The BP disaster is the oil company's responsibility -- and it is Barack Obama's moment. There is no better time and place to unequivocally assert the President's voice than now in the Gulf with a BP summit. Get back to the Gulf, redouble efforts to stop the gusher, and engage with the people.
The BP disaster has become a national Rorshach test: what you see in it depends on what you think. Look at the BP gusher hemmoraging crude from the center of the earth and what do you see? Some look at the BP disaster and see oil addiction run amok; others see an accident that, while tragic, should not stop us from drilling. I see the BP disaster hemmoraging crude oil, jobs, ecosystems, and our faith technology and human institutions that were supposed to help us conquer the elements and mitigate disaster.
So profound is the BP disaster that time from the deadly explosion is marked pre-BP and post-BP. Pre-BP, when President Obama acceded to oil patch calls for expanded drilling, I called it a "Sister Souljah moment with Mother Earth;" post-BP, Mother Earth has struck back with a vengeance. Every gush of crude makes me horrified for the Gulf and grateful for the generation of California activism to keep oil derricks off our pristine coast and to invest in renewable energy. Pre-BP, "drill baby drill" chanters mocked our environmental ethic shaped by the Santa Barbara oil spill and defended by Senator Barbara Boxer; today, the BP gusher mutes those chants, especially in fishing and tourism communities. Pre-BP, we Barbara Boxer fans in were scoffed at by Republicans and reporters alike who said "enviros" have a "flaky" agenda unconnected to California jobs; post-BP, those scoffs are tempered as the Gulf Coast hemmorage yields a jobs hemmorage in all walks of life. Pre-BP, Governor Schwarzenegger wanted California's coastal commission to OK drilling off Santa Barbara's Tranquillion Ridge; post BP, Arnold has "terminated" that call. Pre-BP, right wing critics derided calls for "smart government" as socialist; post-BP, some of them join calls for a federal takeover while others like Sarah Palin call for a "smart government" response to the BP disaster. Pre-BP, the President's cerebral calm in a crisis was a sign of good judgment; now, we'd like more emotional engagement. Pre-BP, we had the technology; post-BP, we learn that we only get what we inspect, not what we expect. Pre-BP, Gulf Coast working families were just rebuilding their lives after Katrina and Rita; post-BP, the hemmorage will wreak environmental, economic, and emotional havoc.
Post-BP, what is to be done? Should the federal government take over? No. We could federalize or militarize every private sector or natural disaster, for the sake of having someone take control, but that offends our cherished Constitutional rights and civil liberties.The federal government should not take over the BP disaster, but President Obama should take over the federal government. His agencies and spokespeople must all speak with one voice -- his. All hands on deck: stop the cozy oil industry relationships, get focused on recovery efforts, and for heaven's sake. turn off the porn
Topics of inquiry for the BP Summit:
I certainly don't expect any president to dive down to plug the leak himself, but he's got to try everything short of a federal takeover to help lead us physically and psychologically out of this mess. A BP summit is the place to start.
UPDATE: MAY 25 NOON PT: Now that the White House has announced a return visit to the Gulf Coast for this Friday, May 28, I await a transparent and frank discussion.
Follow Christine Pelosi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sfpelosi
If you've been following the increasing ecological devastation unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, then you should know about -- and protest -- Shell Oil's plan to begin exploratory oil drilling in Alaska this summer.
Wenonah Hauter: Why Obama Must Shut Down BP Atlantis
The Deepwater explosion was not a freak accident, but a result of a history of negligent behavior, and Atlantis is no small threat: An internal BP email characterized the situation as having the potential for "catastrophic Operator errors."
Jodie Evans: Let's Get Crude (VIDEO)
We are horrified that Congress has maintained a $75 million cap on BP's liability when the cost of the cleanup is already estimated at $16 Billion.
I'm reminded of a quote about the definition of insanity - Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a differant result.
There was plenty of malfeasance aboard the Deepwater Horizon, this was not an accident! BP kept pushing the crew for more production (measured in feet per day). There was so much pressure on the drill that the rock they were drilling through cracked. They lost their tools in the hole and the mud drained away from the drilling making it necessary to begin another hole.
Now they were badly behind schedule and the pressure only intensified. The blowout preventer went into place with a weakly charged battery and ended up with a damaged seal to boot, preventing them from getting accurate results from a necessary pressure test.
Then just when everything seemed to be going well BP wanted the hole sealed as the mud was being removed from the hole-an unsafe procedure.
One of these "incidents" should have been instructive for those supervising the work, but they just went on as if nothing had gone wrong. The seals didn't hold and methane came rushing up the pipe. What followed is and will be history. Eleven people died. Someone should go to jail for a long time for that.
For those of you who are worried about the government spending money to contain and clean up the spill, you are wrong because the magnitude of this disaster is reaching the point of no return. This is a twofold problem. The gusher and the cleanup are two separate issue that have to be attended to simultaneously. BP can be forced to reimburse the government for the cleanup costs through legislation passed by congress and signed by the President. The time for finger pointing has long passed. Mobilize to cleanup this mess before the gulf is destroyed and large amounts of oil enter the loop current and then the Gulf Stream.
