The Drill Goes On II

In my previous article on this topic The Drill Goes On, dated May 21, it was not clear what the magnitude of the BP/Deep Water Horizon oil deluge in the Gulf of Mexico would turn out to be.  It appears at this point that the worst case scenario that I cited then is what we have at this point.  To reiterate, the worst case scenario is the drilling of a relief well under the existing well that is dumping something over 10,000 barrels of oil into the ocean every day.  An attempt to cap the well is presently underway; even if it succeeds however, a relief well may still be required to completely shut off the flow of oil.   The impact on the gulf coast of the United States has already made this the greatest ecological disaster in the nation's history.

This particular event started on April 20, 2010 when a natural gas explosion sank the Deep Water Horizon drilling rig platform, killing 11 workers and producing the oil leak described above now in its 7^th week of existence.  The blowout preventer failsafe device did not perform as expected when the explosion occurred.   Oil is already causing harm to the wildlife and marsh lands of the gulf coast and eventually the effects may reach as far east as Florida.

The immediate priorities are (1) shut off the ruptured well and (2) clean up the damage.  The second issue will be labor intensive and based on similar spill incidents will most likely take dozens of months to complete.  The oil from Exxon Valdez tanker breakup caused extensive damage to a pristine environment and the birds, salmon and marine mammal population were immediate causalities and even today the area has not fully recovered; the status of the Prince William Sound cleanup project remains ongoing.

So how could a disaster of this magnitude reoccur in an ecologically fragile environment and where does the responsibility for it rest?  The second item for consideration is for the people of the United States.  What are they willing to do to prevent such catastrophes in the future?  I will next explore a range of possible answers to these questions.

I. How Did It Occur

How such events take place in general is because extracting petroleum from a water planet and bringing it to market is a high risk endeavor that has a history of accidents and disasters coupled to it.

I have covered this is some detail in the first essay that I wrote in this series mentioned above where many references are cited.  In every occurrence of a massive oil spill there are always specific reasons for each individual event.  For example, in the case of the Exxon Valdez disaster a single hull tanker ran aground in a narrow channel.  As a result its hull was opened and oil spread into the external surroundings. 

Since then, there has been some progress made in preventing an accident like this one from reoccurring.  For example, super tankers now generally have double hulls. Narrow channel navigation is now enhanced with the availability of methods employing GPS technology.  In addition, taking and maintaining a safety culture in a technological environment has become more common in some industries.   This needs to be the standard everywhere.

The major immediate factors in the gulf coast calamity were the actions of British Petroleum, the contractors operating the Deep Water Horizon and Halliburton.   These actions influenced the occurrence of the accident and its immediate aftermath.

A background factor was the poor oversight provided by the U.S. Government agency tasked with management and enforcement of safety and operating standards for petroleum extraction, the Mineral Management Service.  This is discussed in detail in Birnbaum 'took fall' after MMS played catch-up after lapses in ethics, oversight.  It is widely asserted that the accountability and enforcement duties of this agency have been on a declining path since early 2001.

 II. Attempts to Blame the Obama Administration

 A common highly speculative belief today is that this disaster will be “Obama’s Katrina.”  This is refuted by Frank Rich’s article in the New York Times edition May 31, 2010. 

Whatever Obama’s failings, he is infinitely more competent at coping with catastrophe than his predecessor. President Bush’s top disaster managers — the Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, as well as the notorious “Brownie” — professed ignorance of New Orleans’s humanitarian crisis a full day after the nation had started watching it live in real time on television. When Bush finally appeared, he shunned the city entirely and instead made a jocular show of vowing to rebuild the coastal home of his party’s former Senate leader, Trent Lott. He never did take charge.

While perhaps perceived as somewhat delayed in getting underway, Attorney General Eric Holder is leading a DOJ investigation into the incident. The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill appointed by President Obama to investigate the disaster has been appointed as well. 

One must say however, by Bush administration standards, even the Hurricane Katrina mismanagement was far outdistanced by the Iraq War.  A highly detailed and referenced documentary on this subject is No End In Sight produced and directed by Charles H. Ferguson. 

There is a wealth of supporting information regarding Bush administration negligence on the internet regarding Iraq, 9/11 and other mistakes as well as many articles I’ve written on my blog.  I see no point in repeating analysis so easily obtainable now.  This perhaps says it all:

History of course is the only "decider" that matters.  Perhaps being 6th from the bottom in presidential ranking is all that was expected and is indeed an adequate performance in the eyes of those manipulating this president into office.  See neocon for more information.

