At SolveClimate, Bill Becker writes
The fatal disasters at the Upper Big Branch Mine and Deepwater Horizon are fresh evidence the Bush-Cheney corporate culture continues in some federal agencies charged with overseeing industry. President Obama needs to change that culture fast. ...
After he was appointed, Obama's Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made clean-up of this scandal one of his first priorities. But the roots of the Bush legacy apparently reach deep – a legacy in which regulatory agencies serve the corporations they're supposed to regulate rather than the public interest.
Whatever the outcome of the Gulf oil release – and it's certain to be devastating – President Obama should take forceful action to put the federal government's oversight functions back on track. Some suggestions:
• Obama should direct the Inspectors General of all agencies charged with overseeing environmental regulations and worker safety to investigate how those responsibilities are being performed. In cases where recent IG investigations already have found enforcement deficiencies, the White House should review whether the deficiencies have been corrected.
• The president should use the power of the purse to enforce the principle that America’s natural resources – its oceans, public lands and fresh water, to name a few – are "trust assets." In other words, they are owned by present and future generations, and public officials have a fiduciary responsibility to protect them. Obama should order agencies whose functions directly or indirectly affect the nation's natural resources to codify that policy in job descriptions, performance standards and appraisals, and in decisions about bonuses and promotions.
• The president should direct the attorney general to aggressively enforce this principle through the courts, seeking injunctive relief and penalties against companies who violate our environmental laws. Anything less is a failure to perform the responsibility Congress has delegated to the Executive Branch to protect America's natural assets and environmental quality.
The Daily Kos crew who've kept liveblog conversation on BP's failed efforts the past five days deserve a special round of applause. Thanks to you all.
juliewolf refreshed us with a Hummingbird Photo Break: "One of my favorite subjects to photograph is hummingbirds. They represent a real challenge: they move very quickly and do not stay in one place for long, plus they are smaller than any other birds I photograph. This means that successfully photographing them requires a good combination of skill, careful planning and just plain dumb luck."
[The green diary rescue appears on Sundays and Thursdays. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it.]
Food, Agriculture & Gardening
Frankenoid wrote another installment of Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 6.14: "The wind, however, was another matter. On Monday we had gusts up to 65 mph in my area. The wind laid low some of my seedlings: the tray the cucurbits were in flipped, and the zucchetta and cucumber plants did not fare well. They were alive... barely. Shit. I put them in the ground, but also direct-sowed seeds in case they don't make it (one cucumber already has croaked)."
As part of the Feeding America series, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse added an environmental concern with Urban Farms & Fisheries: "Growing Power uses aquaculture, or the "symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a re-circulating system." A fishery of Tilapia and Yellow Perch is used to fertilize a variety of crops in greenhouses at an urban farm in Milwaukee. In 2008, the Great Lakes Water Institute delivered 10,000 young (three-month old) yellow perch to Growing Power's urban farm in Milwaukee to test this indoor fish-farming system."
Ellinorianne also took the an eco-approach in Feeding America #5 Food Forward - Fallen Fruit and Food Banks: "So the challenge has to do with getting fresh fruits and vegetables to the people who need it the most and yet there is a way to do so and it's economical, community based and environmentally friendly. It's fruit harvesting from public and private fruit trees and it can mean hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh fruits for food pantries all over the US."
Energy & Transportation
In another entry in the Sunday Train series BruceMcF put out a sign for Help Wanted. 1% Solutions. Apply Within.: "Transport is responsible for about 2/3 of the petroleum addiction, so it needs 7 5% solutions per decade over the next two decades. Including the Administration's policy as one 5% solution, Steel Interstates, Nationwide Oil-Free Liberty Transport networks, 5% of trips by Active Transport, and doubling the fuel efficiency of cars carrying 10% of passengers, that's 5 of the 7. But of course, five 1% solutions make a 5% solution too. So I am looking for 10 "1% solutions". Heck, if we have enough of them, we can get 10% over the next two decades from 1% solutions even if they are not all 1%."
K S LaVida challenged a theme going around Daily Kos (and other progressive sites) in Regulating oil in a worldwide market: "One of the common ideas to pop up here as a result of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe is the idea that we need to suddenly reduce our consumption of oil, or energy in general, in order to stop undersea drilling. It's a simplistic argument that doesn't really add up, for the simple reason that American oil consumption and American oil production have very little to do with each other."
