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Continuing in a series of diaries here.
The Horizon spill disaster has now entered the "media madness" phase. Regular mass media has done what it does best, which is to take a disaster, and sensationalize aspects of it, creating hysteria and alarm almost as if they are an entertainment product. The first victim in this process is fact itself – simple detailed, factual information about the spill status and its impact are increasingly hard to find in the wall of noise.
The Coast Guard and NOAA have a graphic depicting high-quality predictions of spill extents by Tuesday here. Comparison with a previous graphic showing the projection for Saturday seems to show the spill driven by winds to expand towards more and more of the Gulf coastline. Winds may reverse afterwards driving the slick growth directly into the Delta wetlands in and around the mouth of the Mississipi river. There is not a concise, detailed picture of what shore and marine impact has actually taken place so far. I have not found a good simple estimate of current surface area. All eyes are on the potential and likely impact. The New York Times has assembled an "interactive" (meaning it has a slider control) graphic that simply displays a prettied-up time sequence of the technical spill extent graphics from the Coast Guard and NOAA, on a regional map that indicates the presence of marshlands (!) in the Gulf Coast region.
Detailed information on current environmental and species impact appears limited to the single story of the first bird treated for oil coverage. Media has played and replayed the images of this Northern Gannet being scrubbed with dishwashing detergent by rescuers. We need more information on what has actually happened now that the spill has contact coastal wetlands and shores. Mass media appears to be dropping the ball on this critical issue.
Much noise has been made about the calculations of a single Florida-based academician that he claims show the spill is already "worse" than the Exxon Valdez spill. It is probably quite fair to disagree with estimates of total spill volume to date – even the clowns at BP, who have a dedicated stake in downplaying estimates of spill volume – have had to admit their deeply limited capacity to gauge and respond to the spewing well. However, I encourage all of us, if we are to take the Valdez disaster as a benchmark in the environmental and economic damage that an offshore oil spill can cause, to quit thinking in terms of gallons of oil released, or even simple spill extent in surface area. The history of large oil spills worldwide is quite extensive. Neither the Valdez spill nor the Horizon spill will be the "biggest", by far, in the contest of what disaster poured more oil into the water. The Horizon spill is not the first nor, currently, the worst Gulf oil spill ever.
The damage these spills cause is measurable in terms of species and ecosystem impact, communities wrecked economically, and livelihoods ruined.
There is a much deeper story here. Article after article after article after article has highlighted and exposed just how ill-prepared both industry and government were for a predictable disaster in an offshore drilling operation that both industry and government together allowed to proceed. The deeper story, in the context of the history of oil spills, wherein the Deepwater Horizon appears as the most recent, massive, and technologically advanced drilling platform, which exploded, capsized and sunk, leaving behind a disastrously spewing well, is that industry and government have never been prepared for these spills when they happen. The deeper story in this wreck that is being missed is the story of an industrial energy production system – offshore oil drilling – that is in general emphasized by a big industry and normally co-opted or co-erced government officials and agencies – and that continues to produce major disasters despite decades of technological focus and advance. As worry emerges that even the Eastern US coastline could be threatened by this spill industry and government officials begin to search for a solution to an "unprecedented" problem that should have been planned for completely and soundly prior to any drilling permit or license being issued.
Here is an excellent graphic showing what is going to be done, over the next three months, while the well spews oil. Another oil rig operated by BP is going to start drilling another well that will go three miles into the seafloor to "intervene" in the spewing well. The fact that this response is the only available is a total indictment of the industry and government in the failure to plan for an easily predictable disaster. The fact that this response is the only available, after a long history of oil spills, is evidence or proof that offshore oil drilling is simply too dangerous – neither industry nor government nor the two together will ever take sufficient (and costly!) steps to make it environmentally safe.
I’d really like to see this compelling narrative presented clearly to the public.
Reports have emerged of an internal government document declaring the possibility that further degradation of the ruined Horizon riser pipe or complete failure of the well seal could produce an undersea "gusher" escalating the spill levels to a new catastrophic extent. This report indicates no probability or likelihood of such an event. We can all hope that this situation does not come to pass.
Political gamesmanship has begun in Washington, DC. The Obama administration has "placed on hold" – apparently holds aren’t just popular in the Senate – offshore projects. None were planned in the nearest-term anyway. Agency officials have tried to place blame on the oil industry neglecting the fact that the government had an oversight and regulatory role in producing this disaster without a shred of a doubt. Opposition to further drilling is beginning to emerge from a few sane voices in the Congress. The House Progressive Chorus remains silent. Industry is beginning its own internal witch hunt in which Halliburton may be a designated scapegoat for a much broader failure. Activist organizations are beginning to make tepid appearances in mass media. To date, there has not been a single protest or demonstration visible in mass media, not a single Zodiac filled with activists in the spill zone, nothing except softcore editorial appearances.
Shockingly, there is apparently a bailout mechanism of some sort available by which costs beyond a certain level to industry in the mess may be subsidized or supported by a Federal fund. The cleanup costs are partially sent to the public via an oil or gas tax ultimately paid by consumers. This tax and the bailout it underpins must be put to death completely, soon. Bankrupting BP is not punishment enough for this disaster.
