Gulf Oil Spill
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 6/24/10 @ 11:26 pm - Filed Under National Politics
Watching the Gulf Oil Spill unfold has been sad; however, it has also been interesting.
I would think almost any intelligent observer could agree to the following facts:
- The MMS (Federal Regulator) is corrupt and has massively failed in its oversight duties. A large number of people in this organization should be fired for incompetence. (Likely tens if not hundreds)
- At LEAST one of the private companies involved in the accident was negligent at the very least; and likely grossly negligent.
- The Obama Administration’s response had been horrible and should in all fairness be considered at least as bad as President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
These are my observations; what are yours.
Mike Sylvester
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21 Responses to “Gulf Oil Spill”
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I am appalled at the oil spill. It breaks my heart that people and animals are unjustly suffering due to man’s rediculousness. (is that even a word? )
I also think Obama is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. He couldn’t have done the right thing by the majority no matter what he’d chosen to do.
A few enhancements to the first part of your observation Mike.
1.The MMS & VIRTUALLY EVERY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT AND ORGANIZATION (Federal Regulators) is corrupt and has massively failed in its oversight duties. A large number of people in the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and this organization should be fired for incompetence. (Likely HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS)
I love your point in #3. Everyone is so quick to lambaste Bush and his response to Katrina. The fact of the matter is that a full two days before landfall there had been a Federal State of Emergency. When the hurricane made landfall over 80% of all the residence of New Orleans had been evacuated. The response from the media was the fact that the bulk of the aid did not arrive until multiple days after the hurricane had struck. Yes, I agree that there might have been more elaborate response time - but getting equipment and large amounts of people in an out of a flooded area is certainly not an easy task. In no way was the disaster with Katrina remotely as appalling as the complete lack of executive command that Obama has demonstrated. He has repeatedly day in and day out shown how incompetent he is in managing a disaster. This disaster will effect more lives than those in the Katrina disaster as it will have devastated fishing industry, kill countless amount of marine life, destroy our natural habitat, destroy tourism, and to boot this President wants to kill our central source of energy in the United States by halting oil exploration and drilling. The gross incompetence of this Administration is clearly apparent.
“considered at least as bad as President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina.”
Please.
-Jonathan
Here’s an analogy of what Obambi has shown us: When standing in front of a burning building, it’s more effective to point the water hose at the fire instead of assembling a task force to discuss the many different locations to place the podium from which you will give your speech about how important it is to point the hose toward the fire.
Soaring rhetoric is a wonderful thing in a campaign, it ain’t worth a shit in a real life crisis.
Great speakers aren’t necessarily good managers.
I am not sure what kind of engineers they have at BP or for that matter at other oil companies.
5000 feet has tremendous pressure, but lets face this one undisputable fact. Had the valve closed to stop the oil flow, the system as designed would have produced no oil leak. So what is keeping us from at least slowing it down to trickle? Is it the depth they work in? Obviosly they placed the system of pipes, valves and monitors on the sea floor in sections. So they must know how to weld, cut, assemble, use fasteners at that depth.
They use a special cement to seal the casing. Obviously this is supposed to stop leaks. Nothing new.
There is a 21 inch diameter pipe leaking full bore. The first containment was too small of diameter and caused methane ice to form blocking the system, so the oil flowed out around the bottom. What is the problem with taking a larger size pipe with valve (open) and setting it on the outside of the pipe? As long as it is a straight shot, there should be no problem in setting it on the top. They were able to do it with a containment pipe that necks down from 21 inches to 6 to 7 inches. Why not weld a new valve onto the existing pipe and then close the new valve?
If you do not like this, why not set a 100 ton concrete cask on top of the opening. It may not stop all the flow, but then they can do there cement mixture and junk shot. The junk shot they did went in a smaller diameter. No wonder it did not work, it went out the much larger 21 inch opening. At least with the opening blocked, a junk shot my cause the “toilet backup.”
Its criminal!!!
Time to go.
Bill
Hopefully today’s good news will help you to understand, Mike, that once the federal government did get involved, i.e., the Coast Guard, BP was moving much quicker to resolve the problem. The problem with your argument is just what Abby alluded to, and that is, he is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.
This is evident by the fact that half of the right is suggesting he didn’t do his job, while the other half is suggesting either a conspiracy, a tragedy that BP was forced to pay, or that environmentalists are to blame. Obama has been steadfast and forceful, providing resources for those in need. All the while, battling BP every step of the way as they try to skirt responsibility.
I think many Americans will see, once this is a manageable crisis, that while all politicians are in the pocket of big oil, one party is deep in the pockets and will go as far as apologizing to BP. That is my definition of horrible.