Stranded Wind discussed The Nuclear Option, but it wasn't quite what you might think: "This is not a technically difficult program, this getting free of oil. We mostly had it done eighty years ago, until General Motors bought up and ripped out all of our streetcars."
route66 took a look at Nigeria in : The other Delta Oil Spill Catastrophe: "'The farther we travelled, the more nauseous it became. Soon we were swimming in pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. One of the many hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that crisscross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months...'"
Animals
In Friday Evening Photo Blogging, Eddie C posted some terrific photos of Lion Cubs Today!: "Today I went to see the three new lion cubs that were born on January 27th and made their public début this week. So give a roaring welcome to Nala, Adamma and Shani as they get used to their new digs. Their big sister Moxie is a very good baby sitter for these 25 pound kittens."
He also asked us to Save the Bronx Zoo Today: "The zoo has already been downsized last year but that was not enough for City Hall and Albany. This year the zoo is smaller, no more World of Darkness for children to learn that when the suns goes down most of the worlds animals wake up. The Rare Animal Range is gone too, endangered species many that only exist because of the efforts of the Wildlife Conservation Society, have been shipped out. The exhibits of Arabian oryx and blesbok are gone, the Skyfarie has been dismantled and the 112 year run of Wildlife Conservation magazine has ended a year ago."
juliewolf had some more bird photos for us Dawn Chorus: Of Warblers and Weekends: "This prairie warbler is one such bird. I've only seen prairies a few times in my life, and about half those times were in one specific location. Kennebunk Plains, in Kennebunk, ME. They show up in other places, but I mostly find them at this one spot. They're not hard to identify: notice the white on the tail. When they fly,it's like a yellow dark-eyed junco."
Pollution, Hazardous Materials & Recycling
worldforallpeopleorg explained how Superpollution means conservatism to the junk heap: "With virtually no rules governing the safety of chemicals," says Richard Wiles of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, 'American babies are born pre-polluted, their bodies laced with as many as 300 industrial compounds, pollutants, plastics, pesticides and other substances that threaten public health.' - April 16, 2010. It’s much worse than that. From birth to nursing and forever after, the chemical assault continues for every child. Conservative moms and grandmothers, along with everyone else, must surely be becoming very concerned about this. And irrefutably, the political push to deregulate and 'unshackle' industry - the central thrust of today's conservatism - is to blame."
In Top Comments 5-29-10, carolita explored another of the 3Rs: "For the next few Saturdays, we are going to look at the 3Rs -- reduce, reuse, recycle -- focusing on simple things we can do in our daily lives to save the planet. Of course, we still have to call and write and march and try to move our congresscritters and business leaders toward a more sane energy policy. But seeing progress through simple acts of conservation can it can be highly motivating and help us keep up the fight. So far we have explored Reduction and Reuse. Tonight we Recycle!"
Round-ups, Wrap-ups & Digests
Miep: Mosquito News: "A Mosquito Zapping Laser That Fights Malaria? Yes!"
Neon Vincent: Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Memorial Day 2010/BP Oil Spill edition).
Eco-Philosophy, Eco-Policy & Eco-Action
davidseth said being angry doesn't cut it in BP: Wounding My Mother, Wounding Pachamama: "Keith Olbermann thinks that Obama should show more anger about this. That, he thinks, will show people that Obama is with them. Or something. Personally, I have more than enough unproductive anger about BP. I don't need it to be mirrored. Or extended. No. What I want is internal. I want to understand what BP is doing and has done in my interior landscape. I want to come to terms with that. And to comprehend it in this way, I use what I know: I look at the mythic, and I look at myself. It's Shamanism 101.
In a lament, LaniN discussed Oil & My Childhood Chesapeake Life: "Decades later, I returned with my baby boy. The sand dunes and sea oats had returned to the area after years of overdevelopment. But the water was pea green and murky. No searching for shells or watching the fish dart by us. No porpoises playing in the surf. The Bay has suffered terribly from pollution and overdevelopment. So I watch the people of the Gulf, angry, tearful, consumed with sadness and fear and rage. I really feel it."