It is worth the time and space needed to note that, in media response to this spill, the New York Times leads the charge in transforming the disaster into a news/entertainment product. The Times’ last two fact-reporting pieces were from Friday and Saturday. Neither piece reported anything so banal as, say, the current extent of the oil slick, or specific locations of impact. The Saturday piece seemed to rely on recapping of official appearances on television talk shows – including the notoriously bent "Fox News" channel. The Times produced one of its typically empty editorials written in the obligatory quasi-authoritative, patronizing tone. They might as well have entitled the piece "Conventional Wisdom Digest". An equally useless guest editorial communicates an un-risky recital of the risks of oil. The Times kicks off Sunday with the spill by giving room to people who want to babble about setting off nuclear bombs on the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico. The Times expended Helene Cooper on an in-depth report on the kabuki in Washington DC surrounding Obama’s decision to attend the White House Correspondent’s dinner rather than fly to the Gulf, which he did the next day.
I single out the Times for this criticism because in my view, the Times has the greatest possible resources for serious reporting on the Horizon disaster, and produces 4/5 pablum and filler in its output.
I will try to follow on to this diary again. There is more and more non-information to filter through in the sensationalizing coverage of the disaster. As the environmental, political, and economic dimensions of this disaster begin to evolve, we’ll all have to work to try to present a clear, and compelling narrative that the only real issue here is the fact that offshore oil drilling is allowed and will continue to be allowed. This drilling is the mountaintop removal of ocean resource exploitation and it must be stopped.
126 Comments
“The deeper story in this wreck that is being missed is the story of an industrial energy production system – offshore oil drilling – that is in general emphasized by a big industry and normally co-opted or co-erced government officials and agencies – and that continues to produce major disasters despite decades of technological focus and advance.”; and it’s not just oil but coal,etc.
“the New York Times leads the charge in transforming the disaster into a news/entertainment product.” ; of course, the idea isn’t to inform but to entertain.That’s the ‘raison d’etre’ for the CMM.
Great reporting, please keep up the good work.
Got to sell those eyeballs to those advertisers!
Seymour – Thanks for staying on top of this.
If BP is successful with their ‘dome’, they may be able to start capturing the crude escaping from the well head within a week.
BP’s chairman is rejecting criticism … Lamar McKay is putting the blame on “a failed piece of equipment.”
He tells ABC’s “This Week” that he doesn’t know how much oil is flowing from the well
McKay said BP is “throwing every resource that we’ve got” to try to plug the well a mile beneath the sea. He says he can’t say when the well might be closed.
But he says he believes a dome that could be placed over the well is expected to be deployed in six to eight days
This is very disturbing and troubling, Coupling The Following Position and Statement:
GULFPORT — BP officials told South Mississippi leaders Saturday the beaches probably can’t be protected from a major oil spill and will have to be cleaned after it comes ashore.
With our President’s Position and Statement of “BP is Ultimately Responsible For The Cleanup”
Indicates that our President is signing off on and agreeing with the oil coming ashore, Minimally in Mississippi
The dome approach has, again “never been tried in water this deep”, and there is not just “a” dome that is needed, but three – there are three positions where oil is emerging. Finally, even if the domes themselves remain in place despite the pressure of oil spewing from the points where it is emerging, the oil has to get to the surface through pipes running through a mile of cold water. There is a real possibility of the oil chilling, thickening, and clogging.
Finally, at the top, there is still a need to remove 200,000+ gallons of oil per day.
Let’s see what happens with the dome. Suffice it to say that the intervention well is what will possibly stop the oil from leaking.
Obama has insufficient resources to protect the coastline, and is assuredly trying to dump blame for the inevitable coastline disaster on BP. As for the coastline, all available boom has apparently been deployed. The windy weather and choppy water have apparently pushed oil right past the boom in places. And CG officials are claiming that there is simply not nearly enough boom to protect the whole threatened coastline.
In parts of Louisiana, the government has recruited shrimp boats to try to deploy boom. That’s how much response capacity the Feds had. They’re having to request that private shrimpers deploy the insufficient emergency countermeasure boom.
Seymour
I believe they’ll be removing the ‘riser’, detaching it from the wellhead and then placing the ‘dome’ over the wellhead.
Second point, their intervention well casing, the one their drilling now, it’s for oil extraction. BP isn’t attempting to plug the existing well casing, but to intersect and intervene. To allow for continue extraction of the oil. Then when that’s successful, they’ll permanently plug the existing wellcasing.
My understanding of the intervention well approach is that it is purely about plugging a bad well for abandonment. See links in diary. We’ll have to see, though, how possible it will politically or otherwise for BP to attempt to extract oil from this well in any way
I don’t buy that statement for a second. With his access to all Air Force Cargo Lift, he could bring in resources from all around the Globe. In under 24 hours. The fact that this argument is being put forth indicates his incompetency and irresponsibility.
I actual think he and Rahm are gaming this, by attempting to allow BP to take the hit, Orahama believe they can escape the blame by remaining distant, by transferring the responsibility of protecting all the ecosystems in the Gulf to BP.
