The company should be paying until the damage is made whole. The root cause of why it happened should be prevented industry wide, mechanically. If that's lax safety culture or profit motivations, remove them. Hold the executive team to account -- any board member or executive at the time of the incident should be indebted until the damage is repaired.
The assets and people will go elsewhere? Saddle them with the debt.
The assets are sold off to pay debt. If the assets somehow have debt attached, that just reduces the upfront value that some entity pays for them.
> any board member or executive at the time of the incident should be indebted until the damage is repaired.
I do think personal culpability should play a role. Don't see how it's possible to remove profit motivations though. If people who didn't care about profit were capable of running an energy company, or any large company, how come we've never seen it happen?
I think that there are some requirements to have these companies pay for insurance against ecological disasters. I think this has to be part of the solution. It looks like it exists in some form but 2011 was prior to ol’ small hands’ graft - https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-30/chapter-V/subchapter-B... .
Kind of creates a moral hazard then? Meaning the company will not try as hard to avoid accidents. And the companies that do actually try are punished by being compelled to pay this insurance.
I think insurance solves this problem but the details would be important. If you speed a lot and drive drunk, your premium will and should increase to cover the increased risk you pose to others. A catastrophe shouldn’t be the first time a drilling operation’s premium is assessed. There would be audits by experts in the industry and noncompliance should increase premium along with risk. I’m skeptical as hell about the behavior of other humans, but in theory it could help.
The assets and people will go elsewhere? Saddle them with the debt.