The President announces that the independent commission he created for the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling will be chaired by former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Graham and former EPA Administrator Bill Reilly. He promises accountability not just for BP, but for those in government who bore responsibility.
* Learn more about the government response.
* Learn more about the commission.
* Read the Executive Order establishing the commission.
Since I have been seeing so much about the President not doing anything on the oil spill... I guess this is a good thing for those people. I think it is a great thing in the list of what has been done already. We need to get to the bottom of the cause for this horrible disaster. Then if BP, TransOcean and of course we already know Haliburton is a criminal organization, but if we find it was due to negligence, which is what everyone seems to be pointing toward, they must be prosecuted and must have to pay for everything.
I read a blurb somewhere yesterday.. and I am sorry I don't remember where I read it... That BP may lose it's license to drill in the US. That may be the best thing to happen out of this. If they are and have been the root cause of this spill, and their response has been terrible. Of course, one reason is they don't want to plug it, they want to continue to harvest the oil.
Now, the effort to plug it is being delayed until Tuesday at the earliest. This should have been the FIRST thing they did... was plug it and then drill their side well... .but nope that wouldn't have allowed them to continue to harvest while they dicked around.
Let me know what you think.. Am I correct in my thinking? Do you see the same things I am seeing?
8 comments:
I'm all for such a commission and can appreciate the need for bipartisanship but I wish the wheels had started moving a little sooner. How long is it going to take the commission to do its study and make recommendations, and after all that, will anything significant be done?
I would love for BP's licence to be yanked.
Good post.
I would just like to add one more thing. While we wait for a study and a set of recommendations that could take years in the coming, I do think President Obama needs to act immediately and decisively. His lack of doing anything significant up to this point is not "cool."
OK, the commission is to issue it's report within six months. The EPA is considering revoking BP's permits to drill here.
On Obama's response, there is little he can do. Working a mile deep is virtually without precedent, except for oil company drilling operations. No manned sub has ever gone deeper than 2,500 feet. Most ot the RPVs capable of operations at the leak site are already there.
There is one thing Obama is wrong for not doing. He has not suspended all deepwater drilling in the US.
I hope the commission has the latitude to reach anywhere it wants to. To me, the ultimate cause of the spill is the as the cause of the financial meltdown: Deregulation allowed a company to grow so big and have so much influence that it had its way.
People like Chris Matthews screech that the government ought to take this over. And do what? The technology and the know-how all lie within the oil industry. And like it or not, BP is so big and politically powerful that it has to be managed instead of ordered around.
We put the inmates in charge of the asylum a long time ago, and now the Gulf of Mexico is reaping what we sowed.
I'm listening.
Thank you all for your comments...
Leslie.. I do believe Pres. Obama is doing all he can at this point... There just isn't much else he can do.
As someone said on Huffington post... what do people expect him to do.. put on scuba gear and go down and plug it with his finger.
Great info TC and thanks... that's basically what I thought about subs and such... I knew or thought I knew we didn't have anything that could go that deep, and working at that depth is impossible even with the finest scuba equipment. It all has to be done remotely and that is very hard.
K... I agree... it is the fault of deregulation and the back room, in private meetings Cheney and Bush had the last 8 years that is the root cause of it all.. Subsidies, tax breaks and loosening of regs... plus the cozy relationship between the so called regulators and the industry...
Thanks all of you for your very insightful comments...
Leslie..... I have been listening and waiting too... and I believe we have heard what we need to know... As I stated... BP doesn't really want to plug the flow, they want to harvest the oil... I read a few minutes ago they are now delaying again the attempt to plug it.. First it was today, then Tuesday and now who knows when...
Annette: I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear - I was talking about listening to the comments here. Sorry.
No problem Leslie.. I am doing the same.. found a great diary at DKos that I am doing another post on and linking to it..
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