The Huffington Post
In 1989, when the Exxon Valdez tanker spewed 11 million gallons of oil onto the Alaskan coastline, the state was deep in the throes of a recession. To repair the damage, Exxon paid hundreds of millions to a plethora of local businesses, which locals soon started calling the “spillionaires”.
Thereafter, Alaska went on to enjoy 21 straight years of growth, and the state’s economic recovery became a small consolation after the spill.
So who will be the “spillionaires” of the BP oil spill?
As Foreign Policy magazine notes, “beach crews aren’t the only people cleaning up after the Deepwater disaster.” BP is expected to pay $37 billion to clean up the mess.
But the small silver lining of the BP disaster isn’t as local as most would hope. It stretches well beyond the Gulf Coast region to Washington — where lobbyists are being paid huge sums to influence lawmakers on an array of oil-related issues — and across the country, to big clean-up companies that have won hefty contracts to decontaminate the Gulf.
Which businesses are “cleaning up” the most because of the BP oil spill? Find out below:
Onshore oil drilling companies stand to prosper amidst tougher offshore-drilling rules. Investors are following the money-trail, as advisers urge their clients to buy stock in companies that find and produce natural gas on land. These companies are expected to reap big profits from the “new interest in onshore-production potential” spawned by the spill.
blogarama.com