Snowy Owl asked us to look at Arithmetic, Population, Energy and the exponential law: "In about a 7 years period, (in times of war) to a 12 years period, we consume more than any previous quantity of oil ever produced. Although we consume 30 times more than emerging countries, the time of cheap energy is over..."
eb23 alerted us to a PROTEST IN NEW ORLEANS...: "if you can make it, cool. If not, join the facebook page. And tell everybody about it."
Ad Absurdum looked at responsibility in May She Who Rides the Bus Cast the First Stone: "On my first visit to the states, it was clear what that oil had enabled. Having been used to walking to the bakery, bank, or school in my native Venezuela and afterward in Europe, I found it puzzling how hostile a place this automobile scaled country really was. This college student felt trapped on campus after having been used to freedom from the automobile, to walk to take care of my immediate needs, to hop on a tram or bus to visit the museums and cultural activities, to take a train at any convenient time to visit other cities, and all of a sudden, I could not even cross streets devoid of sidewalks to reach food stores miles away in what was supposed to be the greatest country in the world."
The BP Gusher put Bill Tchakirides in a bad mood, as he explained in Sunday morning and I am getting more depressed...: "As we look at the alarming crisis that BP and the oil industry has brought us to, as we evaluate the amount of military spending we are pouring into the middle east for no evident return (and as we consistently apologize for killing innocent civilians with airborne missiles), as we observe politicians and lobbyists letting payoffs and focused fundraising deny the needs of voters in favor of the needs of corporations, as we see the Supreme Court gradually eliminate generations of civil rights achievements, we are getting more and more convinced that making a change in America... indeed in the whole world... is getting less and less possible."
don mikulecky took note that Even the MSM is catching on!: "So many times in my diaries about the nature of technology someone claims we can find a fix for anything. Now even the MSM questions such arrogance. In the NYT we have this: Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill A growing number of reductionist trained scientists and engineers are beginning to understand the limits to the Cartesian reductionism that serves as the philosophical basis for their understanding of the real complex world. Physics supplied them with a good model of reality for dealing with machines and mechanisms, but not for most complex systems that make up the real world. The surrogate model we worshipped does not do it."
The blame goes elsewhere, wrote Vyan in This is not Oil-Trina, it's the Corporate 9/11!: "From Day One, the Right has been turning hand-springs to try and make the BP Oil-Tastrophe either the fault of The Left (with specters of Greenpeace SCUBA SWAT Teams with explosives in the night) or offering ill-thought comparisons with the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Disaster. But I think all of this ignores who the clear and obvious villains are in this situation, and the fact that we brought them to the party ourselves - and now we have no one else left to dance with."
WarrenS talked about consumption in Can a Middle-Aged Dad Find ECSTASY?: "My daughter is five, and I think her teddy-bear count is somewhere in the low thirties, with stuffed penguins running close behind. How in Sam Hill did this happen? I am a dedicated anti-consumerist, or I'd like to think so. When I enter a Temple of Consumption, I hunch my shoulders slightly and fix my gaze straight ahead, a grim, put-upon expression on my face. I try to walk directly to the item I need, spend a minimum amount of time contemplating options, and get out. I am reconnoitering in enemy territory. All this is utterly counter to the attentional style of a five-year-old."
Politicians
RDemocrat lambasted Fox News for its Failed Vision on Gulf Oil Spill: "It has already begun on Fox News. Ignoring their own history of inciting their viewers to believe that drilling, drilling, and more drilling was the only solution to our energy problems they are trying to blame President Obama for the spill and claim that he is not doing anything to try and combat the problem. They will also push the meme that poor Bobby Jindall is a genius that nobody will listen to."
Withers2010 explained why his candidacy will make a difference in Gulf Catastrophe – We are to blame too: "Every American is responsible for what is happening in the Gulf. We are energy hogs. Groups on both sides of the political spectrum scream about energy independence, but we are not focused on real solutions."
Avenging Angel took issue with Darrell Issa, who he said had impled that Tim Russert Died So That We Might Drill: "...over the past several weeks, Issa has also been the GOP's chief messenger in criticizing Obama's response to the BP catastrophe in the Gulf. Which is an odd choice by the Republicans. After all, Issa not only has a long record of support for offshore drilling, opposition to alternative energy investments and stonewalling regulation of the oil industry. Two years ago, Darrell Issa suggested another Sunday news icon, the late Tim Russert, would have wanted us to drill."