I think Obama’s priority right now is to avoid having “a Katrina”. What he wants more than anything else is to avoid the appearance of having responded too little, too late to a disaster. Probably all bets are off for him if the general perception emerges that he and his administration have bungled a response. The consequences of that during an election year are very, very bad in particular the way Katrina was (rightfully) used against Bush. The GOP and other enemies will attempt to spin the Federal response to the spill against Obama in any manner possible. Yet more horse puckey DC politics, to be sure -
Too Late me Thinks IMHO. He waited Eight days to arrive ‘On Scene’ and has yet to Assume Command and Control. Personally, I think he’s Toast.
Further, I believe that yourself and a few other regulars here at FDL have immensely more knowledge and information, depth and width, than he or his direct staff regarding this Oily Crude Killer Fountain.
If that is true, since I’m Screwed and Blued, I’ll now call for my Tattoo.
(not to mention how incredibly Sad that Is)
Here’s one of my thoughts regarding the Federal Response.
They (EPA, Coast Guard, FEMA, etc) assumed BP’s schtick about the ‘rig’ not leaking after it sunk. Myself along with others here at FDL immediately asked ‘What About The Blow Out Well?’ ‘Isn’t it Still issuing Oil?’
Two days lapsed, then oil was observed on the surface and pictures were available from the ROV’s showing Crude escaping for the riser.
Then the Alphabet agency folks accepted, reported and PLANNED With BP’s low ball flow rate estimation.
It’s like 40 years ago. We (friends and myself) had Muscle Cars that could do 150mph. Cops couldn’t think in those terms. They’d radio and have road blocks setup.
But we’d already have gone by that spot in the road.
The Fed’s have been behind since day one on this National Disaster.
(and they’re not using that phrase, National Disaster are they. They’re still saying BP is responsible for taking the lead)
Looks like Obama is more and more like Bush daily.
Time to stop the march of the corporations across the planet. Unfettered capitalism kills.
This is exactly what a toooo big to fail looks like failing.
Mother earth to us QUIT FUCKING WITH ME,
Love Mother earth.
1st step knock off the military BS, how many millions of gallons a day do we burn in the desert?
It looks like it’s time for the adults to step up.
Thanks for the last two diaries you did. And I agree completely – unfettered capitalism is bad, bad, bad. And Obama’s embrace of offshore oil drilling is awful.
Sooner or later, a final straw of some sort, somewhere, is going to have to break the camel’s back, with respect to how the plutocracy and corporate power just run amok in America.
Seymour, it’s at least a little comforting knowing you’re doing what you can to cover this in an honest, thorough way…and that there’s a place for me to come to with kindred spirits.
My guess is, like me, many here go about their days now feeling this to the core.
Sending all life forms in the Gulf waves of love.
Such love.
And visualizing…from the heart…a speedy turn-of-events that will resolve the catastrophe.
Kudos, and thanks, Seymour.
Update 1:
Dead fish and sea turtles are beginning to wash ashore in Louisiana. Information is still very limited, but these few photos are tragically sad. Both of the creatures depicted in the photos – a drum fish and a sea turtle were until recently marvelously alive, each representative of a very unique and evolved species.
If you are like me, you can feel a great loss in the needless destruction of either or both of these creatures. Each of them represents a marvel of evolutionary achievement. Career have spent studying either species.
Some information is available on the penetration of oil into salt marshes in where oysters, shrimp, crab, and other seafood is heavily harvested in southeastern Louisiana. Likewise commercial and recreational fishing has been closed from Louisiana through Florida.
Apparently, even if the slick stays mostly offshore, this spells doom for a lot of living deep-sea animals, including, for example, some dolphins that might be swimming anywhere under the huge slick.
If we start seeing pictures of dead dolphins, in the wake of the commercial success of the The Cove, we can expect a large outcry.
Thanks some more Seymour, really appreciate you most excellent reportage.
I heard about the sea turtles, autopsies to be done tomorrow.
Continued great reporting…..and I’m still waiting for the outcry from the environmental communities. Their silence continues to be dumb-founding.
I suspect they’ll eventually pony up cash and resources to do something, most likely purely superficial, to contend with this ongoing disaster.
Then those expenses will be added to the list of reasons why we can’t afford to do anything, and need to cut Social Security and Medicare, post haste.
Not really, “their guy” is in the White House, and “their team” holds Congress.
I share your cynical outlook on the matter, assuredly.
Have you watched the documentary “Sharkwater” ? Heard of an organization called Sea Shepherd, or the brass-balls rabble rouser Captain Paul Watson?
If you haven’t seen this documentary, http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5B0C226E3A63B53C I highly, highly recommend viewing it.
It’s a salient, captivating, horribly depressing, and ultimately invigorating piece of film. Even irrespective of the subject matter in the film, which itself is exceedingly valuable, the most important thing I was able to take from it was just what it will take to make change. Chief among these realizations are abandoning protest and what we’ve come to know as activism.
If you want something to change, you don’t protest, you intervene.
Here’s an animation of the Oil Spill…!
I want to thank you for your work Seymour. Hopefully this is the moment America wakes up to finally decide it is time to spend the money to move away from an oil based economy.
x2
Very good post Seymour. I especially agree with your criticism of the NYTimes. I also concede that those observers who early on questioned BP’s early messaging on flow rate and particularly on the potential of this disaster have been vindicated. The flow rate now appears to be known to be much greater than BP reported in the early days. And BP assuredly knew there was a real risk the flow rate could increase, and may still increase further, and held this information back from their public briefings because the potential numbers are so fricking huge.