Oh yeah DT, the government has been a great help..
stopping skimmers to check for life vests, turning help away from day one, denying Jindahls permits for barriers, etc etc etc and now this.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9GV17GO3&show_article=1
It would almost make one think the administration doesn’t really want it fixed.
The only thing we hear more now from Obama than hope and change is “fore”.
Tim,
To suggest the administration does not want the spill cleaned up is a very extreme statement. Will you be following the lead of Pubs and apologizing to BP as well?
I have to say, I felt comfortable with the government overseeing the efforts to cap it for two reasons; A) BP has not proven itself to make decisions benefiting anyone else but themselves and B) if this had failed, the situation could be much worse, eliminating any chances of a relief well.
DT, I would put BP’s performance and Obama’s performance on “par” with one another. Pun intended.
They BOTH exhibit self serving motives.
I get it that you don’t like Obama, but let’s get real. All of us watched for three full days as Katrina approached New Orleans. Bush did nothing. For three full days after Katrina drowned New Orleans, Bush remained on vacation. The federal government, with the exception of Coast Guard chopper crews, did nothing. Oh yeah, Brownie made sure no Arabian horses were harmed.
My only criticism of Obama is that he was aware of the corrupt personnel in MMR and didn’t replace them. Otherwise, I can’t think of a thing he did wrong. He certainly didn’t take a vacation.
This simply isn’t a fair criticism. It’s obviously something personal you don’t like about Obama. Does it just bug you that the Democrat won?
Littlejohn,
I think you should investigate what took place before you blame Bush for Katrina. President Bush went on tv telling people to leave New Orleans three days before the storm hit and people ignored him and had a hell of a party instead. What did the governor do during this period? Not a damn thing. Now Littlejohn, in a federal system states have to be responsible for some things. Did President Bush do a great job. No, but his record is a lot better than President Obama’s. I wonder what would have happened if the present governor was the governor at the time of Katrina. I think things would have run much better. If you don’t believe me than explain how Mississippi faired so much better than LA.
Katrina was stunning, in that an entire region was warned for days upon days to get the hell out and no one so much as bought an umbrella in preparation.
You can’t fix stupid.
As for the Gulf fiasco now, there were numerous regulations that should have been waived immediately, numerous offers of qualified help turned down and numerous examples of Obamas indifference. Just a bunch of rednecks in red states, no 2012 votes there to capture. Kind of like the Tennessee flood Barry ignored.
Hope n Change strikes again.
Did you hear that biggest four Oil companies are each contributing $250 million each to form a non profit corporation with the intent to design, build, test and implement a response to a BP spill in the future as deep as 10,000 feeet?
It just amazes me that BP drill in 5,000 feet of water with no idea of how to control/fix a leak that deep! Again I say this is criminal. It takes every asset of BP to clean up the mess, so be it. The share holders to a risk and lost.
It is now estimated that the resorts have lost over $20 Billion due to the spill. They should file a claim for their losses and BP should pay it.
As for the government being the problem, what do they know? Are they experts in drilling, cleanup and containment? They inspect, approve and license drilling in the ocean. I think the way we fix this type of thing in the future is to let the courts settle this. Make the financial cost so large that no company can afford to mismanage or put into operation a dangerous product. Sue the *@ll out of them. Make an example of them to others.
William Larsen:
Yet another mindless liberal following the media saying “sue the hell out BP” without realizing how insanely complex it is to be working at such a depth - which is the fault of the liberal tree-huggers.
Blame your liberal buddies trying to “protect the environment” by making the companies that provide the energy we want and need have to go so far off-shore to obtain that energy.
If companies like BP were allowed to drill in more shallow waters where the pressure isn’t so immense it would be easier to implement and maintain. Or even better, allowed to drill on dry land where we could completely control the well.
I concede the point that this is a huge environmental disaster and that BP should pay their amount in cleaning up the mess. But trying to purposely destroy the company is outlandish and foolish.
-Jonathan
Jonathan,
Have you any clue what BP has done to other regions of the world that don’t stand up and/or regulate? Do you know anything about Operation Ajax? Did you hear about the people that died on the rig? Did you also hear that BP had been warned about these safety hazards but chose to ignore it?
A challenge for you: get off Faux Noise, read some books (despite the negative connotation your leaders give to education/academia), and then go to the families of those killed and starving from a major economic loss and tell them how you are standing strong for BP.
Understand this Jonathon, the private sector has and always will put profits ahead of the interests of you AND I.
PS. We all are very proud of you for CONCEDING that this is in fact a disaster and that BP should be responsible.
“It is easier to discard facts than to change one’s philosophy.”