Troutfishing banged on an Oregon Republican right-winger in Ocean Life Thrives On Crude Oil ! Meet GOP's Art Robinson: "Running on the GOP ticket for Congress in Oregon's 4th District, Art Robinson, who in 2004 wrote that the world's ocean life was "starved" for crude oil, might want to consider adopting, as a campaign mascot, a dolphin. Not just any dolphin but this one, which died an obviously traumatic and extremely painful death from being immersed in the toxic soup of oil spewing from from British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout, and chemical dispersants BP has dumped in a bid to keep the oil from reaching fragile coastal shorelines."
Southernlib discussed what the Democrats in Florida are saying when it comes to : Making Oil the Issue: "It is hard to believe how close Florida was to approving near-shore drilling before the BP disaster in the Gulf. Barely more than a year ago, the House passed a measure that would have allowed the Cabinet to lease out areas to drill as close as three miles from the beach. Lawmakers as recently as March seemed poised to pass such a measure next year. So in the wake of the spill, it was no surprise to me when Scott Maddox, the lead Dem in the Agriculture Commissioner race, began challenging Republican Adam Putnam to sign a pledge not to allow drilling in state waters."
Sydserious reported on what a local politician in Louisiana said in Oil Drilling Moratorium: "It will kill us": "Hello. You would think that after witnessing the worst environmental disaster in most of our lifetimes that people would finally realize the dangers and say, 'hey - let's step back and maybe rethink this before we drill anymore.' According to a Parish president, the recent oil drilling moratorium is just more than Louisiana can bear."
And Christian Dem in NC reported on what another Louisiana politician said in Did BP ship in workers for a photo op?: "Chris Roberts, a member of the Jefferson Parish council, claims BP bused in a massive cleanup crew only because Obama was in town."
reggg3 had strong words about Jindal's messy oil history: "Jindal sponsored the Act to lift the moratoriUm on Deep Water Drilling but now he is running around accusing everyone but himself for the Gulf's problem. He opposed the Stimulus bill but now seeks money and help from those agencies that got funds for environmental purposes and an agency like NOAA whose data in instrumental in understanding the spill."
Climate Change
jamess pointed out that Something has Changed in the Climate Change Game -- the CIA: "Climate Change Climbs the Ranks in the Pentagon and CIA. ...If they can plan War Games to manage the Human Chaos, expected from Climate Change -- Why can't we plan to minimize that Climate Change, in the first place?"
The Gulf Gusher
Hyde Park Johnny: Oil Leak Widget Features 'Spillcam': Link.
middleagedhousewife: BP Junk Shot Child Diary #13.
johnsonwax: Top Kill LiveBlog - Diary 14 – Catastrophe Never Sleeps.
RhymesWithUrple: Top Kill Liveblog - Diary #15 - BP Goalpost Still Moving.
politik: Daily Kos Top Kill Liveblog - Diary #16 - Still Muddy?.
yawnimawke: Daily Kos LMRP Liveblog - Diary #18 - Who Are They Kidding?.
nika7k: Daily Kos LMRP Liveblog - Diary #19 - Witnessing Geocide.
joanneleon: Daily Kos Top Kill Failure / LMRP Liveblog - Diary #20 - The Big Not So Easy.
weatherdude: Daily Kos Top Kill Failure / LMRP Liveblog - Diary #21 - RoboBallet Edition.
papicek: 30 May 2010: ROV Diary 22 - Moving On After Top Kill.
nika7kDaily Kos POST-Top Kill, Junk Shot, LMRP Diary #23.
Liveblog: Top Kill Failure Liveblog Mothership: 29 May, 2010 - Day Four.
Garrett: Top Kill Failure Liveblog Mothership: 29 May, 2010 - Day Four and a half.