I’ve only read of one relief well being drilled. They need to be drilling at least three IMO. I hope to hell the funnel solution works, because it could contain the leakage much sooner (weeks vs. months).
I hope someone is tallying up the cost of this–the oil industry must pay. Why should the gulf coast industries be decimated only to have oil industry bailed out? I’m now among the hyperbolic because I believe informed opinion, as best I can glean not being an expert, says this thing is going to get much worse before it is contained. We need real energy and climate policy, not the political/corporatist compromises Obama has been triangulating on. Screw the republicans, ram it through the Senate via reconciliation or by whatever means possible. Even if it fails before November, make it an election issue. Reform the inane Senate rules on day one of the next session, and let’s get real. Of course I have no faith Obama is going to answer the call.
We need a candidate to the left of Obama running against him now.
Sadly, it’s empiricism, not cynicism.
librty,
You were right. My optimism on the flow rate earlier in the week was wrong. Just sayin.
Seymour, excellent post. I quibble with your point about the environmental groups not doing anything. I personally know three people from three different groups who’ve dropped everything and flown down to Louisiana to document what they’re seeing on the ground; of course, there wasn’t much point to them being there before the oil reached the shoreline. The enviro groups are preparing a strong reaction. I will be demanding that the climate bill be made BP-Free, i.e., all offshore drilling provisions removed (I don’t kid myself that a request by me will make any difference, although I take credit/blame for the “oilpocalypse” name).
Hey bobash
I was really hoping that your optimism would prove true
but the Root Weevils, they got the better of us and my fear now is that we’re on the verge of seeing the death and destruction of multiple ecosystems.
On a scale that we in the Lower 48 have never seen before.
What is really important here, and I hope we do not lose sight of this, is that we must not assign blame or require accountability for these events, out of a spirit of revenge and a desire for political advantage. We must look forward, to drilling off the coasts of Virginia and California. There may yet be an ounce of sea water that has been left uncontaminated. This must not stand.
He should have called off the White House Correspondents Dinner then.
The pictures of him yucking it up and having a good time while the gulf dies are going to play well in the south come 2012.
Here is what I want to know: Have the New Orleans’ School buses been commandeered to transport the marsh birds?
What about people breathing these fumes for long periods of time? Does anyone know? Seems like it must be harmful…
librty ..what i’ve read concerning capture dome is that “engineering work” [i.e. initial design criteria] should be complete in six to eight days [counting from saturday] ..but actual construction could take as long as six to eight weeks ..not counting transport and placement .. so it’s a lot further off than a “week or so” …
just fyi …
Here (thanks to a newsletter from Congressman Joseph Cao of New Orleans) is a link to the only press account to really describe the physical process that’s causing the deterioration of the riser pipe:
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/gulf_mexico_oil_spill_worst_case.html
—if that doesn’t just scare the crap out of you, nothing will.
“He should have called off the White House Correspondents Dinner then”
Yeah, it was somewhat surprising to me that given how he FINALLY said that he’d drag himself there, you’d think that he wouldn’t be so tone deaf as to yuck it up at a celebrity cocktail party. Then again Obama has just sat around and left it to BP to do their own oversight and reporting, which is grossly negligent and given how that BP is a big Obama donor it’s probably worse than just negligence.
If it’s true that the Obama administration is trying to get the meme going that they didn’t have the resources to respond to it, then the immediate response should be “whose fault is that?” Again this would go back to negligence or worse if that is even true. However, why not ask Mexico or other latin american countries for help in deploying ships to control and clean up the mess? Outsourcing the whole thing to the corporate lobbyists who created the mess in the first place while having cocktail parties with celebrities is absolutely insane.
I provided the links to the news reports of his interview, those are his words …
just sayin
He’s got his Katrina. He’s attempting to privatize the management and control of the cleanup as if the G has no responsibility to protect our people, the coastline, our ecology.
To pretend that the Government of the United States doesn’t have the resources to deal with this is an unconscionable lie.
We can engage in wars the middle east, but we can’t get an oil well under control? The contempt he displays for the American people is exactly the same as exhibited by his vile predecessor.
The cavalier attitude displayed by all concerned in this catastrophe is horrifying. Where the fuck is FEMA? And shrimp boats are deploying booms?? This is America’s response? Shrimp boats? WTF? This is beyond belief.
FEMA has been sucked into Homeland Security – Joe Lieberman’s committee.
I would have thought that we’d be receiving press updates, reports detailing the amount of Boom being sourced from various parts of the world, what the Armed Forces are doing in delivering the Boom, skimmers being brought in etc.
I would also hope like hell that the US Navy has all of their largest Manned Submersibles and ROV’s either on scene, nearby or enroute. But I fear non of the above.
These motherfuckers NEVER quit:
Alabama Attorney General Troy King said tonight that he has told representatives of BP Plc. that they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians.
The agreements, King said, essentially require that people give up the right to sue in exchange for payment of up to $5,000.
King said BP’s efforts were particularly strong in Bayou La Batre…
Inept, Incompetent, Arrogant and Clueless
and one more thought, He don’t give a shit
Most “casual” president we’ve ever had.
Thanks for that Twain, I was sure it had, but, in any case, where the fuck ARE THEY?
