By Linda Keenan and Janine R. Wedel
Coast Guard Captain leading hearings Wednesday: "It's my understanding that [a blowout preventer is] designed to industry standard ... manufactured by the industry, installed by the industry, with no government witnessing or oversight of the construction or installation. Is that correct?"
Regional supervisor, federal regulator MMS: "That is correct..."
That staggering statement of regulatory impotence was characterized this way by Sen. Bill Nelson in the Wall Street Journal: "If MMS wasn't asleep at the wheel, it sure was letting Big Oil do most of the driving." It is tempting to hope that Big Oil's days in the driver's seat are over, now that the Obama administration has ordered that the Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, be split up, after critics said the agency was too close to the industry and had an inherent conflict of interest. Realists are highly skeptical. And in our view, it is shortsighted to focus public ire on one business and one massive, deadly disaster, even as HuffPost yesterday spoke to another whistle-blower alleging egregious practices.
This story lays bare the far-reaching (and largely unnoticed) emasculation of government regulatory power, as it has succumbed to corporate agendas over the past several decades. Janines examines this, and other disturbing trends, in her book Shadow Elite.
And it's imperative that we dissect the modus operandi of BP, its elite hired guns, assorted patrons, and compromised, enfeebled regulators, to better spot their tactics being used across government, corporate America, and Wall Street. This pernicious M.O. could be detected in both the recent Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, the bank industry collapse and the bailout that followed. So we should ask ourselves not just "how did these catastrophes happen?" but also, "how do we spot the next one waiting to happen?"
There was much finger-pointing during Congressional grillings this week: politicians pointing fingers at executives from the 3 companies involved in the disaster, and the executives pointing fingers at each other. But those politicians, and our entire leadership, should also point a finger at themselves, for allowing private industry to increasingly devour public power, and gut regulatory responsibility.
It traces back at least to the Reagan era, but soon politicians from both parties would seek to redesign governing, including adopting the push for "small government", and often deregulation. Ironically, this drive led them to create a bigger, far less transparent "shadow government" -- by steadily passing government work, cache -- and, crucially, power -- over to business interests. One result: the lines between business and government have blurred, making it hard to figure out who's in charge, or what an agency even is. Case in point: the MMS. Was MMS a government regulator or an arm of the industry? You be the judge of this description, from the Wall Street Journal.
It is supposed to be a watchdog that halts drilling when it spots unsafe behavior. But it is also supposed .... to generate government revenue from drilling on government lands.....Of MMS's fiscal 2010 budget of $342 million, nearly half comes from the oil industry....
It's this conflicted mandate the White House is trying to clear up, with the move this week to split those oversight and revenue functions.
Another result of shadow government's rise is the drain of the government's "brain". The expertise a civil servant should possess has been increasingly privatized, and regulatory power is decimated. More to the point, businesses aren't just sidestepping or fighting regulators. Their M.O. is to try to make themselves the de facto regulators of their own self- interested conduct, the result of which is made devastatingly clear in that exchange at the beginning of this post.
More from the Journal:
The agency...
--"doesn't write or implement most safety regulations, having gradually shifted such responsibilities to the oil industry itself for more than a decade."
--said offshore drilling is so complicated that only industry can really regulate itself.
--let the industry devise its own solutions to problems.
--let a trade group take over the role of "telling companies what training was necessary for workers involved in keeping wells from gushing out of control".
In its defense, the agency "pointed to a 1996 law that encouraged federal agencies to 'benefit from the expertise of the private sector' by adopting industry standards." This is a classic case of "reinventing government" gone awry.
With government power gutted, a new breed of power broker has stepped in to help companies like BP push their interests, and, at the same time, flex their own agendas. These are not mere "lobbyists". They have far more access than your garden variety K-Street operator -- and they can be found in both political parties. In Shadow Elite, Janine calls them "flexians", top players who move in and out of government, corporate, and think tank roles, gathering exclusive information at each stop, and using that privileged asset to benefit themselves and their allies.
BP boasts a high-wattage roster of flexians (or near-flexians) who've served on advisory boards and panels. Some were reportedly paid $120,000 a year to ... "advise"? The Washington Post lists former House majority leader Thomas Daschle (D); two former GOP senators, Warren Rudman and Alan Simpson; Bush EPA administrator Christie Whitman; Clinton deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick; Leon Panetta, [before becoming] -- President Obama's CIA director. Newsweek adds George Mitchell, now Obama's Middle East envoy.
These are perhaps the most relevant titles, but a complete accounting of all the roles that these players have held in government, businesses and think tanks would run a good three dozen long. So what does a company get when it hires someone at the level of say, Tom Daschle? The fact is that this kind of influence is incalculable and largely unaccountable.
