Tuesday, June 15, 2010

'Toontime': State Capture

[credit: Chuck Asay]

If the United States really were a socialist state as the modern day Know Nothings (aka the 'Tea Party') ardently believe instead of a decadent corporatist one, then the Gulf of Mexico could be spared permanent ruin. Because then the state would own or control the means of stopping the eruption of crude and cleaning the contamination. As it is, we are stuck with prodding a reluctant profit-only, private concern into acting against its own survival interests. A clearer demonstration of the total failure of the profit motive as a moral and ethical imperative could not be conjured. The response to the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has been disorganized, conflicted, delayed and inadequate. The federal government shares the blame with its corporate sponsors for allowing the incident to compound through irresponsible management of  valuable resources in the public's domain.  The time for tough talk is gone.  The time for command action is rapidly running out.

The national government has had a symbiotic relationship with big oil since it began as an industry at the end of the nineteenth century. British Petroleum began virtual life as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909, a year after William Knox discovered commercial oil deposits in Persia. (the Zoroastrians only used oil to burn in their fire temples). When Churchill urged the conversion of the British fleet from coal to fuel oil, the British government bought a stake in the company. The company benefited mightily from more government intervention when the US installed its client despot, the Shaw of Iran, in the successful coup of 1953. All of BP's nationalized assets were returned, and production resumed. In the eighties, BP bought AMOCO making it truly anglo-american. Despite being fined twice for significant safety violations (2005 Texas refinery explosion; 2008 OSHA fines for failure to correct conditions) and spilling crude on Alaska's North Slope (2006: 200,000 gallons) BP owns the greatest number of federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Clearly, it is time for the federal government to end this dysfunctional relationship and start taking stewardship of the OCS seriously. Forty-four has the legal means to do so, but so far has not demonstrated the political will. A criminal conviction for negligence would make BP ineligible for future lease awards. G & T's by the pool anyone?