Give Obama a break. He’s just working on preparing for all the post-Presidential bribes he’ll be cashing in. Obama will become uber-rich by exceeding on the Bill Clinton model of giving speeches for dough to corporations he did favors for while President. Just think how many tens of millions he’ll make as payment for passing HCR. Obama will get at least $500K per speech (Clinton’s rate) if not $750K or a cool $1M. Obama is just setting himself up to line his personal coffers by being negligent to the public when he isn’t being outright hostile to the public by actively killing the Dorgan amendment and the PO while forcing the mandate. Obama is now working on lining up the energy industry as another post-Presidential payday. Obama wants BP to be in charge of the environment like how he wants WellPoint in charge of public health.
sure i unnderstand … but who ya gonna believe .. mc cay or the USCG ??
dome
By their deeds shall ye know them…
I don’t think he cares about anything outside the beltway.
(other then Wall Street, of course)
Well said and you nailed it all. This thing stinks to high heaven of covering rich asses and feathering future nests.
Where’s Halliburton? Aren’t THEY the experts in the oil industry?
So far, crickets chirping, not even Cheney has emerged from his “undisclosed location” to explain how it’s all the DFH’s fault.
Did you happen to catch the only quote that the Newspaper is Sidebaring from the ‘O’ ?
President Obama says ‘BP will be paying the bill‘ for oil spill 5:18PM (directly below a report that the booms are breaking down) If he says it enough, maybe we’ll be distracted and not blame him.
HEY Mr President: What The Fuck Are Your Plans For A Dead Gulf Of Mexico?
Thanks Jkat Very Good Point
In all actuality I don’t believe either one.
We knew that the Coast Guards flow rate estimates weren’t even close. We also knew that the wellhead in all probability was leaking like a rusty bucket used for target practice when they, the USCG was stating no leakage the day of and day after the sinking of the semi-submersible exploration drilling rig.
in that case, let’s work with the Teas. Elect their candidates and wait for the friggin fireworks come November.
(high crimes and misdemeanors) let him cash in on that
I have long thought you were a right winger. After this rebarbative performance, I am sure of it.
This is really over the top.
whatever
All life in the Gulf is being exterminated (and not just all life, but complete ecosystems). Our President is MIA
and you’re coming in here throwing around pejoratives.
Fucking Nice
I’m still not clear, Who is Nero?
Sadly the first thing I thought: I Obama said it, it must not be true…
What a difference a year makes.
yeah and check out Mr Big D party loyalist in comment 56
One way to intervene…make sure “liberals” and “progressives” who are willing to protect our precious resources as much as possible represent us in Congress and the White House. Intervention, or lack thereof, often comes from the Federal government.
The commenter at 56 is a good person and has been around a whole lot longer than you have.
He’s right, you’re over the top. The rig has been there for 9 years, and while I didn’t like Obama capitulating on offshore drilling, he cannot be blamed for this.
I would prefer that he accept his responsibility, to take any and all action to cap the well and to protect all resources and life.
What is your preference Loo?
(and excuse me, didn’t know there was a pecking order in the speech thing)
There is no pecking order, but you tend to defend folks you’ve known a long while here.
I think Obama is doing all he can. It’s a monumental mess, but what more, specifically, would you have him do (other than preventing further offshore drilling?)
Everyone should look at the “excellent graphic” you link to above titled “beneath the oil slick” from The Times-Picayune. It provides an excellent visual as you stated of the problem.
I understand about defending those you’ve known for a while.
I have commented extensively since the initial explosion even on this post. There are many things that could be done, examples: bringing in more boom (there is a shortage and there are reports that some is already breaking down), bringing in more skimmers, establishing a training center for cleanup workers etc.
The US Navy has substantial assets that could be used and brought to bear but the President appears to prefer to allow BP to run point. That I believe is a huge mistake.
Sadly no it doesn’t. Governmental institutions protect themselves first, industry second, and only on the extremely rare occasion that they’re utterly forced to do so do they protect the public-trust.
The institutions didn’t give us our country, they didn’t end slavery, they didn’t get women the right to vote, end-child labor, end segregation, etc. etc. etc.
The catalyst, that lurched the people and the nation forward, in every instance has been a small percentage of dedicated, passionate people who directly intervened. Putting themselves and their principles on the line directly. The established institutions have exactly zero reason to protect the public-trust. Their power doesn’t come from the people, it comes from everywhere but.
This rig is not Obama’s fault but considering his approval ratings, I would have suggested that he bring in everyone from the National Guard to the Girl Scouts. He should at least have looked like he was doing something.
Since this happened it’s the only news i care about. A million thanks to you Seymour for these invaluable posts. It’s astonishing how relatively blasé the reaction remains elsewhere at every level.
How do you deal with those who refuse to logically look at empirical data? There are “scientists” who continue to deny climate changes and people who repeat fallacies without any understanding of an issue. I still and always will believe that education is the solution.
Thank you Seymour Friendly for bringing some facts to light.
Lou
In regards to the 9 years, the well that is leaking was drilled in September 2009, last fall. It’s a new well.
The Deepwater Horizon (the rig that exploded and sunk) was an exploratory semi-submersible drilling platorm, not a production platform.