And what's the effect of these boards,"independent" panels, and advisory councils anyway? They might give BP a way to have power brokers on board without the appearance of actual lobbying. And they also might help make BP look like the model corporate citizen, when the record suggests significant lapses. Newsweek reports that BP took some of their high-powered advisory board members on a helicopter ride out to the Gulf of Mexico to "demonstrate safeguards". Christie Whitman told the magazine: "we got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right.." Having such a repertoire of appearances -- and the ambiguity surrounding these players' activities -- lends cover. This way of doing business is a hallmark of the shadow elite.
This playing with appearances augments an ongoing strategy by BP to rebrand itself as "Beyond Petroleum". For more than a decade, they have been promoting bold marketing campaigns, eco-friendly-seeming logos, and co-opting, critics say, environmental language. It worked -- Mother Jones cites a 2007 survey that found that people thought BP was "more green" than any other oil company. But even though they have indeed plowed money into solar energy, activists say they can't greenwash away their spotty safety record and aggressive exploration efforts.
A few government officials or investigators did try to demand truth -- and consequences from BP. One EPA official a few years back threatened to "debar" BP from government contracts if it didn't submit to tougher regulation. The problem: Newsweek says BP is a top Pentagon fuel supplier for Mideast military operations. This is yet another result of the gutting of government power: the increasing, and quite possibly dangerous reliance on multinational businesses for mission-critical government functions.
Various industries consolidated over the 80's and 90's, and that's left a handful of enormous companies contracting in countless corners of the government, crucial corners. As Newsweek puts it, BP was "the oil-company equivalent of "too big to fail".
And that official was well aware of BP's insider power. She said "'when a major economic and political giant tells you it has direct access to the White House, it's very intimidating.'" She felt powerless, because she assumed no matter what she did, BP would just get a national-security exception to keep selling the oil.
This civil servant and a handful of other standouts lost in their bid to clamp down on BP, hobbled by a system that is so clearly tilted in favor of business, and to unaccountable power brokers. In the era of the shadow elite, they learned an unfortunate truth: that some companies are not just "too big to fail", but also "too untouchable to punish".
Oil Field Safety PowerPoint Presentation
Essential Oil Safety Information
BP Says Gulf Oil Spill Containment Costs Reach $450 Million
Spill May Hit Anadarko Hardest as BP's Silent Partner
BP Disaster Strands Billions of Barrels of Crude
Those Dems out here who do read, who do watch the Beltway as closely as we can muster the time to do so, are acutely aware that the republicans are privatizing our government left and right and in plain view (thank god). Anyone with a brain can see it. It's only those who don't want to think and are too damn lazy to take action, who chime along, letting big corp rich boys control the regulations of our banks, financial institutions, our business laws & ethics, on & on. Our government is definitely being gutted by the rich boys. I'm sick of hearing the complaints against Obama. Look at what he walked into. Does anyone think that was an accident? Not on your life. Bush and Cheney created this mess and did so knowingly, in my humble opinion. They along with other filthy rich men in suits have laid claim to this nation for themselves. Anyone who thinks otherwise isn't paying attention to when and by whom the current war and financial crises took affect. The oil disaster is not a "natural" disaster. Look at the play by play actions of rich men in suits who made specific decisions to eliminate controls and regulations that would protect the American middle-lower classes. There is not much protection left for us in any corner of the Whitehouse. If Americans don't raise their voices loudly now, things are only going to get worse. Be loud, clear, concise. Now is the
Pres. Obama has been in office more than a year now. Isn't that enough time for him to have put someone on his staff in charge of checking up on the agencies to see how well they are doing their jobs and whether they are following his vision of how they should do their job?
Someone wrote that Interior Secy. Salazar had been working towards correcting the way MMS operated. Why does it have to take so long that we end up reacting to an event instead of being pro-active?
Here in the good ol USA, between the major banks, oil companies, auto makers, big business and particularly pharma/health care and insurance industries, who's benefits from the new healthcare bill is far greater than that of the basic consumer.
Did you ever hear the expression -"When you're up to your butt in alligators, it is hard to remember that the original objective was to clean the swamp?"
I have to disagree that it has gone un-noticed. It has been an overt and successful Republican propaganda strategy to convince Americans that their welfare and that of the Republic is best left in the hands of completely unaccountable private corporate interests whose purpose is their own gain at any cost, and not in the hands of an elected and accountable government whose purpose is to represent and serve the people.
There is no level of incompetence in government that could possibly compare to the *intentional* transfer of power and wealth to a shadow elite that is by definition completely selfish and not only totally disinterested in the well-being of the Republic but actively interested in seeing its decline since this will facilitate their further greed and wealth accumulation.
American Big-Business and Big-Money needs to be put back into the same box they were in when the US Government 'invented' and FUNDED the American Business Model back in 1793! They have effectively reversed control of America's monetary system and the sooner we take it back the better!
Brick
With you on the barricades to "take it back", friend.
We the People' give them $160,000 Salary + medical but that's just the tip of the iceberg. A sort of title given like Congressman/ Senator. When elected almost all 536 hit 'pay dirt' from 'special interests'
The Stock exchange is where money changes hands. The Congress and Senate are where votes change hands if the price is right ! The only people getting scre*ed in this political process is/are 'We the People" I don't see how this process allows us to vote for competent Government
Pitchfork time is close at hand and it won't be 'teabaggers' carrying them !
