TAKE YOUR promises and shove 'em, BP. From what we've seen, they're not worth much anyway. You promised you would set up an escrow account for oil spill victims. Yet there's still no account -- only promises by you and the White House that one will be up and running soon.
You promised you'd pay claims. But you've paid only what amounts to nickels and dimes to a lucky few.
You promised you'd keep the money flowing. But now that the cap's on the well, local businesses report that the cap's on the payments, too. All they get from you is resistance -- and delay.
Listen to Louis Delapora, who says he's closing the doors of his Bizarre Bazaar in Orange Beach next Thursday: "We've gotten promises. If you've heard the saying 'a day late and a dollar short,' this is what we've been getting since the beginning."
Time has run out for Mr. Delapora and others like him, whose businesses are hemorrhaging money. Their companies are awash in red ink, but you ignore their cries. Instead, your executives trade jobs, smile for the cameras and count assets and cash flow.
Meanwhile, there's not a trace of empathy in the statement by your claims director, Darryl Willis, who promised this week that escrow fund administrator Ken Feinberg will have money to pay claims "when he needs to do so" -- say, by mid-$?to late August.
Guess what: That "when" is now.
On June 16 -- almost two months after the oil spill -- you and the president agreed on this plan to make us whole. If you can't or won't release the money, then the Obama administration needs to make a deposit to get things moving.
We are not asking for charity. You have gravely wounded the people and the economy of the central Gulf Coast. Mom-and-pop businesses that have survived hurricanes and recessions for generations may now die because of you.
As one Gulf Coast mayor said, you can offer their companies life support -- or pay for their funerals.
But promises? It's too late for any more promises. For many businesses down here,
it's almost time for last rites.