I didn’t know that. thanks
But you’re missing the obvious link between the oil disaster and the urgent need to cut social benefits to the poorest people.
This point cannot be made strongly enough. Because of the disaster, social security and medicare must be completely privatised with a huge handout sweetener to the financial industry. It is quite obvious this is the case.
The poor must be thoroughly punished and left destitute. Everything is their fault. How dare you blame BP or any government agencies or officials.
Would we have had National Parks if former President Theodore Roosevelt hadn’t pushed hard to protect the environment? I agree the catalyst in almost all cases arises from a small, dedicated, passionate group of people who intervene. But, if the leadership in the White House and Congress chooses to ignore those people (example, Dr. Flowers on single payer health care), nothing will change. So, we need representatives in Washington D.C. who are also passionate about issues which make our lives better such as clean water, clean air, protecting the limited resources, while of course, taking in to account the effect of these decisions on the citizens.
Fantastic question :) What I intended with Nero is a metaphor for an entire political and industrial system that together is a foppish, eccentric, and disastrous ruler. Thanks for making me clarify -
Please, by all means, share information as to the what major environmental activist and pressure organization do. The clearer picture we all get in the months ahead, the better off we are. It is going to take weeks and months to see which organizations make what efforts to have a pro-environment, anti-drilling impact.
Right, the history is a bit confusing though:
I don’t suppose Obama could have stopped the drill even if he had wanted to, though. Do you?
You are correct on that. Obama, as usual, seemed be hoping that everything would be resolved before he flew in and claimed credit for resolving whatever passed for success. Hey, it worked with the health insurance cluster…. so it must be the plan. His failure to change the course of the ship of state as it sailed toward the iceberg fields laid out by Bush are grounded in his lack of vision. Even the band-aides they apply will come from the taxpayers pockets because Team Obama will not accept that the corporations that failed need to own up, even if they fail in the process.
The rig itself may or may not be Obama’s fault (he is afterall responsible for oversight) just as Bush himself didn’t cause Hurricane Katrina, but like Bush or any other President he’s responsible for how he responds to the disaster. Having celebrity cocktail parties while outsourcing responsibility to a major corporate donor is negligence. A President who can’t take charge during a disaster is a pretty pathetic President regardless of whether or not the President actually caused the disaster.
yep – I agree.
I’ve been clicking around for days trying to find some decent coverage of the environmental impacts. There isn’t any!
No doubt that georgie left him a plate piled high with smelly stuff but the ‘O’ asked for the job, many times. (I’d actually make the assertion that bushy had sides added to the plate to keep the extra smelly stuff that had been added from flowing off)
When ‘O’ then told us that he would chart a new course, I believed him.
So we’re here today, with a President that asked for this job who appears to resist engaging, what some (including myself) are calling the worst ecological disaster in this countries history.
Obama deserves part of the blame. Obama’s environmental record thus far sucks and his cabinet appointments to Dept of Interior and Transportation stink as well. Let’s not mention his corporate friendly approach to every major piece of legislation sponsored by the WH. Obama was all for offshore drilling (after he was against it as candidate Obama) before this disaster. Chickens come home to roost every time. I’m not giving him a pass.
Pick a topic. Protecting whales (where he is getting ready to allow the Japanese and others to stop pretending that it is for research). Protecting resources in the Rockies. Protecting wolves. Protecting buffalo in Yellowstone. The list goes on and on, and in all cases Obama falls on the same side as his predecessor. So long as Obama stands in the way the effort put in by some liberal group to force him to do protect the environment is time and money not well spent.
You recognize that “education” isn’t the answer, because it’s not that they don’t know. It’s that they don’t care. Then you intervene. Capt. Watson intervened in the extinction of whales by sinking illegal whaling vessels.
The question is how do we intervene, not whether or not it’s necessary.
Just going through Twitter, info already online, and off the top of my head: NWF, NRDC, Greenpeace, and ThinkProgress are already down there. Greenpeace’s media director has a good point on that blog: everyone down there is just waiting; it’s only just begun.
I will no longer (stopped in March) make any excuses or apologies for our President.
Elected with a mandate, a super majority in the Senate and a comfortable majority in the House. He is not in need of my apologies for his lack of performance or his unending support of the largest Corporations in the world.
He has totally lost my support (as the D party has by and large also)
Although, it may have been attainable for the President to stop or question the drilling in 5000 feet of water by the Deepwater Horizon prior to rescinding the ban on off shore exploration.
It is fairly clear to me, that he has no interest in stopping or questioning the expansion of oil exploration. But that isn’t the issue, the issue is what is he doing to Cap the Well and what is he doing to protect the Gulf and all it’s ecosystems.
I hope Obama had fun at the Correspondent’s Dinner…He took way too long to address this issue. As for BP paying the bill…WTF? He truly doesn’t have a clue about the extent of this disaster. The “bill” is already being paid by lost livelihoods and a trashed ecosystem. No summer vacations at the beaches this year or the next or the next. We elected a doofus for President. All brains, no common sense and no ability to prioritize.
I already wrote to the W.H. yesterday…and this is what I just sent Dept. of Interior Salazar’s way:
After emphasizing that off-shore drilling will not be impeded by this catastrophe – a catastrophe with consequences that cannot even begin to be measured, Mr. Salazar said:
“The oil from those off-shore rigs accounts for 30% of the nation’s domestic oil production,” he added. “And so for us to turn off those spigots would have a very, very huge impact on America’s economy right now.”
