just $6.1 billion.

The company has also taken a $3.5 billion provision for expected government fines but the maximum possible level of penalty could be over $20 billion, if BP is found to have been grossly negligent.

Analysts said the agreement boosted the chances of a settlement with the government.

“What this agreement does, if it is implemented, is to give the management of BP further encouragement to try and reach a settlement out of court (with the U.S. Department of Justice),” said Iain Armstrong, oil analyst with Brewin Dolphin, via email.

Fadel Gheit, oil analyst at Oppenheimer in New York, said BP’s hand had been strengthened by the deal.

“I think the settlement further weakens the government claim of gross negligence,” he said.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley predicted the agreement would allow BP to continue raising its dividend, which was cut at the height of the oil spill – the worst in U.S. history.

“We believe the path towards free cash flow of $8.7 billion and a dividend of 39 cents per share by 2014 remains intact,” the bank said in a research note.

BP paid a dividend of 29 cents per share for 2011. Some investors had feared BP’s ability to grow the dividend could be limited by the legal uncertainty.

Nontheless, even the most optimistic forecasts suggest BP will remain well below its pre-spill payout of 14 cents per share per quarter for years to come.

In addition to the U.S. federal government’s claims, BP faces lawsuits from the states affected by the spill, which came after a blast on a drilling rig that killed 11 men.

Analysts at Citigroup said they expected BP to have to pay another $1-2 billion to settle these claims.

For The Full Report Go To Raw Story

Does The USDA Own The Name ‘Organic’?

September 7th, 2011

HealthFreedoms.org

By: Lois Rain

An Arizona farmer shares what he has to do to sell his organic goods at a farmers market.

The USDA claims in writing that they own the “organic” name. Farmers have to use “homegrown” instead to promote their organic goods at local markets.

A 10-page agreement must be filled out completely and submitted prior to booth rental. The agreement must include all permits, certifications, a “crop plan” and a “proposed farm visit schedule.” It has to include a map of the farm location with cross streets, land marks, and mile posts for accurate location.

Most of us want some kind of process to make sure we’re buying organic, but what these farmers have to do to sell a few carrots is almost too much to bear. It’s a wonder they even bother anymore.

The process effects the high costs of true organic food, yet the USDA does not crack down on typical grocery goods bearing the “organic” name without proof. Nor do they regulate other English speaking countries stealing the “organic” name.

The video shows how the markets are centrally planned and politically controlled so that local farmers are tracked and everyone get’s their cut.

Click here for the full report from HealthFreedoms.org

Texas Woman Jailed for Overdue Library Books

December 8th, 2010

AOL News

By: Ben Muessig

Authorities threw the book at a woman who had a few overdue library books.

Police in Baytown, Texas, say they locked up Jessekah Few last month after the 25-year-old failed to show up in court for a hearing about unreturned library books.

“It’s not a very common charge,” Baytown Police Department Detective Alan Cliburn told WSAV.com.

“It’s part of the deal, part of the agreement that you enter into. It’s just like anything else — you can’t take something that doesn’t belong to you and just hold onto it.”

Library officials say they only pursue charges against members who haven’t returned more than $200 of property after multiple requests.

Few — who was charged with a class-C misdemeanor — has reportedly stated that the books were destroyed in a house fire seven years ago. She says her landlord, the fire department and even the Red Cross can attest to the blaze.

Contrary to reports indicating that Few was arrested on Thanksgiving Day, Baytown police told AOL News that she was apprehended the day before the holiday.

Click here for the full report from AOL News

Global Transaction Tax to be Included in Final Copenhagen Text

December 18, 2009

Info Wars

By Paul Joseph Watson

The final Copenhagen draft agreement which was hammered out in the early hours of Friday morning includes provisions for a global tax on financial transactions that will be paid directly to the World Bank, as President Obama prepares to bypass Congress by approving a massive transfer of wealth from America into globalist hands.

As Lord Monckton, Alex Jones and others warned, the notion that the globalists would achieve nothing at Copenhagen has likely been a ruse all along. The elite look set to ram through the lion’s share of their agenda, which would include a massive global government tax at a cost of at least $3,000 a year for American families already laboring under a devastating recession, double digit unemployment and a reduction in living standards.

Hillary Clinton arrived yesterday to rally global leaders around a resolution and Barack Obama is set to be portrayed as the savior of the world by rescuing what was pitched all along as a conference doomed to fail.

“The summit “hangs in the balance,” said Obama this morning. “We are running out of time. The time for talk is over. It is better for us to act than to talk. The question is whether we move forward together or split apart.”

The final agreement may not force countries to meet CO2 emission targets, but it will grease the skids for the biggest tax hike in human history, a fact that establishment media outlets have completely failed to emphasize.

Monckton told the Alex Jones Show last week that the initial secretive draft version of the Copenhagen agreement represented a global government power grab on an “unimaginable scale,” and mandated the creation of 700 new bureaucracies as well as a colossal raft of new taxes including 2 percent levies on both GDP and every international financial transaction.

Monckton said that the new world government outlined in the treaty would be handed powers to, “Tax the American economy to the extent of 2 percent GDP, to impose a further tax of 2 percent on every financial transaction….and to close down effectively the economies of the west, transfer your jobs to third world countries.”

Click here for full report

Climate Plan to Tax $3,000 a Year

December 18, 2009

The Chronicle Herald

By Kevin Gaudet

Would you be upset if you knew your government was about to get duped in a con that would cost your family at least $3,000 a year in new taxes? That is exactly what is happening in Copenhagen right now.

