Gulf Oil Spill – Who is in charge?

 

 After watching Tony Haywood, CEO of British petroleum, walk along the beach with a herd of cameras and reporters following him; it gave one the image of an oil executive running our Gulf Coast.  I must admit that the image is better than the ones over the weekend taken in his lavash office.   Is Tony Haywood in charge of our beaches?  It may sound like a strange question, but when The Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu was asked about the oil spill on the Rachael Maddow show , he said, “I only know what I read in the papers”.  Steven Chu stated that he became aware that applications to drill deeper than 5,000 feet from the surface were pushed through and approved.  These applications were approved even though we have no technology to fix a leak at those depths.   

The Mineral Management Agency is responsible for oversite.  Over the weekend several stories broke about gifts, golf outings, football games, and job offers that were accepted by Mineral Management Agency inspectors who approved oil drilling applications.  Again, I ask, who is in charge?  How can we have confidence in our government when the people assigned to protect us are engaged in conflicts of interest.   After the environment is under control, these conflict of interest issues must be reviewed.  Right now politics and the blame game must wait so we can spend all our resources saving the environment and the people affected by the disaster.  

I believe the Obama administration acted quickly and deployed resources to the region in a responsible way.  However, the events of the past few days have left me with the feeling that the administration is hiding behind the fact that they do not have the knowledge or resources to fix the problem so they are relying on BP to drive the solution.  We need the politics to be put aside.  In stead of seeing Tony Haywood walking along the beach in the news broadcasts, I would like to see our leaders driving the effort.  It was not that long ago that the oil companies drove prices to mid $4 per gallon level making life difficult for many Americans while oil company profits hit record levels.  The oil company explanation was that they had to spend so much money on R&D and their risks were very high.  Well, oil spills are one of their risks.  We had to pay the high prices then, I think all the companies oil companies should take a much more direct role to apply the resources necessary to do the right thing.  I want to see our government take the leadership role and put the pressure on the entire oil industry.   

We will have plenty of time to find blame, now we need leadership.  Let me know what you think.  

Jim Brandt, Facebook

Sarah Palin confused or trying to sell books?

 

After watching a news clip from Fox News from Sunday, May 23, I could not believe what Sarah Palin said.  She actually suggested that there was a connection between President Obama’s campaign contributions from gas & oil companies and his approach to the oil disaster in the gulf.  Wasn’t Sarah Palin the one who said “drill baby drill” during the 2008 campaign?  

According to USA Today dated May 24, candidate Obama’s contributions from oil and gas companies was $900,000 while candidate McCain collected $2.4 million.  

I remember candidate Obama suggesting an excess profit tax for the oil companies when the oil companies raised their prices to record levels.  Either Sarah Palin has completely lost her ability to link one fact to another or she is just trying to promote herself and her books. 

The greater point here is that too many people have something to sell and the facts fall victim to their overall goal.  I am not happy with the way the Obama administration is handling the oil disaster.  It seems like they are more concerned with not getting blamed than they are about taking care of the problem.   I believe they should take charge and reach out to the other oil companies for more help.  It is in the interest of the other oil companies to fix this problem quickly or they will all suffer.  I think it is good that the administration acknowledges that they do not have the resources to do the cleanup themselves, but the people are entitled to oversight and we are not seeing enough of it.   This is an environmental disaster which deserves a focused effort with urgency, not a political approach that is more concerned about blame than the long-term outlook.  

I will watch the administration very closely and if I do not see more urgency I will continue to write about it, but I am not going to let the BP off the hook or mis represent facts.  Please let me know your thoughts. 

Jim Brandt,  Facebook