A recent recommended diary (similar title) claims that the average American and the Media is supposed to find out what the governments plan, response, contingencies for the Gulf Oil Spill are by surfing on TWITTER. We should all be gathering up our own information through TWITTER links and Google, to try to understand what BP and the government are up to.
Apparently, this is the "new technology" model.
Apparently the Obama Administration does not need to go on TV to deliver detailed statements on what exactly is the state of affairs are, and to take questions at length from the Press. Apparently its enough if a Coast Guard Administrator just repeats to us what BP is telling him (apparently he trusts BP).
Apparently because we can get all the information from TWITTER, we should not sit around expecting to get it by watching prime time news or reading news papers. Its our responsibility to go out there and dig up the information from the web.
Apparently, even the Press shall henceforth rely on TWITTER to get information from the government about a national catastrophe, and stop pretending that the Obama administration is not communicating. Apparently the Press should no longer rely on getting first hand account and detailed descriptions of the Governments plans at press conferences. They should try to divine it from TWITTER
Finally, apparently a Diary that just pimps Government talking points, shares TWITTER feeds, and pictures of people "busy" cleaning up oil slick, should keep us all satisfied that what the Government and BP is doing is HUNKY DORY
Well, I beg to differ. What I and (I think) many prominent scientists, members of the press, Gulf residents, Kossacks, etc., are looking for is something different.
FIRST, let’s get out of the way what we all AGREE on:
- The well is DEEP DEEP down under the ocean, in REALLY REALLY cold water. This sort of thing has never happened before. Only the oil companies and a few foreign governments and perhaps the Navy has equipment that goes down that deep.
Ok, GOT IT!
- BP is (apparently) trying to shut down the leak (apparently) because only they have access. Moreover (apparently) legally ONLY they can direct the repair. Apparently there is nothing else the government can do
Ok, GOT IT!
- There is a cleanup operation going on led by BP, involving laying boom, cleaning shores and beaches etc.. This is (apparently) going on under some sort of guidance from EPA, CG etc. Such an operation involves distributing phone numbers, TWITTER feeds etc., i.e. it (apparently) involves communication, some of which we can access through TWITTER
Ok, GOT IT!
Obama cant dive 5000ft below the surface himself to fix the leak
Ok, GOT IT!
None of these observations address the concerns of the diaries that have been put forward on DailyKos, or the concerns of prominent scientists and oceanographers, and congress men:
What we are trying to get an idea about is the following:
- A general timeframe and contingency plans for the repair being conducted by BP, with regular updates. A clear statement on what the liabilities of BP will be and what steps are being taken to eliminate legal loopholes (e.g the 75 million limit)
- A reasonable scientific estimate of the actual size of the disaster (e.g. amount of oil) so that modelling and predictions of the progress as well as strategies for defensive measures can be made as accurately as possible.
- A detailed statement and lengthy press conference by the President (and BP and CG and NOAA, and EPA) about what is happening, what the disaster implies going forward, what actions the government is taking and why, etc. This should be happening in some form or another on a daily basis.
Instead what we get is this:
Despite Obama’s Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead
In the days since President Obama announced a moratorium on permits for drilling new offshore oil wells and a halt to a controversial type of environmental waiver that was given to the Deepwater Horizon rig, at least seven new permits for various types of drilling and five environmental waivers have been granted, according to records....
while this is what he said before
In voicing his frustration with these regulators and vowing to change how they operate, Mr. Obama announced on May 14 a moratorium on drilling new wells and the granting of environmental waivers.
"It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies," Mr. Obama said. "That cannot and will not happen anymore."
or this
In a toughly worded warning to BP on Sunday, Mr. Salazar said at a news conference outside the company’s headquarters in Houston, "If we find they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, we’ll push them out of the way appropriately."
Mr. Salazar’s position conflicted with one laid out several hours earlier, by the commandant of the United States Coast Guard, Adm. Thad W. Allen, who said that the oil conglomerate’s access to the mile-deep well site meant that the government could not take over the lead in efforts to stop the leak.
"They have the eyes and ears that are down there," the admiral said on CNN’s "State of the Union" program. "They are necessarily the modality by which this is going to get solved."