Tim's Favorite Blogs
Media Matters
Blog Directories
Tuesday, June 22. 2010
The Oil Disaster Spreads
The tragedy in the gulf continues, as if anyone really thought it would be over in a few days, or even a few months. This will go on for years, probably decades. The most recent estimate for oil pouring out of that wellhead: 60,000 barrel per day — that’s over 3,000,000 gallons per day. For the past 63 days.Wow, I just blew my mind! Pulling up the trusty calculator on this Mighty Mac, I added those 63 days of 3,300,000 gallons of oil per day and came up with (this will blow your mind): 207,900,000 gallons of crude oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon blew up, caught fire and sank to the bottom of the ocean, shearing the wellhead that kept the oil from pouring into the Gulf.
Actually, I just found out I low-balled that last figure: it’s actually 264,600,000 gallons of crude oil have now been deposited into the Gulf of Mexico.
NOAA has just confirmed, using the research vessel the Thomas Jefferson, there are indeed plumes — lakes some call them — of oil in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico at 1,100 meters below the surface. That’s about 3,300 feet for the metrically challenged. The largest plume is 22 miles long — that’s miles — six miles wide and 1,300 feet from top-to-bottom. That’s not water filled with oil, that’s solid bodies of oil in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
So, last week the CEO of British Petroleum, Tony Hayward, testified before Congress and — this is almost funny — said he didn’t know anything about anything concerning the oil disaster in the Gulf — that is a result from his company’s oil well platform blowing up, catching fire and finally sinking. My question to him, had I been on the committee, in that committee hearing, after hearing Mr. Hayward say he didn’t know (in one way or another) over 80 times, would be this: “”Do you have a criminal trial lawyer Mr. Hayward?”
How does the CEO of a major multinational conglomerate, one that is in the top 10 (I think it’s #6) of most profitable corporations in the world not know about any decisions made to start a new oil well, something that costs at least $30,000,000 dollars per off shore oilrig, about the operation of said oilrig, about safety issues, or, even more important, decisions made to stop a catastrophic event like what’s taking place at this moment? As Congressman Michael C Burgess (R-Texas) said, after several hours of Mr. Hayward telling us he doesn’t know anything: “… any one of us could do his job.”
Here’s something even more interesting: in its investigation of this disaster, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce Energy and Environment poured through thousands of pages of documents from British Petroleum and apparently BP knew the broken well was pouring as much as 100,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf.
That’s almost as bad as finding out BP (and the other Big Oil companies) had no contingencies for stopping an oil disaster at that depth, even though on legal documents they signed to start drilling those mile-deep wells BP (and the other Big Oil companies) said they had plans for stopping oil disasters from happening. That’s fraud. I find it curious that no one in the media — or in government — has talked about criminal proceedings just for that alone!
My next statement, after asking Mr. Hayward if he had a criminal defense lawyer, would be to federal marshals: “Please collect Mr. Hayward’s passport.”
Many Republicans have been apologizing for Big Oil, or at the very least, trying to protect Big Oil, and in particular British Petroleum, from government. For instance, the Republican leadership in the Senate is currently blocking legislation that would lift the cap on the amount of money an oil company can be liable for in the event of an oil disaster. That cap is $75,000,000. Hardly enough to cover the costs to the citizens of Louisiana affected by the spill, let alone every state — including those of other countries — bounded by the Gulf of Mexico.
Republican Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi said on Sunday (on Meet the Press) that the moratorium on off shore drilling was more harmful to the Gulf Region than the disaster itself. Are you kidding Governor Barbour? Apparently he isn’t. He does have a point though: this disaster may put 3,000,000 oil company employees out of work.
Still, the devastation to the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Region will be with us for decades, probably long after I die. That could put far more than 3 million people out of work.
The new Republican candidate for Senator, from the great state of Kentucky, Rand Paul, said President Obama’s treatment of British Petroleum was “un-American.” Holding the company that created this disaster accountable is un-American? Are you kidding Dr. Paul?
Well, maybe in his version of America, where corporations don’t have any government regulations to worry about.
Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Bachmann have called the $20,000,000,000 trust fund set up by BP a “shakedown” by President Obama. Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) made it official though when, during those hearings, he apologized to BP Chairman Tony Hayward for being told to create the trust fund.
Was Congressman Barton saying what many Republicans in Congress believe, but are too savvy, or scared, to say themselves? Maybe not his fellow Texan, Dr. Burgess, but many others believe it. They’re all for less government and letting the corporations run wild as they please when doing business in and with the United States.
This is the worse man-made tragedy to hit the United States since the Civil War. The worst environmental disaster ever. This makes Hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Rita (combined) look almost puny in comparison and those were some massive storms with horrendous consequences.
Recently, in the Playboy forums, I read posts from people who were minimizing the effects of this disaster, saying it would be minor and inconsequential in the long run. They even said the oil on the once pristine shores of Santa Barbara was natural. Yeah, the U.S. Geological Service did a study on the oil seepage in the Santa Barbara Channel, saying oil has been on the beaches of California since humans have lied there, but the study also says results are “inconclusive” about how much oil on the beaches is “natural” and how much is caused by “anthropogenically derived” sources — the oil platforms out in the ocean.
The truth is, and everyone who was alive in 1969 and living in Southern California will attest to this: the beaches of Santa Barbara were oil-free before the blowout on Unocal’s Platform A in the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field.
And that is the reality the people on the Gulf Coast will be facing in the coming years. It’s the reality all of us will be facing. As has been reported on nearly every news outlet, we get 40% of our seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. If you thought the prices for shrimp and scallops were high, just wait. This disaster will affect all of us.
Calendar
Quicksearch
Categories
AD Links
Referrals
Syndicate This Blog
Blog Administration
Powered by
TheForkesReport