III. The Way Out

Stopping the flow of oil from the damaged well (see BP well cap marks latest in accident saga for the latest at the time of this writing) and a massive labor intensive cleanup are the only ways to recover what has been lost to the United States in the still unresolved gulf coast debacle.   I’ve stated that in the Exxon Valdez incident, Prince William Sound is still suffering in an event from 2 decades in the past. This certainly is an opportunity to show improvement.  

The oil companies are responsible for the cleanup and any damages incurred by residents of the affected areas.  This would include compensation for small and medium sized business operating in the Gulf of Mexico.  They definitely need to be held accountable and the damage is so vast that its full extent may not be fully surveyed for years to come.

The Federal Government should provide immediate assistance to states and individuals affected and oversight of the claims process with BP and its ancillaries.  I realize this is easy to say but it must be done.  The federal government and the president must step up here as these are the only entities capable of challenging corporate power; this is long overdue.

Possibly the best idea I’ve seen on tackling the cleanup problem in the gulf coast was stated by Chris Matthews yesterday (3 June 2010) in An extraordinary proposal to the President of the United States.   There is nothing more than I can add.  I only hope that someone takes the suggestion seriously.

There is a provision and warning for those involved in any oil spill cleanup though.  The history of such spills clearly shows there are health hazards associated with being in proximity to the spilled oil itself and the chemical dispersants (some of the common ones are considered toxic for example) used by oil companies to break acumination of oil into smaller pieces which can be more easily and less expensively contained, controlled and degraded.

Close contact with these chemicals is somewhat like being exposed to ionizing radiation; it isn’t clear how much of a “dose” is sufficient to cause harm.  Such health issues may not be manifest for decades.  FYI.

IV. The Future of the United States

The only good that could emerge from the Deep Water Horizon tragedy would be for the American people to really understand that decisions made now will have long term consequences.  I cannot believe or understand the enormous outpouring of hate and lies following the November 2008 national election placing Barack Obama into the presidency that when seen in perspective of the previous 2 elections can be considered a landslide.  There are some Republicans that are polite and one can talk to without receiving death threats.  However their numbers are diminishing.   

The most militant of these say they “want their country back” and one wonders where the country they want back is.   Is it the same country that President Lincoln held together and gave his life for?  One really doesn’t have to look any further than that.  If anyone doesn’t consider Lincoln a man of courage, conviction and a true American hero, literally someone who saved the essential values of the United States from extinction, then yes this isn’t your country now and it never was.

It is time to consider how this country will be 100 years from now.  Things will be much different then.  There will be very little oil left anywhere.  There will still be coal and natural gas.  But these too are short term nonrenewal fixes that contain major unattractive qualities. The country and its population need to finally move to renewal energy sources or it will find itself trailing many other nations who have already glimpsed the future and are moving toward it instead of clutching obsessively to the past. 

The United States still has many things that make the future there for its taking.  There is for example the American physicist Steven Chu, the 12th United States Secretary of Energy.  In addition he is a Nobel laureate, former director of the Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory and now part of a team working on many remarkable concepts.  One can download a PPT Sustainable, CO₂-neutral Source of Energy  for more information. 

Its conclusions are stark.  The United States could simply run out of energy sources long before being impacted by climate change.  The costs of generating electricity by coal, oil or gas is relatively inexpensive when compared say to solar.  However the world is quickly running out of oil.  In the United States discovery of sources of oil peaked in 1930 and domestic production peaked in 1972.  World production of oil and gas is predicted to peak sometime between 10 and 40 years.  What is needed are sources of energy i.e. electricity when the supply of fossil fuels run out.

There are choices; in a democratic society it is critical for an informed citizenry to participate in selecting the best course.  I recommend that anyone reading this go through the Power Point and learn something.

V.  Conclusion

It is certain that the future will require work and transformation from the American people.  At one time, Americans excelled at this.  It made the United States the most powerful and wealthy nation in the world.  I simply do not understand why Americans are now so unwilling to move toward a future of hope and progress and reject the world of fear, ghosts and shadows that obsesses them now.

President Kennedy in his American University speech in 1963 said

So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

These are words that transcend time and space and serve as beacons to a future of life for this small blue and beautiful world filled with great diversity of life and resources we were all given to nurture and not destroy.