Liveblog: Gulf of Mexico Disaster - Liveblog Mothership: 30 May 2010 - Day Five.
jasonjones01: OIL ALERT: NASA satellite shows oil 20 miles from Florida Keys: "Well i think we all knew this since the shrimpers off of Key west reported days ago they pulled up oil in their nets. The Keys will be destroyed in less than a month, everything in the ocean dead and beaches black. People will choke to death from the Massive Benzene gas n Dispersant Corexit 9500 clouds and oil rain to come. It's almost time to evacuate the entire keys forever!"
jkay: Steven Seagal, environmental visionary.
litho: Oilpocalypse solved!: Now that BP has finally admitted that Top Kill has failed, the British petro-giant at least is ready to move on the one solution that all great minds agree is a sure solution to the gulf oil crisis. Sometime over the next few hours, BP will: Plug... the Gulf oil leak with the works of Ayn Rand."
TWood: minigiggles - drill baby drill.
Rei: Some Terrifying News About The Oil Spill: "But that's not the half of it. You see, I have found definitive proof that this oil has now gained the ability to time travel."
Junkyard Dem : Graphically venting over the oil spill nightmare.
FishOutofWater: Oil offshore Texas & on Florida Shelf - EPA's Big Error: "A huge invisible, toxic cloud of oil is welling up into the Florida shelf. It is likely, but not yet proven, that dispersants kept the oil from rising to the surface. If this oil had gone to the surface it could not threaten the Florida shelf this way."
Cartoon Peril: We finally managed to kill the ocean: "I'm way beyond blaming BP because this is gonna destroy BP. BP can't clean up a whole ocean. Do some math here. The oil field is oil field is thought to contain some 50 million barrels of oil. Assuming conservatively that only 20,000 barrels per day are gushing out, that would mean there will be 2,500 more days of this! Oh, and by the way, how much IS 50 million barrels of oil? That's about 2.5 days of U.S consumption (figuring on 20 million barrels per day)."
RLMiller: Cold Comfort, Cold Facts: August and After.: "Cold fact no. 1: The LRMP is not likely to work and may make matters worse. ...Cold Fact No. 2: Relief wells are not failsafe. ...Cold Fact No. 3: BP has suspended work on the second relief well so that its blowout preventer can be on standby, presumably with the knowledge and consent of the federal government."
8ackgr0und N015e: Important primer on Corexit: Different types and hazards.: "Corexit is basically a detergent. That is why it disperses oil into droplets. It works just like dishwashing detergent."
tle: Daily mitigation of BP oil gusher: One person or one million, lots of hay.: "The idea of using hay is something that can be done by giant tankers and special skimmers, by repurposed military ships, by shrimp boats. And by individuals. But one person is immediately overwhelmed by the magnitude of the disaster. So I think of myself as being part of a (currently imaginary) army of a million independently operating individuals."
maxomai: Lessons from the Ixtoc Spill: "Nonetheless, there are two big lessons here, and I think they're both well worth heeding. The first is that this really, honest to Pete, is not the end of the world. It's really, really bad, but not the end of the world. We've already been through this, and come out worse for wear, but ultimately the Earth recovered and we moved on. The second is that corporations and governments didn't learn from the Ixtoc spill thirty years ago."
Crashing Vor: Worst Case Scenario: "The assumption that somehow every backup would back and every failsafe would save led both industry and its regulators to ignore--and never plan for--the worst-case scenarios of deepwater drilling. And so no new techniques were developed to respond to them. Ohmsett went on testing booms. Skimmers were refined. Dispersants studied. Wells were dug ever farther beneath the sea. And, in the dark waters far below air-conditioned exercises, out of the hearing of safety awards ceremonies, disaster, true disaster, waited."
zipn: Idea - Contact Satellite / Cable provides to feed BP oil video: "Instead of the Earth in space live video, they could instead feed the oil spill video (and perhaps play something like a funeral dirge)."
bob zimway: Robot Subs Seek Oil off Florida Coast: "The appalling lack of data on the size, location, and characteristics of the infamous oil plumes in the Gulf led me to explore the efforts of a marine sciences org named Mote Marine that's conducting data collection of oil off the Florida coast."
Kalkaino: Create WPA-Style Gulf Cleanup Army: "Why not create a WPA-style army to clean up the Gulf of Mexico beaches and marshlands? There are millions of able-bodied folks crying for work, and years' worth of work that will basically need to get done by hand, with shovels, bags, wheelbarrows et cetera. This is work that can't be outsourced to IndIa."