Right. It’s always about money, isn’t it? Never about the greater good. Never about the health and well-being of the planet and all her inhabitants.
First: Stop lying about this being a “spill.” It is not a spill. It is an out-of-control oil gush that is spewing deadly oil into our beautiful ocean at a rate that’s many times larger than what you’re telling us.
Second: Stop lying about “clean up.” We know the coast, the wildlife, the ocean itself of Prince William Sound has YET to be fully recovered even twenty years later. This is stuff you don’t “clean up.” Or “recover.” I’ve done my homework, and the most oil that”ll be recovered: 20% of it, and that’s best case scenario. And as for “clean up”? Tell that to all the beautiful sea life and wildlife that will be DEAD. But not to worry: Just pick up their oily carcasses and toss ‘em into an incinerator, don’t cha think?
Third: Stop lying about our need to be dependent on oil for energy and products. I’ve done my homework on this, too, and am fully aware…that alternative energy sources have been stopped, dead in their tracks, by black ops/military industrial complex/banking cartel. There are far-advanced technologies I know our government has knowledge of. Far-advanced technologies that scientists/inventors have come up with. But since the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama oil buddies/military buddies/bank buddies wouldn’t make such a big buck anymore, we’ll just keep being fed the lie that “oil” is the only “practical” solution for now.
Fourth: I call your comments for what they are: pathological.
We have such deceitful, amoral “leaders” in this country.
And you, sir, are one of them.
Are Twitter or Facebook really the appropriate components for the spear head of an activist response? Do they really make something happen? The internet is a fantastic and invaluable tool, but action is virtual on the internet. We count on entities like Greenpeace to do something entirely different.
Obummer will always be a corporate whore. Never seen a US prez who wasn’t. It’s built into the system. That’s why capitalism is a rotten, anti-human form of social organization and will fall very soon. It is time to prepare for the next phase in human history. The earth obviously cannot take the assault anymore. Mother nature will kick these evil corporatists like Obummer to the curb. Our “way of life” is unsustainable, man. The hippies were right!
Exactly. Intervention is by definition not virtual, but very real.
“No doubt that georgie left him a plate piled high with smelly stuff but the ‘O’ asked for the job, many times. (I’d actually make the assertion that bushy had sides added to the plate to keep the extra smelly stuff that had been added from flowing off)
When ‘O’ then told us that he would chart a new course, I believed him.”
The thing is that it looks like Obama likes what he was left despite what he’s said during the campaign. Obama for the most part follows Bush’s policies while just doing cosmetic changes around the edges. I’ve been very surprised in what little actual work has been done by the Obama administration. Like I remember at first when Obama took over from Bush and the Obama admin did their first legal filings regarding indefinite detention and the like, which they just cut-and-pasted what Bush had said. The excuse at the time was that they hadn’t moved in sufficiently enough yet, but now that excuse no longer works and it is clear that Obama supports wants to do what Bush did despite what he had said on the campaign. I see it over and over again where Obama claims to have done something new and brought major change when in fact it is just more of the same, but with a different name given to it. Look at HCR where during the campaign Obama criticized cutting backroom deals with PhRMA was everything that was bad with Washington – and then once he moved in Obama did it himself but to an even larger degree than Bush. Since HCR Obama has actually been increasingly open about how he wants to buddy up with corporations so that they can write their own rules – it’s his whole Presidential business model: Have corporations write their own rules and then have Obama declare victory as if he’s actually fought the corporations and done something for people.
Obama has assuredly treated the environmental movement as a door mat to the White House.
surely hope you used a proxy ip for posting that.
DHS identified two radicalized factions that their analysis indicates are most prone to bad things.
Ultra Right Militia Types
and
Environmentalists
Hopey Changey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xQZtiZNEX0
The Obama administration has also labeled PETA as a terrorist threat. Does that mean that Obama can lock someone up from PETA indefinitely without trial?
You sum up the narrative of his methods nicely.
OldFatGuy is much more eloquent than I and has his ‘List’ that describes the major offenses that have been committed to date.
I believe we’re seeing malfeasance of an order of magnitude larger than any previously seen of a US President, at least environmentally.
John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Sigurd Olson were activists and writers that I relate to and have for all of my 57 years since about age 8. As a young boy I would spend countless hours with my Grandfather talking about conservation methods and needs (before environmentalism was founded or established) along with the source of the destruction of our environment.
Never thought I would witness in my lifetime another with the destruction and impact as the Valdez.
Befor you put to much blame on BP you should read this.
Giant oil-services provider Halliburton may be a primary suspect in the investigation into the oil rig explosion that has devastated the Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the “cementing” process — that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon.
“The initial likely cause of gas coming to the surface had something to do with the cement,” said Robert MacKenzie, managing director of energy and natural resources at FBR Capital Markets and a former cementing engineer in the oil industry.
The problem could have been a faulty cement plug at the bottom of the well, he said. Another possibility would be that cement between the pipe and well walls didn’t harden properly and allowed gas to pass through it.
The possibility of Halliburton’s culpability was first reported Monday by HuffPost’s Marcus Baram.