There are tankers capable of sucking the oil off of the surface with sea water that can be shipped to ports and offloaded into storage tanks where the sea water and oil can be separated. In the early 80's, there was an 700,000,000 gallon oil spill in the Arabian Sea where the exact same process was utilized. The process was able to remove 85% of the oil spill. This is a looming disaster waiting to travel around the tip of Florida and dispoil everything in its path.
This is why the problem is twofold. Plugging the damn hole and launching the major cleanup effort. It may be too late for the Gulf, but it is not to late for the unaffected ecosystems in the path of the Gulf Stream as it travels away from the Gulf.
NOAA, USCG and DHS declared this a SONS on April 29. That enacted the National Contingency Plan under CWA, OPA, CERCLA, and a number of presidential directives, putting the USCG in charge (the other option for lead agency would have been the EPA). The USCG and US Navy have been working the containment and clean-up efforts. (Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, for instance, FEMA worked under the lead of the USCG to clean up the more than 9 million gallons of oil spilled.) Now, if there are other reasons for not declaring it a national emergency under FEMA, then I don't know what those would be.
By contrast, the President declared H1N1--or the virus formerly known as Swine Flu--a national emergency on 25 October 2009.
But your points are well taken - I should be more clear and suggest - "Do the governors want a declaration of a national emergency under FEMA?" What specific difference would that make?"
Some have suggested that the Stafford Act would not yield more relief - others say the governors want more states rights - but to be clear we should hear from them publicly.
If this were a major, devastating earthquake in California and Fema flunked again - would you be hollering for a frickin Fema summit? What is the matter with you people, ya can't seem to get past your own twisted perceptions of reality in the middle class or what? What's next, ya wanna outsource Fema?
I'd like to believe that he's well intentioned, but he's really got to get some better techsci and engineering advisors-real world working types instead of ivory tower academics. That "leading by example" big idea in the WH sure isn't working very well and neither is that "team of rivals" thing apparently. Obama has flunked so badly with his NASA plan and now this Deepwater thing.
The best he can do now with Deepwater is assign a different Cleanup Coordinator, follow up the pending closure with some swift arrests and prosecutions (people are charged for negligence for causing frickin auto accidents for frickin sake!) and stand down any existing leases and contracts and permits until the commission's report is concluded.
For example, in 1989 after the devastating earthquake that rocked the bay area during the World Series, President George H.W. Bush flew out with Members of Congress including Nancy Pelosi and met with all the stakeholders who see what the seismic experts had to say, what equipment was needed to rescue people trapped under the entrance to the Bay Bridge, how to reach people stuck in their homes, restore gas and power, coordinate volunteers (like Pelosi lady here), et cetera. This was a public, transparent progress report that showed national leadership and bipartisand federal state and local cooperation. We all had a better sense of what was happening, what challenges lay ahead, and what relief we needed to go forward.
In this case, President Obama can do much the same thing on Friday. That's not outsourcing FEMA,, tthat's leadership.
A "summit" now could finally bring in some expert input, but I think most Americans will just look at as a publicity stunt, more of that phony scheduled "pissed off" show Obama put on last week. No one in this country right now believes he gives a damn about New Orleans any more than Bush did. Obama has not demonstrated a lot of diversity in the selection of his "commissions" so far. He only allows participants who follow his pre-orchestrated script.
Obama has had weeks and weeks to demonstrate his outrage. Instead we keep hearing that BP's complete failure to contain this is the best we can do. The complete lack of urgency by Obama is more of the same from him.
But there will be more of this in weeks to come, at least up to the election. Politicians of all stripes will ignore their prior votes and the largess they've received from the oil industry and tell us what good protectors of the environment they've been. This is nothing more than a propaganda piece for the DNC.
"government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" -- Ronald Reagan
1. We believed Reagan et al, deregulated and let corporations run free.
2. Wall St risked our money for their profit, and nearly destroyed the world economy
3. The Reagan-loving Bush government bailed them out
4. Now Wall St knows they will be bailed out again in the future. They will take even more risks.
5. The government gets the blame, taxpayers pay the cost, Wall St gets big bonuses.
Now some want the government to bailout BP; to repeat the above.
So the government (taxpayers) will pay the cost, and be responsible when the cleanup fails.
Morally and financially responsible; damages will be awarded due to the failed cleanup.
Then we all blame the government and Obama.
BP execs get bonuses just like Goldman's, and it's back to "drill, baby, drill".
And then we'll have the same "moral peril" as we now have with Wall St.
Oil companies will know we'll cleanup their messes, so they will take even greater risks.
And so will the nuclear industry, they are watching this to see what we do ...
1. BIG OIL HAS THE EQUIPMENT; WE DO NOT
The US government doesn't drill for oil.
Do you think we should have developed cleanup technology, just in case?
Would you have liked paying taxes for that?
2. BP IS BETTER FUNDED THAN THE US NAVY
BP's annual revenues are $239B, compared to $171B for the Navy and Marines ($663 for whole Defense Dept)
3. THE OIL INDUSTRY HAS MORE SHIPS THAN ALL THE WORLD'S NAVIES
73% of all the world's ships (by tonnage) are oil tankers and bulk carriers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9021229&contentId=7039276
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_tanker