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.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Shallow Water Drilling Off Louisiana's Coast.
In a report dated 5/21/10 in the Times Picayune by Jonathan Tilove, oil industry representatives would like the moratorium lifted on drilling in shallow waters of the Gulf that was placed by the Obama administration to new offshore drilling until investigators find out what went wrong with the BP well explosion. According to the report, Louisiana U.S. Senators Landrieu and Vitter, and U.S. representatives Melancon and Scalise support the industry move.
They pointed out that shallow water drilling is safe for several reasons but no one pointed out that any explosion and leak would be much closer to the Louisiana shore line and spilled oil in the water of the Gulf would hit our shores much quicker than the BP spill. Also not pointed out was the fact that the BP spill happened over a month ago and the oil industry still has no equipment or method available to timely clean up the spilled water in the Gulf or stop the leaking of oil.
Scalise was quoted as saying, Secretary Salazar needs to understand the stark difference between deep water drilling and shallow water drilling. The problem is that Scalise and the oil industry who push deep water drilling as being safe never took into consideration those stark difference we are finding out in the BP spill. Scalise also took the position that the moratorium would result in thousands more jobs and billions more dollars being shipped to middle east countries that don't like us. Scalise needs a dose of truth serum. A record number of jobs and billions of dollars were sent to middle east countries on Bush's watch while Scalise was in congress with the record price of $150/barrel oil and $4.00/gallon gasoline.
One would think our delegation in congress would be pushing the oil industry to have a workable plan and equipment available to timely clean up any leaked oil in the waters of the Gulf and a way to cap off any leak timely. That does not exist today, even in shallow waters.
They pointed out that shallow water drilling is safe for several reasons but no one pointed out that any explosion and leak would be much closer to the Louisiana shore line and spilled oil in the water of the Gulf would hit our shores much quicker than the BP spill. Also not pointed out was the fact that the BP spill happened over a month ago and the oil industry still has no equipment or method available to timely clean up the spilled water in the Gulf or stop the leaking of oil.
Scalise was quoted as saying, Secretary Salazar needs to understand the stark difference between deep water drilling and shallow water drilling. The problem is that Scalise and the oil industry who push deep water drilling as being safe never took into consideration those stark difference we are finding out in the BP spill. Scalise also took the position that the moratorium would result in thousands more jobs and billions more dollars being shipped to middle east countries that don't like us. Scalise needs a dose of truth serum. A record number of jobs and billions of dollars were sent to middle east countries on Bush's watch while Scalise was in congress with the record price of $150/barrel oil and $4.00/gallon gasoline.
One would think our delegation in congress would be pushing the oil industry to have a workable plan and equipment available to timely clean up any leaked oil in the waters of the Gulf and a way to cap off any leak timely. That does not exist today, even in shallow waters.
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