Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

The Genius of Calm

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

I watched the President as he has handled BP and the current crisis with confusion. I couldn’t understand his lack of anger. Why his demeanor was so calm, why he merely pointed out BP’s responsibility instead of calling for heads on a pike.

I watched his address from the White House. I was dumbfounded.  How could our great leader sit there and talk as if describing a Sunday afternoon picnic while I was almost sick with anger?  Slowly my anger began to turn to this man who refused to be as angry as I was. Who had the nerve not to demand the heads of BP’s top executives. I went to bed disappointed and angry at the man I had expected to be my voice.

The next afternoon I saw the news. BP agreed to set up a 20 billion dollar fund just as a start. Not only that, they agreed to a 100 million dollar fund to help the laid off oil workers due to the drilling moratorium!

Suddenly I understood.

My President hadn’t let me down. The man I expected to be my voice instead chose to be my guardian.

To understand the genius of his tactics you have to realize that by our own regulations, BP was limited to only 75 million in damages. Sure they were saying they would pay all costs but that could have stopped at anytime and there wasn’t much we could do about it.

Had the President set out like a head hunter out for BP blood, you can bet they would have turned it over to their legal department and it would have been many years before anyone saw a dime.

Barrack Obama had the forethought to stay calm; to firmly place responsibility and liability on BP’s shoulders while keeping care not to crucify BP.

You can bet in private BP saw a different face. I could just see our President informing BP that if they didn’t match action with words, things could get much worse for them. That not only would he publicly make them the face of evil incarnate, he would call for criminal charges for their top executives.

Instant cooperation!

I  should have known better than to lose faith. I have seen his calm genius before and I am sure we will see it again.

Paul

Posted in Economics, Environment, Politics | Comments Off

Global protest planned over BP’s handling of Gulf Oil Disaster

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

Will it make a difference?
Check out CNN’s informative article on the protest.

Posted in Environment, Politics, Social Issues | Comments Off

My Worries About The Gulf Coast Oil Leak Disaster

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

I am worried.

Not about the Gulf coast oil leak. It will stop. Sooner or later they will get this thing plugged or it will simply run out of oil, but it will stop.

Not about the clean up. It will take time and whether BP or the government or volunteers takes care of it, it will get cleaned.

Nor am I worried about the Gulf recovering. That also will happen. It may take many years, and may in the end be different than it once was but it will recover.

What I am worried about is that we will not learn our lesson. That the rhetoric about the need for jobs and the need of the meager oil reserves that offshore drilling has the potential to tap, will allow things to continue with relatively minor changes.

I already hear that they may allow new permits for shallow water drilling. Didn’t anyone notice that the last couple of oil rig accidents were in shallow waters? And that like this disaster they also took months to stop the flow of oil?

Just because it is 500 ft or less doesn’t mean that the oil companies are any more prepared to deal with an accident.

This accident should be Obama’s rallying cry, instead of allowing the opposition to turn this against him. He needs to use this opportunity to gain support for his green energy agenda. He needs to use this like Kennedy use Sputnik to spur our space program. He needs to use this to call on all Americans to cut our fossil fuel use to a trickle by the end of the decade. But more immediately he must call for a complete offshore drilling moratorium.

If the powers that be insist we need this oil too badly not to drill, a decent compromise would be to allow offshore drilling only when;

  • 1. All available failsafes are in place (including a sonically activated disconnect) and are regularly checked and certified to be in working order.
  • 2. That all liability limits are lifted.
  • 3. They demonstrate that even if all their failsafes fail, they can stop the flow of oil within 24 hours (this can be done by requiring a relief well to be drilled simultaneously to the main well).
  • 4. A strong government agency is created to do regular inspections, and also have the power to instantly shut down and fine any operation failing to meet safety protocols.

Only when all these criteria are met should we allow offshore drilling to continue.

Posted in Environment, Politics | Comments Off