The BP Oil Spill: Another First For Politidose

This writer has several commentaries concerning the spill since the rig explosion on April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico and the resulting oil spill in the waters of the Gulf. It was pointed out that the real story no one wanted to talk about, especially the news media, was the fact that BP and the oil industry had no emergency plan or equipment on hand to timely stop the leaking oil into the Gulf and the removal of the spilled oil into the waters even though offshore drilling has been going on for over 40 years.

Finally, now comes two stories published in the Times Picayune of May 23 that deals with this issue. One by Bob Marshall in the editorial section and one by Rebecca Mowbray in the Money section. Rebecca pointed out that Lisa Jackson, administrator of the United States EPA told congress, the ability to get this oil out of the ground has far surpassed our ability to respond to the worst-case scenario. Also in a sub heading were the following remarks. Deepwater Horizon oil spill reveals an industry ill-prepared to deal with a "black swan" event.

Mr. Marshall wrote about what causes contributed to the accident and named several things that have been pointed out in "politidose" over the past two years many times. Marshall also reported, we always knew accidents would happen but what this event teaches us is the industry has no effective way to prevent a mishap from becoming a catastrophe.

The news media, the governor and parish officials should be talking about the failure of BP and the oil industry in general for not having a plan and equipment to deal with the situation. Instead we see governor Jindal and parish officials blaming the federal government for a slow response. This accident was man made by BP, the drilling company involved and a service company. They actually alluded to that themselves when they blamed each other for the blow out and explosion while testifying before congress. This was no natural disaster and BP has the burden to live up to their responsibility. The oil industry has drilled in deeper waters than 5000 feet so BP should have been prepared for anything.

Bob Marshall and Rebecca Mowbray took the news media where it should have been long ago with their articles and the news media in general should keep up the pressure on BP. If they don't the oil industry will continue to get a free ride at the expense of the environment and the people. We know oil company operations are responsible for the major destruction of our wet lands and coastal erosion and that they do not pay their fair share to restore those area's. Our elected officials do not have the courage to faced the problem.

As former governor David Treen said long ago, "It is time to get well with CWEL.