July 6, 2010
BP Oil Leak – This Mess Ain’t No Spill!
I live on the Gulf Coast. BP’s oil is sloshing up in my back yard. Being really close to the whole mess, I have some first hand thoughts and observations.
1. It ain’t a spill. It is a leak. At this point, a deliberate leak. If you will take note of BP’s response since the leak started, ALL of their efforts have been involved in “Oil Recovery”. You never hear about BP working (earnestly) to plug the hole. It’s always involved in recovering the oil. Why? I think it’s because BP is in the oil business. They make $0 by plugging up oil wells. However, by allowing the oil to continue spewing, they get to recover some small percentage and, therefore, make some money, which, of course, helps to offset all those cleanup costs. All of the serious BP efforts so far have been about building “top hats” and “towers”, all expensive gadgets to -recover- oil. With all of their engineers and all of their undersea robots, I have absolutely no doubts…zero…that BP COULD HAVE developed a feasible plug. There have been lots of smart engineering people sending in suggestions, too. BP ignored them all. Oil recovery; that’s what it’s all about. Screw the animals and the seafood industry. Let’s get that oil!
2. BP has absolutely no management in the cleanup business here on the coast. They are paying millions of dollars to private boat owners to drive around in the water and “report” any sightings of oil. A few days ago, I personally watched as about 10 of these private boat owners left the marina on their “oil patrol”. I watched them as they all filed out of the harbour, went about a mile (off the east corner of Deer Island) and dropped anchor. They all sat there for hours. Fishing, or jawing, or partying…who knows? But the one thing they were NOT doing was patrolling for oil. BP desperately needs leadership on the Gulf cleanup. They desperately need to set out a grid system and assign each boat owner a grid location to patrol. Rather than sending out 200 boats to all look at the same patch of water. Plain stupid
Another example of sucky management…BP has hired thousands of workers to walk up and down the beach looking for tar balls. Sometimes they walk 4 abreast, all looking at the same patch of sand. No organized effort to spread them out, no organized effort to assign them a stretch of beach to patrol. Nope…throw money at them and hope that maybe one of the 100 people walking on the same piece of beach finds something so the other 99 can stand around and watch him scoop it up.
Another observation. When the oil washed ashore the other day, they sent out 100s of people with scoops and plastic bags. One guy in a Bobcat front-end loader could have been 10 times faster and more effective than all of these people. But no. Pay hundreds of people rather than a couple of guys with Bobcats. I know the obvious response to that observation would be “We’re just trying to subsidize the economy by hiring all of the unemployed people”. Well, that’s just fine, but when they FIND the oil, then subsidize a couple of Bobcat owners too…they would be a lot more effective picking up the thousands of pounds of beached oil and dead sea critters.
3. BP, in my opinion, is not putting any serious efforts into this whole mess. They SAY they are, but I haven’t seen it. The shrimpers I speak to haven’t seen it. BP’s marketing department can talk a good game, and they pay off the politicians to stay at arm’s length, but they really have not put forth an ORGANIZED effort to plug the well, clean the beaches, clean the gulf bottom where the shrimp and oysters and crabs are dying off…all talk, no effective effort.
4. Thinking of visiting the Mississippi or Alabama Gulf Coast? Don’t. Unless, of course you like the smell of oil in the morning. Or you’re coming to gamble, or help clean up. But if you want to come for the beaches, go to Destin or Panama City. I live here…I wouldn’t go in the water. The “weathered oil” that is washing up all over is only the tip of the iceburg. There are also millions of gallons of toxic dispersant in the water too. And millions of gallons of gasoline and kerosine and diesel fuel and God knows what else. You see, as the oil weathers, it releases the “high-end” products like gasoline. And, whereas you can see the yucky “weathered oil”, you can’t see the high-end products which are all mixed in there somewhere, too. And forget deep sea fishing…all the good spots are closed. Plus, who in their right mind would eat a fish which has been swimming in this toxic soup?? Sure, lots of tourist groups will be saying “hey, come on down, the water’s fine!” But they have an agenda, don’t they? Let’s be brutally honest…they don’t really care about your long term health, only the money you carry.
5. The politicians are being “subsidized” into silence, in my observed opinion. Congressman Gene Taylor, a man I have always respected as being in touch with the people, is amazingly out of touch. Some of his most memorable comments:
After taking a (subsidized?) airplane trip over the oil spill, his remark was “It’s really not as bad as I thought it was.” OMG, Gene! Biggest disaster in American history here!
Gene was asked if he thought the Gulf drilling should continue unabated, and he responded “Absolutely! I don’t want to be dependant on foreign oil anymore so we need to keep drilling.” OMG Gene! Are you aware that the amount of domestic oil that we use is something like 10% of the total amount we use? Those Gulf oil wells don’t even put a TINY dent in our foreign oil usage! If you were absolutely serious about getting away from foreign oil, you would be pushing Compressed Natural Gas as the logical alternative to oil. It’s cheap, it’s totally available in the U.S.A., and every car on the road today can burn American Natural Gas. To make that comment, on camera, only goes to show that 1), you think we are all idiots; 2), you are being paid to make those sorts of absurd comments; or, 3) you really do believe that the Gulf oil will make us independent of foreign oil (in which case you REALLY need to visit this web site IMMEDIATELY!!! http://www.cngnow.com/EN-US/PickensPlanCNG/Pages/default.aspx
President Obama, where are you?!? I know that Mississippi is a conservative state and most of us didn’t vote for you, but hey…we are part of the USA! You swore to “protect and defend us from all enemies, foreign and domestic”. Doesn’t oil leaking onto the shores of your country, causing a social, economic, and ecological disaster, constitute an enemy? Many foreign countries have offered to assist by providing oil skimmers and other equipment, but you have refused to accept their offers, OR, offer up emergency legislation to allow their assistance. You are failing us, Pres. I can only assume that you, too, have made some back-room deals with Big Oil (through your DNC, of course) to only offer lip service but no real help. Where, for example, is FEMA??? Is this not a federal emergency? Is it not FEMA’s role to help in federal emergencies? I guess not under the Obama administration.
This Oil leak is a really sad affair. The whole thing is messed up. BP is failing miserably. Government is failing as usual. Time to put me in charge. But be prepared… I kick ass and take names.
