The right of the people to know is being flagrantly dismissed by the management of BP. The list of attempts by BP to restrict the information flow to the public begins with the silencing of workers on the Deepwater Horizon and to assume Transocean did this without BP's complicity is unwarranted. The complete lack of information from BP about the velocity and volume of discharge of gas and raw petroleum followed closely behind the first instance. The delay in publishing data about the drilling permits, procedures, oversight, and planning for response closely followed the first two incidences. To assume that BP's underlying motives are beneficial to the people of the United States or its government, given BP's history of flagrant disregard for both government regulation and worker/public safety, is both naive and inherently unwarranted.
The government's record in regard to BP's flagrant abuse of environmental, health and safety regulations is shameful; however, what is even more difficult to understand is the government's apparent credulity and naive acceptance of BP's constant stream of misinformation regarding the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent spill. The government's initial willingness to accept almost anything that was stated by BP as credible, given BP's record of delay, obfuscation and wilfull non-compliance in other government investigations (Alaska feeder pipeline and Texas City refinery disaster)is astounding.
Asymmetry of information is a given when dealing with both corporations and governments. The initial response of both types of entities seems to be deny, delay and defend, hoping that the lag in the information stream will outlive any crisis. Managing the news cycle and closing off sensitive areas of inquiry, either bureaucratically, when it comes to documentation, or by actually restricting access to sites and witnesses is all too common and is being done now by the government and BP. Examples of this behavior are rife in this incident: BP refusing to give access to live CCTV feeds; obfuscation about the use, effect and toxicity of dispersants; denial of responsibility for undersea plumes of oil; restricting access to clean-up sites; denying the possibility of illness of clean-up personnel being caused by the oil, dispersants and lack of adequate safety equipment for workers.
Unfortunately, the government has either been a willing partner in these deceptions or incredibly naive. Given BP's record it begs the question, what is the government's interest in this situation; avoiding responsibility; avoiding the implication of official misconduct in the Interior Department or simply trying to avoid "ownership" of the situation and its concommitant lose/lose political implications? Any or all of these would be better motives than simple inefficiency or inability to grasp the magnitude of the disaster from its onset. None of these however is good for the people, the environment or any hope of building a credible national response from government.
It is time for the asymmetry of information to end. The government and BP must be compelled by public action, active investigative reporting and Congressional oversight to disclose all the information about this situation BP and the government have. NOAA, Coast Guard, Interior, EPA and BP (including its affiliates, contractors and all other private parties involved) must be held to a higher standard of disclosure by the Obama Administration and Congress. The public has a right to know and the Obama Administration and Congress have a duty to fully inform the public. Until the information gap is closed no truly effective action can be taken and no positive working public consensus can be achieved.
Delay, deny and defend will simply not work in this situation. The Gulf oil spill is a catastrophe and the impact of the appearance of impropriety is too great. The economic, political and ecological impacts should not be minimized, but investigated, quantified and presented to the American people as quickly as possible and in plain terms. We need to be informed about what is known at this point. What resources are being used to assess the situation and what is unknown. We don't need factoids, we need a context, a coherent story that is fact based and credible. We need to know this information from an Administration source other than Thad Allen, Bob Gibbs or Secretary Salazar, they have no credibility at this time (regardless of the reasons, that is simply the case), and an Administration spokesperson (might I suggest recruiting Al Gore, Colin Powell or someone of similar stature) should be given the overall brief to ride herd on this process and the information being assimilated and disseminated. The current process is not working for the President, the people or the effort to manage this most difficult situation.