The developing world has teamed up with global warming activists in Copenhagen at the world climate conference. Together they are planning the big con. Key to the con is to play on the eco-guilt of the developed world, using it to scam cash from “rich countries” and transferring it to the developing world, all in the name of “ending climate change.” The Copenhagen grifters are hoping to cash the cheques before the developing world wakes up to the con.

A leaked draft version of the agreement on the table at the Copenhagen climate conference reveals plans for a massive transfer of wealth out of Canada. This transfer will come in the form of new taxes and the establishment of a new world government body for climate change housed in the World Bank.

Lord Christopher Monckton is reported to have obtained a working copy of the draft agreement. He warns that the secretive draft version of the Copen-hagen climate change treaty represents a global government power grab on an “unimaginable scale,” and mandates the creation of 700 new bureaucracies as well as a colossal raft of new taxes including two per cent levies on GDP and a two per cent tax on every international financial transaction.

The draft agreement also reportedly contains a provision for a “uniform global levy of $2 per tonne of CO2 for all fossil fuel emissions,” as well as an additional tax on every commercial plane journey, except ones that go in or out of poorer countries.

Of course, in addition to these various taxes, the draft agreement, reportedly pushed by President Barack Obama, the U.K. and Denmark, would require auctioning of allowances to emit carbon dioxide — a cap-and-tax scheme. Failing to purchase permits would be met with financial penalties or outright prohibitions against such emissions.

The two per cent tax on GDP alone would cost Canada some $26 billion. The $2-a-tonne tax would add up to $500 million per year. And the tax on international financial transactions would soak untold billions. This total tax grab is at least $26.5 billion, or over $3,000 a year for every Canadian family — not including the tax on financial transactions or plane trips.

This idea would be bad enough even if the cash was meant to stay in Canada. But it is not. The scheme is designed to send this cash to 49 developing nations for them to reduce their CO2 emissions and to create so-called green projects. These 49 countries include the likes of Uganda, Burundi and Sudan.

There is a perception that taxing CO2 will only hurt Canada’s West. However, CO2 emission data from Environment Canada for 2008 reveals that Alberta won’t be alone to feel the pain. While Alberta would bear 42 per cent of this burden, Ontario would have to pay for 26 per cent, due mainly to its substantial reliance on coal for electricity. Moreover, while the energy may be produced in Alberta, a large percentage of Alberta’s oil and gas is consumed in Eastern Canada and many of those taxes will be passed along.

Further, imposing a tax on international financial transactions will place new pressures on Canada’s banks, which, so far, have survived sub-prime mortgage challenges and have weathered the global economic storm.

Canadian families work too hard to see thousands of their tax dollars go from their pockets to some “green” project in Sudan. The Harper government should save Canadians from this international massive tax grab.

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Poor Nations Push for “New World Order” in Copenhagen

December 18, 2009

Eur Active

An attempt by developing and emerging countries to create “a new world order” in which Western industrialised nations are no longer dominant is threatening to scupper an agreement on climate change in Copenhagen, warned EU delegates. EurActiv reports from the Danish capital.

As more than 130 world leaders arrive in Copenhagen for the final two days of the UN climate conference – US President Barack Obama is due to arrive tomorrow (18 December) – negotiators have warned that the risk of failure has never been higher.

“The final negotiations will be tense and strenuous,” said Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who is chairing the conference after Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard resigned from the role to move the negotiations up a notch.

‘New world order’

Jo Leinen, who leads the European Parliament’s delegation in Copenhagen, told EurActiv that the conference has been rigged with mistrust between rich and poor nations over emissions reduction targets and aid to the developing world (EurActiv 16/12/09).

Leinen’s interpretation of the current state of play is that developing countries were trying to use the conference as a way to force a new world order in which industrialised countries are no longer the dominant power.

“I think we are at the beginning of a new world order,” the MEP said. But he warned that it would be “a pity to sacrifice the climate conference for unsolved global governance problems”.

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Copenhagen Climate Summit in Disarray After Agreement Leak

December 9, 2009

Guardian

By John Vidal

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN’s role in all future climate change negotiations.

The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.

The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol’s principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions.

The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as “a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks”.

A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:

• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;

• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called “the most vulnerable”;

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Hopenhagen Hopes to Set its Global Agenda

December 9, 2009

Prison Planet

By Patrick Henningsen

The UN’s International Summit on Climate Change, COP 15, opened its doors yesterday in Copenhagen. Attendees include over 10,000 delegates and observers from 192 countries as well as thousands of press.

UN slogans line Copenhagen’s billboards and public spaces, including its main strap-line urging world leaders to “Seal the Deal” next week. But since the pre-summit meetings in New York, Barcelona and Bangkok, insiders are said to have known for weeks that any meaningful deal is beyond reach this year. Serious negotiations have stalled, as 192 nations may be left with the prospect of producing a vestigial, non-binding political agreement calling for reductions in green house gases or “global warming emissions” in the future, as well as the promise of financial aid for developing nations to “adapt to climate change”, with a binding pledge to come later in 2010. Only after all this would signatories eventually see a binding treaty signed in 2012, complete with target mechanisms, enforcement measures and dollar amounts for poor third world countries.

Craig Rucker, Executive Director of CFACT and co-chair of the ‘Climate Sense’ meeting in Copenhagen says, “Even if there is something signed here in Copenhagen, it does not mean that it will become real policy worldwide- it could become another meaningless agreement. The Kyoto Agreement was signed by President Bill Clinton, yet it was never ratified by the United States.”

In ironic carbon neutral fashion, Copenhagen’s International Airport has catered for some 140 private jets and the UN has laid out for a fleet of over 1200 limousines for VIP delegates. Many critics has seized on this as an example of the governing, globalist oligarchy class present here in Copenhagen, a class who expects its citizens to hold up one end of a bargain that it cannot manage to do itself.

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