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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. June 20, 2010 UPDATED 4:40 P.M.E.D.T.(addition is at the close of this commentary:
When seasoned reporter Rachel Maddow expresses by body language, facial expressions and high anxiety on her eyewitness walk-through of the beaches, the marshes and barrier islands off New Orleans, being slowly doomed for three centuries, as she did last week, it is using television as it is meant to be.
It is astounding that we have a leader in The White House who is not there on a regular basis when courageous reporters like Anderson Cooper and Ms. Maddow are putting it in our faces night after night, the reporters themselves incredulous that the people and the man who supposedly runs this country have not investigated how to stop this well and its chilling long term implications.
We have a President who does not have the guts to act and stop this environmental atrocity allowed to happen by BP right now by any means possible. it is not an accident. It is an atrocity. Not even explore how to stop it? And the oil companies have no clue how to stop it cold.
Where is the leadership? Sadly, there has been none. The great hope has been revealed to be just another pretty face who says the right things and tries to get along with all to preserve his presidential reelection capital reserves funding potential (the oil companies) as he did with his Wall Street buddies.
Where is the all-out technical conference with other nations to see if the well may be capped by direct action?
Where is reliance on organizations like Woods Hole in Massachusetts to analyze what is really happening under water? No one knows.
Cap the well now, Mr. President—give us the real numbers which now are just being given in terms of how much oil BP is capturing – a significant difference.
The effort is on to give Americans the “story” that the leak is under control. Next crisis, please!
But the numbers, the response, the long term effects are being “played” to us!
The latest report from the Department of Homeland Security boasts of 1,200 miles of boom in place across 54 miles…with 103 miles in reserve. That’s not enough, by my rough estimate there is about 900 miles of coast line from the Louisiana western border to the Florida keys…with mileage compounded by the intricacies of coastal islands that multiply the booms possibly needed to be put in place. Can’t any reporters ask those questions? Where is the extra boom going tocome from, if they need it? And they will need it. The tar balls have hit Panama City.
Do I have to draw you a picture?
You are faced with the environmental equivalent of what President Harry Truman was faced with when confronted with the decision whether or not to invade Japan or detonate the atomic bomb. Thousands of American lives lost or thousands of residents of cities lost. It was a tough decision. Truman did it.
Your “atomic bomb” decision is an easy one: thousands are not going to die if you take over the management of the oil spill and move within the next few days to find a solution to cap it, and not wait three months.
It is astounding BP simply does not have more ships to take on more oil flow. What foresight! What logistics! What a disgrace to industry. Do we have a Coast Guard that does not perhaps suggest to “Sludge” Hayward, hey, perhaps you might need more than one ship?????(They now have two! And one broke down. Wow!)
Come on President Obama, tell the slime oil executives who fund your campaign that you’re mad as Hell and they are not going to leak another gallon of oil any more.
You do not have the guts to do that. Because you might offend the powerful who put you in office with their money.
Just as you do not have the guts to tell the Wall Street ganovim that they cannot sell another derivative not backed by valued collateral, or tell the banks to move out that loan money that has made them billions in bonuses, or stop the bankos from trading derivatives.
What is really happening under water?
WPCNR has learned through sources speaking on condition of anonymity that NOAA the National Oceanoic and Atmospheric Administration, is contracting with the Woods Hole Institute on a $500 Million contract to survey the Gulf of Mexico floor and do an inventory of how the microscopic organisms have been affected by the oil plume underwater.
So the government by doing so, knows there’s serious collateral damage underwater there, they are just not telling us.
NOAA recently admitted they knew of the plumes existing under the sea being created by this spill. But did nothing to stop the dispersant from making it worse.
Our source also tells us the dispersants used by BP contributed to forming the plume because the dispersants form gases which lighten the oil and make it sink.
The source also predicts a massive die off of red snapper and grouper at the 250 foot to 350 foot depths where those key eating fish congregate. The source adds that the government and BP were told the dispersant they were using would create the underwater plume, but Woods Hole advisory was ignored by all concerned and suppressed.
This raises the spectre that this whole giant fishing problem might have been averted if the government had listened to Woods Hole and not BP.