Scott in Montreal: Blowing Up is Hard to Do: Nuking the Gulf gusher.
innereye: Leak Rate Comparison Before and After Top Kill: "Now, I know it is hard to say definitively from these video comparisons, but I am very certain, in my own mind, that they have absolutely made the leak rate worse."
OrganizedCrime: Pull the Dome up and as much Equipment out or away From the Area, lower Large Thick Concrete Slabs.
Coastrange: BP press releases, video and stock price: "What is really happening and who knows what is it is?"
mark louis: DOJ Preparing Criminal Investigation of BP: "The investigation is lead by Assistant Atty. Gen. Ignacia Moreno of the environment and natural resources division and Assistant Atty. Gen. Tony West, head of the DOJ's civil division. And, to underscore the scope of the investigation: '...the Obama administration has asked for $10 million to be set aside to pay for the investigation. President Obama, in a letter May 12 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- San Francisco), said the funding was needed "to hold BP, and other responsible parties in this spill, accountable for the crisis.'"
Vyan: Why is BP trying to KILL my Fishermen?: "In this interview from Democracy Now, Clint Guidry who is head of the Louisiana Fishermen's Association states that his 20 years of experience working in the Oil Industry with KBR (yes, That KBR) tells him that the seven fishermen who were Hospitalized during the cleanup were deliberately put at risk by BP."
scorpiorising: Fishermen in Hospital: Dispersant blamed: "Not sure if they are still in the hospital, but 7 fishermen, on May 26th, part of the 100+boat flotilla battling the oil offshore, were hospitalized with "severe headaches". All blamed the dispersant, Corexit. The entire flotilla, 100+ boats was recalled from the Gulf."
slinkerwink: Initial Federal Oil Spill Estimate May Be Not Be True!: "The 12,000-to-19,000-barrel estimate was based on individual estimates from three different methods: one that used satellite images to study the amount of oil on the surface of the water, one that analyzed video of the underwater oil 'plume,' and one that analyzed the amount of oil collected by the Riser Insertion Tube Tool (RITT) that BP installed last week to capture some of the escaping oil. But it was impossible for members of the team that analyzed the oil plume video to estimate the upper boundary of the oil spilled, according to the Ira Leifer, a researcher at the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Steven Wereley, a researcher at Purdue University."
agnostic: BP's Assault on the Great Lakes: BP attack on the Great Lakes comes in three parts: a) BP wants to drill under Lake Michigan, almost a mile below the lake's bottom. Think of the Gulf leak, but with fresh, not salt water. b) BP is the 6th largest polluter in the Chicago area. With its new Whiting Refinery capacity (Canadian oil shale & tar sands), that will increase by 40%. c) BP is deliberately pollutes Lake Michigan with benzene & mercury. Remnants from tar sands refining process will be far, far worse."
Gorette: nyt: bp should have stopped well in March; BOP/casing probs: " BP engineers were concerned and knew almost a year ago that the casing could collapse, that one of their own engineers had seen before. And further, MMS kept issuing them permits at the drop of a top hat. They should have stopped everything in March when they knew they did not have control of the well! They should have ordered a crisis review. But neither bp nor MMS did that. This is totally not a surprise. Criminal negligence here. Wow."
brasch: Oily Politics Led to Environmental Disaster: "The effects Gulf oil spill are traced not to April 20, but top decisions made under the Bush-Cheney administration to neglect environmental concerns and to not rebuild barrier islands."
jamess: Corexit Toxicity Tests not so hot, When Mixed with Oil: "'The two types of dispersants BP is spraying in the Gulf of Mexico are banned for use on oil spills in the U.K. As EPA-approved products, BP has been using them in greater quantities than dispersants have ever been used in the history of U.S. oil spills. ...As we’ve reported, Corexit was also used after the Exxon Valdez disaster and was later linked with human health problems including respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders. One of the two Corexit products also contains a compound that, in high doses, is associated with headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems.'"
slinkerwink: White House Increasingly Angry With BP Over Its Lies: "Let us remember, it is in the interests of BP to lie and to obfuscate the truth, so they work to reduce their culpability and liability risk in this oil spill. It is not in their interest to provide full data access to the public or to the government, unless so compelled."