Brick
"Flexians" aren't trying to build an alternative power structure, they have.
They are untouchable. We have multiple crisis's with no clear, reasonable answers because we have insisted on simple short term solutions. When not in crisis mode, allowing Gov't and business do what ever they want we are trying to get our share of booty, allowing them to do what they want.
Mankind is just to easily distracted and now we are going to do what? Write about it.
We lose 8 billion dollars in hundred dollar bills in Iraq, we write about. Its only 8 billion dollars don't worry. The story fades.
Henny Penny Henry Paulson yells the sky is falling, destroying McCain and throwing the election to Obama. We miss the connection as we were worried for our livelihoods. We had "no choice" but to throw money at the problem, though it seemed very much like yelling fire in a crowded theater. Someone must have wrote about that. The story fades. The Exxon Valdez. The story fades. We go back to sleep.
The problems are not getting better or smaller. Now Corporations are people, too.
Huffpo interests me, but the window of opportunity to take control of our fates passed while we were chasing the illusion provided by those who rule our world. We have been running toward this cliff for thirty years, now everyone is yelling stop or its your fault. Or they write about it.
Those of us who can't be in the streets can do so much with small gestures of solidarity and push-back against the behemoths (not patronizing them). We need to talk to our neighbors, relatives, friends about the power one person has.
I personally pick up egregious "corporate plastic waste" from the commons. I keep my showers short, I don't flush the toilet so much. I carry my own filtered water in a recycled bottle. I walk whenever I can (though still tethered to the combustion-petroleum engine) because of the servitude of inefficient public transportation. There are many ways we can move forward, by EXAMPLE.
they are necessary to protect the vulnerable from the treachery of the unethical
regulations spell the difference between "small" government and good government
money has way too big a voice
www.nextrevolution.net
This two party joke is Madoff on steroids.
Look at the Gulf oil spill. Prices are going up on Oysters already, the rest of the fish market will do the same, freight costs going to gulf states will rise to $3 a mile becsuse there is no freight going back out at fair rates, & that hghway from Mexico to Canada? See what I mean about consiracy theories?
What better way to get $ to build roads to carry all the freight the US wants to bring to Mexican ports & get into the drug war in Mexico? Our mis-representatives promoted illegal immigration, cheap labor in return for campaign finance, free trade, & how's that working for US? Every decision DClowns make have a more intrusive impact, more far reaching consquences that they used to have.
There is enough $ floating around DC to fix every problem we face, talk about spending more than we make is like Cheney's assertion the national debt didn't matter, we'll pay it back in good times, but when they wrecked the nation, & Obama spent a trillion $ to fix it, republicans cry socialism.
Democrats do the same when they're in office, blame republicans for the mess they created when in office, & this fail/vote, support each other two party joke is the greastest scam the world has ever seen.
www.nextrevolution.net
Bandaid fixes won't fix this oil spill, financial reform, health care reform, illegal immigrataion or any of our other problems. We need to address the one problem directly responsible for all teh rest, our mis-representation by all members of bith failing parties.
There is a human heads count majority that apparently "decides". these are the citizens representing themselves and their minor children - as independent humans, without any economic/social ties.
And there is a systemic majority. "Our" present system is capitalism and in economy the capital power of the companies, gnomes, small midsized, large or huge is the count unit. In currency, in Gold. Or in number of employees.
Thus an employer with 10,000 employers counts - behind the scenes - as much as 10,000 citizen votes. Or - let's find an alternative - a company with a turnnover of $ 960,000 per year is worth 80 citizens with an income of $ 1,000 per month (12,000 per year)
This is what governs the world ....
Answers here or to bing@gmx.eu
Also interesting about the article is the similarities of our privatizing of so many of our industries is exactly the same model that has all but taken down Greece. Reagan was for all intents the first to make this an agenda and push it thru as legislation. Unfortunately, what most people failed to recognize was this mentality was a slight of hand to place political favorites into positions of power and then use that power to enrich a few and then have those enriched funnel money into their party to keep power. This new way of doing business is recently showing it's ugly head with our continued disasters. We are in for a long haul and tough times are ahead to correct the course.
How freekin stupid! If you people at long last, still don't understand whar's going on with our federal government and the prostitutes of BOTH political parties you may well deserve the greed and corruption that IS Washington D.C. A group of monkeys could not have so consistantly dismantled every safeguard of government as has this government over the last 50 years (which all of you know includes periods of Republocan and Democratic control). Has it not occurred to anyone that the most stupid, laziest twit can be elected to congress and emerge after a few terms a multimillionaire...with high paid seats on corporate boards or lucative lobbying gigs? Just how do you think that happens?
Amazing how the corporate media never reports on it. I wonder why.
You know, the same corporate media that self censors war reporting.
How about effective regulation.