First the bureaucrats of Obamacon
minimized the size of the spill. Then the minions in his government said the oil had miraculously dissipated. Both statements turned out to be not true.
{"Deepwater Horizon"} Now, the Obama appointees on the national commission of inquiry into the
Deepwater Horizon disaster are saying no one was responsible for making economic decisions that caused the biggest environmental disaster in US history. It was just a serious of honest mistakes and tough calls. Horsepucky! The chief counsel's conclusion is another despicable Beltway whitewash. The commission is providing the cover necessary to let British Petroleum off the hook for any criminal liability. A successful criminal prosecution would require proof of intentional or at least reckless behavior was involved.
Sure, no one left little sticky notes on the drilling control panel saying "screw safety". No executive from London or Houston sent e-mails saying don't do this pressure test or circulation test ($118,000) or use more well lining ($7-10 million) because it costs too much. But any company with BP's history of cost cutting certainly is acutely aware of the expense of drilling a deep well at sea, estimated to be about $1.5 million a day. The drilling of the Macondo well was six weeks behind schedule which alone cost BP at least $21 million in leasing fees. How the commission could find last week that both BP and Haliburton knew there were
problems with the cement mixture for cementing the well, yet used it anyway, and conclude Monday there is an absence of at least corporate recklessness defies logic. But logic never stopped the paper hangers of Washington. It is important to note that the commission does not possess subpoena power, so it can not get beyond corporate finger pointing or self serving internal reviews if it wished to do so.
Charles Perrow, a Yale professor who wrote the sociological classic "Normal Accidents" thinks the current administration is engaged in a cover-up. In an
interview with AP Perrow said "There's a long history of dollars versus safety at this organization." He pointed with good reason to the 2005 Texas City oil refinery explosion. Examining the causes of that disaster, federal officials cited BP for a "culture of cost cutting" that contributed to the explosion. Reps. Waxman and Stupak who investigated the
Deepwater Horizon spill sent a letter to BP in June stating that the company "appears to have made multiple decisions for economic reasons." The present inquiry panel's co-chairman was the head of EPA in the previous regime notorious for its incestuous relations with big oil. And at some point in the numerous lawsuits spawned by the spill's aftermath, the federal government itself may face liability for its lackadaisical oversight of a rogue corporation operating in the public domain. This preliminary finding of "no conscious decision to favor dollars over safety" by chief counsel Fred Barlit, Jr.
[photo] is beyond absurd, it's criminally dishonest.
As Washington mops up and papers over, the Gulf and the wildlife continue to suffer. US Fish & Wildlife figures show a total of 8,184 oil birds collected since the spill began. 6,104 of those found dead. 1,140 oiled sea turtles collected. 605 of those DOA. A new report from the EU shows 20% of juvenile Atlantic bluefin tuna were killed by the spill contaminating a large section of the species' spawning grounds. This fish species is already collapsing due to overfishing. The shrimp catch is down 52% from last year. The livelihoods of a great number of Gulf residents involved in the region's
fishing industry have been wiped out. One reason Obama & Folks got trashed in the mid-term election is the conspicuous lack of courage of their alleged convictions.