Cedwyn: How do I loathe BP? Let me count the criminally negligent ways: "I, for one, was thrilled to discover the other day that the Department of Justice is conducting its own investigation into BP's shenanigans. Granted, it's just the first steps, laying the groundwork for a formal investigation if whatever turns up warrants it, but you can't find evidence if you don't look for it, right?"
grapes: BOPGate - A Study in Oil Industry Arrogance: "In this diary, I want to share some documents that bear on the Blowout Preventer (BOP), the fundamental safety device that is the ultimate protection against a catastrophe like the GoM. These documents are not secret. They are publicly viewable on the website of the Minerals Management Service (www.mms.gov). I warn you that the contents of these serious, industry-supplied presentations and studies will set your hair on fire. They will also prove that the Oil Industry (and their regulators) have been systematically, cynically and stupidly lying to us for decades."
babajimbob: The Spin on the Oil Spill: "When Senators Barbara Boxer and Bill Nelson held their press conference on 5/20 and suggested BP was covering up the actual amount of oil involved in the spill, the CNN news commentator felt compelled to state that the two were likely to have a political agenda and that what they were saying should be viewed through that lens. I don't know about you, but whenever I hear a politician speak publicly, I always assume they have a political agenda, but when they're talking about a large corporation, CNN feels compelled to state that fact in order to discredit the speakers. We now all know that Boxer and Nelson were correct."
Lukeduke: Why Hasn't President Obama Appointed Someone to Lead the Oil Spill Cleanup Effort?: "There are probably multiple reasons - not least of which is that Obama appears obsessed with making sure that BP leads this effort so that the issue doesn't become an albatross on his poll numbers. You'll have to excuse me if I seem frustrated with Obama; I am."
MediaFreeze: Oil Blow Out Situational Command Needed...: "What Obama needs to do is get the smartest military guy he has and send him down there to be in charge. Being in charge does not mean that the guy has to come up with the answer. But he needs to have the power to command the best and brightest resources and the power to make decision once he is convinced that it is time to act. It is time to act."
boguseconomist: Foreign and Domestic: "So, if this had been part of an insidious plot by Al Qaeda, we'd have been ready to call up the armed forces and go to war. We might even have picked some oil-rich nation to go to war with - as we did with Iraq. Nothing could be bad enough to even up a dastardly deed like this. But it wasn't Al Qaeda. It was a huge multi-national corporation, British Petroleum, that used equipment provided by Halliburton and Transocean, Inc that was inadequately regulated by the Minerals Management Services and other federal regulators and is still trying to convince us that it was all an unpreventable mistake."
danps: Some Suggestions For Our Inert President: "We are in the midst of what is probably the worst environmental catastrophe in our nation's history, and it looks like the damage will continue to worsen for the next few months. Barack Obama may not know this yet, but his credibility and leadership are being destroyed along with the ecosystem of the Gulf Coast."
Rashaverak: Obama's Katrina, Obama's Watergate, Obama's..: "Seems like the Mighty Right-Wing Wurlitzer is cranking overtime, and that the worst insult is to liken what a Democratic President does or allegedly does to what Republican Presidents have already done or tried to do."
SquareBoy: Fox News and the Oil Spill: "The spill is already far more damaging to the President (justifiably or not) than the machinations of a primary campaign will ever be. If you're trying to hurt the President, why not really turn this into his Katrina?"
Britethorn: Obama Rocks BP: "President Obama may not be able to say what he really things about the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, but that won't stop him from singing about what he thinks of British Petroleum, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney."
RLMiller: Mr. Abbey Goes to Washington, Cleans Up MMS. Or Not.: "The plan doesn't go far enough to satisfy Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who believes that it's time to abolish MMS and start anew. Nor does it please Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which has scathing comments about Ken Salazar's 'erratic leadership' and wants to see MMS' environmental and safety functions transferred outside the Interior Department entirely. But is Mr. Abbey a good choice to clean up the MMesS?"
Chaoslillith: If I were President: How I would have used Oilpocalypse: "I am not an engineer so I am not going to speak as to stopping the leak but I will speak as to how I would have used this to get us off oil."
