What if the American Government, you know the government that 20% of Americans say we don't need, allowed one of our most able trucking companies to go to the moon and mine it? Far out idea, right? Not really.
We pretty much did that by allowing a group of oil companies to drill holes in a surface of our earth less well understood than the surface of the moon. Now we can see that they were using technology designed for earth to explore the "moon" of the the deep ocean.
These aren't bad people, as they themselves know. It is not enough to say that they are "greedy" and "stupid", and full of "self importance", and "hubris", and potentially "criminal" in their actions, because our own Government gave them permission to explore this "moon". Why? Maybe because those responsible in our Government were greedy, stupid, full of self importance, hubris, criminal,and...did I mention criminal.
What would we do to NASA if they let the Union Pacific Railroad take over moon transport tomorrow?
Everybody is pointing figures:
WASHINGTON (AP) — BP PLC told Congress Tuesday its massive Gulf oil spill was caused by the failure of a key safety device made by another company.In turn, that company said BP was in charge, and that a third company that poured concrete to plug the exploratory well didn't do it right. The third company, which was plugging the well in anticipation of future production, says it was only following BP's plan.The blame game shot into the open Tuesday as the Senate began a hearing into the oil spill that has been contaminating water in the Gulf of Mexico for three weeks and threatens sensitive marshes and marine life from Louisiana to Florida.Executives of the three companies, testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, acknowledged investigators have yet to pinpoint definitively the cause of the well explosion April 20 or why the oil was not contained, but they spent little time before trying to shift responsibility for the environmental crisis to each other....
"Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the panel's ranking Republican, said the future of domestic oil development in this country rests with finding out what went wrong, correcting the failures and shortcomings and assuring the public offshore drilling can be conducted safely.Murkowski and several other senators made clear they didn't like the finger pointing."I would suggest to all three of you that we are all in this together," she told the executives, who were sitting shoulder to shoulder at the witness table, "because this incident will have impact on developing of our energy policy for this country""...
"Lamar McKay, chairman of BP America, pointedly noting that it did not own the rig and that "responsibility for the safety of drilling operations" belonged to Transocean.Of the 126 people on the Deepwater Horizon rig when it was engulfed in flames, only seven were BP employees, he said.But Transocean CEO Steven Newman emphasized BP's role."Offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator, in this case BP," said Newman. His said it was BP that prepared the drilling plan and BP that gave the go-ahead to fill the well pipe with sea water before a final cement cap was installed, reducing the downward pressure.The executives said this was a practice that was being used frequently and that BP got approval from the federal Minerals Management Service."...
---AP
It is sort of like listening to a bunch of forth grade boys out on the school play ground explaining to the teacher why they are all dirty and have bloody noses.
Oil is a commodity. There is really no such thing as "domestic oil". If BP had by some miracle brought that well into production that oil would not have gone directly into the gas tanks of American cars buying gas in Kansas. It would have gone into the commodity pool of world oil being traded world wide. Drill Baby-Drill is a triple lie at best.
The Senate, The Government Regulatory Agencies, Wall Street, The Chicago Traders, and so forth and so on, want this to be solved and swept out of public view as fast as it can be. Then they can go back to business as usual. Trouble is they way over reached on this one. They poked a big hole in one of mother earth's vital arteries.
Government should now do what Government was created to do, protect those it governs by consensus. Not those who buy them whores, or send them on trips to exotic places, or finances their individual appetites, but We The People, and despite the SCOTUS thinking corporations are not included.
In 1995 during the tragedy of Katrina, eight million gallons of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the waters of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Corporate interest and Government culpability in this tragedy were masked by the immediate human suffering caused by the same storm. Now here we are again. How much more can we all endure?
How much more till we damage the Gulf beyond repair in our life time?
Every time I post on this subject I feel like a toad croaking in a polluted swamp.
We truly are ALL of us in this together. What shall we do?
2 comments:
I am sickened by this whole mess. Btw, Katrina was in 2005, not 1995.;)
A decade here a decade there, what the heck I'm retired.
I am sore afraid it will get much worse befor it gets better. Apparently there is nine times as much oil floating in the dense cold water below the surface in plumes than BP has said has leaked at all. Lies or Stupidity or both.
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