The latest Department of Homeland Security news release, by the way, on the subject reports 1/3 of the gulf is closed for fishing.
If this administration in Washington had stepped in at the beginning of this horror 60 days ago…and had listened to real scientists at Woods Hole to weigh options on dispersants maybe there would not be plumes now.
But the real problem here is the government is not running the operation. The Homeland Security release goes to great pains to say the government is directing the operation now…when it is too late.
BP was up until now.
Badly.
Remember BP continued to use a dispersant the government felt they should not use?
Everything BP has tried to do has not worked as they said it would. Now reports are being given on how much of the oily black death shrouds of oil, methane and who knows what else is being captured without a ratio as to how much is not being captured. It is being spun to make us feel better.
The New York Times wrote a glowing report Saturday on how great the Exxon-Mobil safety culture was. So what would Exxon-Mobil do about a spill like this? The Times did not ask that question! And, at the hearings last week in the House of Bunglers on Capitol Hill…none of the oil company executives would say how to cope with this disaster. They did not know how they would handle it. So much for expertise.It was very revealing.
The whole object of BP and the government has been to keep this well, harness it, so they can still get oil out of it and make money with it, it appears.
That is a conflict of interest.
Now the rehabbing of BP columns are surfacing, saying as a column did in the Sunday Times of last week – that it is “our fault” for not doing more cutting back on oil that this happened. This is sophistry.
No. This is BP’s fault.
But we have a President who is not stepping up to the plate and protecting the people.
I do not want the President attending a ball game Friday night and golfing on Saturday as if to say…we’ve got the crisis in hand now, BP is going to pay $20 Billion. I’ve solved it.
It’s not over. And here you have the Governor of Mississippi today saying come on down the beaches are fine.
Crisis over.
What I wonder is how bad it really is. Because all along the government has not been telling us the truth. Ignoring the Woods Hole advisory on dispersant was unbelievable. They told the government what the dispersant would do and the government did not listen and suppressed the advisory. And at this moment the dispersant is still being dumped in the gulf – contributing to the creation of a dead sea in America’s formerly leading source of seafood.
To say nothing about the people of the gulf.
The President is worrying more about leaks in his administration (stepping up prosecution of whistle-blowers) than the leak in the Gulf.
That is not a good sign.
Sounds like the old administration we just got rid of.
Oh — and that $20 Billion BP is setting aside…did you know it is being paid in installments? NOT upfront?
True. According to a BP News Release here is how the money is scheduled to be paid to the US Government:
- “BP will initially make payments of $3bn in Q3 of 2010 and $2bn in Q4 of 2010. These will be followed by a payment of $1.25bn per quarter until a total of $20bn has been paid in.
- While the fund is building, BP’s commitments will be assured by the setting aside of U.S. assets with a value of $20bn. The intention is that this level of assets will decline as cash contributions are made to the fund.
- The fund will be available to satisfy legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs. Fines and penalties will be excluded from the fund and paid separately. Payments from the fund will be made as they are adjudicated, whether by the Independent Claims Facility (ICF) referred to below, or by a court, or as agreed by BP.
- The ICF will be administered by Ken Feinberg. The ICF will adjudicate on all Oil Pollution Act and tort claims excluding all federal and state claims.
- Any money left in the fund once all legitimate claims have been resolved and paid will revert to BP.”
How convenient a deal for BP. As Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi pointed out on Meet the Press Sunday morning, “this (deal)is very good for BP.”
You bet it is. It was not widely reported that the $20 Billion is an installment deal. This truly helps BP this year on their balance sheet. And is the money guaranteed, even if the BP Gang declares bankruptcy?
If I am the President I want that money cash up now. And,no cap.
Why is it the perpetrators are always being cut a break by this administration from the investment bankers, to the “Bancos” to the Go-Brokers, and now the oil companies — they create the greatest thefts of all time and the greatest environmental disaster in history — say they are sorry, and nobody goes to jail, everybody gets richer and this administration and congress is letting them go back to doing the same old things.
Somebody knocks over a 7-11 for pocket change and he’s black or Hispanic and he’s in jail.
It is disgusting.
Our leaders are feckless.