Kudos to you.
@ Jonathan -
Take some time and go back through some of Mr. Larsen’s comments on this blog, and you’ll be enlightened to find out Mr. Larsen is definitely not a liberal.
There are plenty of people ACROSS the entire political spectrum regardless of party affiliation, who agree with Mr. Larsen’s comment.
As the facts continue to surface, people will come to the conclusion that BP was RECKLESS to continue drill such a difficult and problematic well.
As a result 11 BP Workers lost their lives.
Entire industries (tourism, seafood) have been devastated by the spill, and many decades old, mom & pop businesses in the Gulf have closed their doors.
According to BP Engineers, there were clear signs the well was experiencing major problems and could ultimately lead to disaster.
“Six days before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP drilling engineer called the rig a “nightmare well” that had caused the company problems in the past.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/14/national/main6581586.shtml
Another BP worker, who was killed in the explosion, referred to the well as, “the well from Hell”.
When you put profits ahead of people‘s lives, you risk having a disaster of mega proportions.
Especially, when you are dealing with something as complex as deepwater drilling.
Is it a disaster? Yes. Is BP the spawn of Satan? No. Lighten up everybody, not to downplay the magnitude of the spill, but let’s keep a little perspective.
All of you that want to lynch BP, be the first to turn off your lights, park your car, turn off your heat, quit using anything that is manufactured with plastic, rubber, petroleum and generally give up your everyday way of life. This is 2010 people, the world runs on oil.
There are damn near a million people that work for BP worldwide, and gazillions more that work in jobs directly related to BP. There are millions of shareholders worldwide including pension funds, 401k participants etc.
Did a handful of managers and government employees cut corners that led to this calamity? Yes, and they should be held accountable.
Driving them out of business won’t do anyone any good, but will harm countless more innocent people.
Fix the damn leak, inspect the rigs properly, hire government employees that will enforce the regulations and lift the asinine moratorium.
Common sense people, common sense.
Tim Zank:
I agree 100%. I wish there were more moderate thinkers like this in the world.
-Jonathan
I have never been considered a liberal before.
I would like to add Haliburton and as of yet still can’t remember the other company to the list to “sue.” I have been investing in companies for four decades. I am a share holder in oil companies as well. As a shareholder, I want my company to to due what is right. If an operator extracts pipe while the seal is being tested, they need to speak up and let people know this. If when the core sample was taken from 35,000 feet down and it showed signs of “RUBBER”, then someone should have spoken up. Rubber does not exist at 35,000 feet. The only rubber that came into contact with the core sample were seals.
When you look at BP’s problems in comparison Exxon/Mobile you see vast differences. BP for its size is terrible when it comes to safety and spills. You would expect a company as it gets bigger would due to economy of size would do better, but it does not.
How many people have been affected by this? Look at the tourism in Florida, the entire west side is down 80%. When you look at the charter fishing boats in the gulf, they are down nearly 100%. The gulf coast is tourism and fishing. This is their lively hood. Now we could, as taxpayers pay unemployment, food stamps and other government aid to these people, but they were self sufficient before “BP, Haliburton and Doe Company” caused this spill.
I believe they have legitimate claims and that their claims. As for the pension funds, retirement funds and IRA’s that own BP, they take the risk, the take the rewards and their stake and that has nothing to do with the claims.
I was against bailing out GM and I am against any means to reduce “BP, Haliburton and Doe Company” liability because a share holder has to take a loss of any size.
BP has cemented the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. This is good news, but what have been the costs to the surrounding area? Fisherman have lost three months of work, restaurants across the country have looked elsewhere for replacement catch, even today there are questions as to the safety of the water and any seafood from this area. Even though the spill may be over, the cleanup can take years.
Then there is the $27 billion the tourist trade says it has lost. Many of these entities make 90% of their income during the summer. For many this may be the end. Beaches still are nowhere close to being full. Will vacationers return next year?
In NE Indiana, we are dependent on the recreational vehicle/boat business. This business ships billions outside the state. This brings billions into the state. We saw how a slowdown in the recreational business led to 15% if not higher unemployment. Think what 30 to 50% unemployment would be? The gulf was dependent on two sources of income and this income did not originate from their own soil. It originated by exporting tourism and seafood. This brought in dollars from outside the area so that people who live there could earn a living.
Adding up the cost is going to arrive at a staggering amount. The environmental fine could total $22 Billion, 2010 Loss tourism $27 Billion, 2010 loss seafood $10 Billion, 2011 loss tourism and seafood is unknown. It would not surprise me that there will be over $60 Billion in costs directly related to BP, Halliburton, etc and that would not include the $30 Billion paid out by BP so far.