CheeseMoose: Rough Draft of Obama's Speech on Oil Spill: "It is time, therefore, as a moral people, to re-evaluate our energy policy. I know that I speak for all Americans when I say that we are willing to pay any price and bear any burden to assure that our sacred resources, such as clean air and water, are protected. Only a deeply demoralized and depraved nation would choose to put its thirst for oil over the life-giving bounty of its homeland. Such a nation could not long prosper, just as no individual can be successful in the long run by sacrificing his or her own long-term well-being for short-term gain."
Radical Realist: There will be Blood: President Obama Must Address the Big Reasons Behind this Oil Catastrophe: "In addition to horrific loss of marine habitats and masses of creatures who have the misfortune of swimming into toxic plumes, I am impressed with the unreal, mimetic aspect of how the oil spill is infecting minds like a virus. There is a post-traumatic, automatic draw to stimulus, a desire to reengage the old neuronal circuits of 9/11 and Katrina, and generate some kind of tumultuous, game-changing drama around the catastrophe."
DJShay: Cut Emo Crap. I Didn't Elect A Daddy: "Charles Blow has a piece up now on The New York Times website that bemoaning the fact that Obama isn't showing enough "emotion" concerning the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf."
ImpeachKingBushII: Through the looking glass: Who's sleeping in BP's bed?: "If we take a snapshot look into BP's bedroom window, we can see why President Obama or our Congress cannot possibly afford to lean too heavily on BP or let anything ever happen to them for the Gulf spill. You're going to see some things that may shock and anger you-or they might just open up your eyes long enough to see the truth, which is: If BP falls it will significantly impact the whole world financial system and economy."
Pam LaPier: For A Little Bit Of Money: "BP, et.al, has billions and billions of dollars and all the power in the world but they don't have the power to clean up their own mess. They will, however, continue after this and use all of that power and all of that money to make more messes. How is a poor dolphin, sea turtle, pelican or sperm whale supposed to compete with that?"
jimstaro: Why Are We Allowing Congressional Vacations??: "How many of you will not only see your representatives, or their staffs, but hear anything about what they are doing while 'on vacation' from their 24/7 jobs of representation!"
Zydekos: BP, Inc.: Kills the Gulf while financially protected.
Limelite: Killer Rigs: There's More Death in Offshore Drilling Than Meets the Eye: "The offshore drilling industry in the Gulf of Mexico is an equal opportunity death merchant, even when operating normally, meeting 'industry standards.' Mercury levels around some rigs are so high as to qualify for the National Priorities List, a roll call of the nation's most hazardous contaminated sites. .. [and] eventually lead to a federal 'Superfund' clean-up effort, like those at Love Canal in New York."
Muskegon Critic: If You Open It, Close It: "We've been drilling for oil a mile under the ocean for a couple of decades now, opening oil wells thousands of feet down, and the ready technology to 'CLOSE IT' one mile down doesn't fucking exist? And worse...where the laws of physics seems to actually thwart our ability to 'CLOSE IT.' Seriously?"
cronian: What's good for BP is good for America: "Americans need oil. The US military relies upon BP for its supply of oil. Yet, it is a privately owned foreign corporation. BP should be acting in America's best interests. The problem seems complex. Yet, many things seem more complicated than they are. The US government should nationalize BP."
Dartagnan: Frank Rich Freaks Out: "'Worse than Katrina?' Really? Rich's thesis in today's NYTimes Editorial is that Obama's arguably ineffectual response to the Gulf Disaster will validate critics on the right who contend that government cannot be trusted to cope with our nation's problems. And by implication, the public will turn to the right in its desperation for comfort and solutions."
Vera Lofaro: The Financial meltdown and the Gulf oil disaster.: "Listening to the Sunday Morning talk shows, reading the Sunday newspapers and listing to the reports of the "top kill" failure, I am wondering who the hell ever approved of deep water drilling. I know nothing at all about physics, or science, however, I do know if you decide to drill a mile down into the ocean there is always the possibilty that someday something might go wrong. With that basic common sense knowledge and also knowing you simply can not send a human down to those depths to correct any malfunction, why would it be O.K.? Also knowing the damage a malfunction could cause, why the hell would anyone approve such an endeavor?"
citizen k: The Post BP Plan: "I think 5 years at zero profits, before we get to penalties is a good start for BP."