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_59658.shtml
Certainly Does (or make use of ExtraJudicial means)
BP chose to not implement an Automatic Shutoff Valve. They don’t need any cover and deserve as much liability that can be applied.
I think we misunderstood each other. I personally know people who have dropped everything to travel to the Gulf for a few days or as long as it takes. I’m not comfortable naming them/their organizations here, so I did a 5 minute search of some of the more high profile NGOs to provide publicly available information re who’s down there. Hope that helps.
Again, the situation is just beginning to unfold. It’s way, way too premature to call out anyone (besides BP and its cohorts) for not doing enough.
1. He is not preventing off-shore drilling. He has only “suspended” pending an investigation. And Salazar made a statement today reiterating the need for off-shore oil extraction.
2. He could have been ON THE SCENE, or had a rep ON THE SCENE the day of the explosion. Not behind closed doors, but visible, up front.
3. He could have had his own Homeland Security people GO DOWN THERE IMMEDIATELY to confirm the claims being made that there was no leakage.
4. He could DEMOTE Rear Admiral Mary Landry of the Coast Guard for maintaining there was no leak when there was. And for saying, “…we remain in a ‘ready to respond’ mode and are working in a collaborative effort with BP, the responsible party, to prepare for a worst-case scenario” when nothing of the kind was happening.
5. He could be principled enough, caring enough, honest enough to announce to us, “We will put all economic resources behind getting alternatives, and the infrastructure necessary to distribute those alternatives, to market within six months…alternatives we already have access to, and alternatives that we already know will work, but alternatives that have been barred from going forward because the oil industry, like the Wall Street industry and military industrial complex, has bribed and threatened its way into a never-ending mafia-like control of energy systems via members of Congress and White House officials.”
More??
Hell, I would be happy with an increase of the CAFE to 45mph in 18 months followed with an additional increase to 50mpg in 36 months.
Thanks for your care and concern.
I choose to live in integrity as much as I know how to, and choose to live…in freedom from fear.
Fear is the old demon.
Clear, loving, strong integrity is my sustenance.
Blessings.
Thank You and to you Also
Just watched Sharkwater, as you recommended. It’s wonderful. I’d heard of Sea Shepherd and Paul Watson, but this is the first time I’ve seen him in action. Thank you.
Here is a 2 page report with some local information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
~~~ModNote: Direct-to-PDF Alert~~~
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response
Well, the thing is, they can mobilize people very quickly – to donate money, to appear, to do what’s asked of them. so even tho twitter can’t intervene physically, it can be used as a tool to quickly mobilize people to intervene.
The Presidents’ visits this past Monday and Tuesday to Quincy, IL and Ottumwa, IA must have been critical National priorities (as compared to the destruction in the Gulf)
(and did Gibbs really think the W.H. Correspondents Dinner was held on a need to know basis?)
A truely sad story. Thank you for the update, and a bit more in-depth info. I agree, the deaths of sea turtles and such is heartbreaking.
Amazing huh?
I wonder if we can get it to be part of an FDL movie night/salon? It’d probably go a long way to mobilizing, or at least get people in the right mindset for what it’s going to take to make any changes.
Excellent idea!
Here is the opinion of a Secretary of the Interior who values the citizens over corporate interests.
Lawless Big Business Must Be Controlled to Save Democracy
Sharkwater – along with The Cove – were both good films, both deeply moving as well as informing. Both of these films impacted on me deeply. I’d encourage anyone to spend an evening with either.
Shoot, I read it as ‘The Secretary of’ instead of ‘a Secretary of’
That Set the hook nicely
The fierce urgency of tee-time.
What Gibbs said was true – it was important, just having cocktails with Jay Leno and other celebrities was more important to Obama than a national environmental crisis.
BP requires LA fishermen who want to work in Clean-Up to sign a waiver, indemifying BP against any claims or charges from their release of oil into the Gulf
Now that you restate it, I can see that. It’s just a matter of degrees. To the ‘O’, cocktails with the Leno were more important.
Thanks for clearing my vision
Main Justice is looking at this with an eye towards voiding any contract signed, indemnifying BP. No idea how rigorous or successful they will be.
Nationalize their Ass, for damages done to the people, the natural environment and the nation as a whole.
(yeah I know, the W.H. would laugh uncontrollably at such a suggestion, the extension of 1 1/2 middle fingers from the chief of staff and the utterance of fuktards would ensue)
Seymour Friendly, you may find the following links of some use:
Ohmsett
Ohmsett – “The National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility is the only facility where full-scale oil spill response equipment testing, research, and training can be conducted in a marine environment with oil under controlled environmental conditions (waves and oil types).”
AIRNow – current air quality of the Gulf Coast
I think we are pissing in the wind here boys and girls. The oil industry bought controlling interesr in the government long ago. The media will use the disaster for ratings until people tire of the downer and tune out or go back to watching survivor.
When that happens things will get back to business as usual. We will be told that the problems have been fixed and there’s no need to worry. The oil industry is critical to homeland security and the enviornment and people are secondary.
This is an election year and our representatives know who pays their bills.
They want to “drill, baby, drill” on our ranch because they have a safe way of getting the natural gas out of the earth without polluting our water supply.
Right.
When are the conscientious rich liberals going to give up on the dems already and donate to the green party?