RSS Feed MenuThings are going from bad to worse in the Gulf of Mexico.
Why are we surprised? An oil well blowout in 50 feet of water is hard to get a handle on. A blowout in the black depths a mile below the waves is an order of magnitude more difficult to manage, increasing the risks that a spill will turn catastrophic.
Knowing those risks, BP and the oil industry at large should have been straight about the hazards when pressing for expanded deepwater oil drilling. They weren’t.
Knowing those risks, the Obama administration should have been quicker on the draw with its disaster response when the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up April 20. They weren’t.
So, here we are. The metastasizing oil slick has reached shore, threatening ruinous damage to one of the world’s great commercial fisheries and the habitat for scores of waterfowl and other wildlife species.
It could get worse. The Wall Street Journal on Friday quoted industry experts’ estimates that the blown-out well could be leaking 25,000 barrels of oil per day, which is five times higher than the earlier estimate, which was five times higher than the estimate before that.
At that rate, the spill would be in the Exxon Valdez’s league in less than two weeks.
Unlike the Exxon Valdez, which contained an easily measured quantity of crude oil, the leaking well is emptying a reservoir of indeterminate size.
Unlike the Exxon Valdez, which spilled oil onto a rocky shore that could be hosed and scrubbed down, the Gulf spill threatens to contaminate boggy bottomlands that would be impossible to clean.
No one is likely to come out of this fiasco smelling like a rose. Nor should they.
Start with BP. With memories still fresh of the deadly explosion at its Texas City refinery and its leaky, corroding pipelines in Alaska, BP has acquired a Keystone Kops reputation that belies its aspiration to be perceived as a different kind of “Beyond Petroleum” oil company.
The administration, desperate to avoid the incompetence rap that tarred its predecessor following Katrina, isn’t doing itself any favors either. It played down the danger of a disastrous leak immediately after the explosion, prematurely declared that the blowout preventer had been triggered, and put out a statement that the surface slick was merely the residual aftermath of the rig explosion. Homeland Security waited nine days before asking the Defense Department to lend a hand.
It’s not fair just yet to call the administration’s response Katrina: The Sequel. But it’s fair to start asking hard questions.
Down in Plaquemines Parish, where the Mississippi River meets the sea, the locals say they can already smell the slick’s foul odor. The longer the situation remains out of control, the farther the odor of this fiasco is likely to spread.
annoyed // May 2, 2010 at 3:54 am
This is America. Have all of you people forgotten where we live, this is not Britian (BP). This is OUR coastline and wildlife being threatened, you handicapped people. Yes, Obama should have sent people instead of press releases right away, and I am talking first hand. I saw all of it. It is in my back yard. This is their responsibility, to take care of OUR people, do not get me wrong, but this is our coastline. Do firefighters and cops really wait for jurisdiction orders in the case of an emergency or do they act in the manner they were trained. The way you people think, with many more years of “wisdom” than me, is laughable. Just wait until some tragedy happens in your home and see if you want to argue about the freaking president.
balconesfault // May 2, 2010 at 6:21 am
What I think is worth noting is that the purportedly “liberal” parts of the media – say, the NY Times – are already questioning why the Obama Administration did not act quicker.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/opinion/01sat1.html
That’s kind of the role of the media – not to go into hyperdrive defense mode whenever a politician they endorse may have made a poor decision, but to look into and ask the tough questions. That’s kind of the baseline for being considered part of the reality-based community, instead of being a partisan outlet which reflexively defends the politicians on “their side” no matter what evidence may suggest.
At the very least, it seems that the Obama Administration was guilty of a flaw carried over from the previous administration – the willingness to accept the word of a large corporation when they made the claim that “they had everything under control”.
We keep working under some kind of presumption that large corporations will always act in ways to reduce the risks that they would face when something they’re doing goes horribly wrong – be it the derivatives meltdown, or a growing oil slick. Over the last 30 years in particular the philosophy has been that business will always make the right choices for the economy, and government can only screw things up. I have no doubt that some BP executives were sitting around a table saying “if we tell the Feds how bad this is, they’ll just come in here and screw things up worse, and then try to bill us for it”.
As progressives, we should be as pissed off when a Democratic President is guilty of this as we are when a Republican President is. Our corporate culture isn’t an enemy – but we should be aware that they are entirely self-serving, and we need to remove the presumption that corporations acting in their own perceived best interest will always produce the best result for us.
On the other hand, politicians should be careful about criticizing BP too much … they’ve got some deep pockets, and are now fully capable of funding some very aggressive anti-incumbent advertising against any politician who takes a tone they don’t like!
ottovbvs // May 2, 2010 at 7:49 am
…..I thought it was only a matter of time before the Drill Baby crowd started the smear campaign……the coast guard have been there since the get go, there are already miles of plastic booms laid to stop crude coming ashore and the basic fact is that when it comes to capping wells the people with the expertise to handle this are the oil companies or the oil service companies like Halliburton or Schlumberger………when it comes to shutting this off the govt are basically spectators
bamboozer // May 2, 2010 at 8:53 am
The “slow to respond” smear is not only ineffective it’s childish. At this point Republicans will do and say anything to bring Obama down, the problem for Conservatives is everyone knows it as they long ago beat it to death.
oldgal // May 2, 2010 at 9:15 am
The first thing that happened after the explosion was search and rescue – the Coast Guard was there immediately – they are the best day in and day out. Not perfect, but definitely excellent and rarely given their due. The problem with Katrina was search and rescue was totally botched. Could things have been handled differently after that? Sure, but I defy anyone to tell me what would be different today if we had known immediately the extent of the disaster – I doubt if we have a handle today on the extent of the developing disaster. Mistakes will be made, they always are in disasters of this magnitude especially when they happen for the first time, then we do a post mortem and improve our methods for the future. Post mortems are best left until after the disaster so that the finger pointing doesn’t interfere with the management of the disaster.
Slide // May 2, 2010 at 9:20 am
Ridiculous. The absurdity of Obama’s critics knows no bounds.
LauraNo // May 2, 2010 at 10:57 am
Oldgal said: Post mortems are best left until after the disaster so that the finger pointing doesn’t interfere with the management of the disaster.
This is true if what you are concerned with is the tragedy. But not if you’re a right-wing Bush defender.
TerryF98 // May 2, 2010 at 11:16 am
And Now A time line of events following the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill belies the absurd media claim that the spill represents “Obama’s Katrina.”
April 20 (10 p.m.): Oil rig explosion. An April 21 ABCNews.com article reported, “An overnight explosion in the Gulf of Mexico rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast, sending spectacular bursts of flame into the sky. The fires were still raging today.” The U.S. Coast Guard’s National Oil and Hazardous Substances Response System assigns primary responsibility for cleaning up oil spills to the spiller as the responsible party.
April 21: Deputy Secretary of Interior, Coast Guard dispatched to region. An April 22 White House statement noted that following a briefing with President Obama, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe, and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, “Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes was dispatched to the region yesterday to assist with coordination and response.” The Coast Guard announced that four units were responding to the fire, with additional units en route.
* Search and rescue efforts begin for 11 missing. An initial focus of the response was the search for 11 missing crewmembers. The search was called off April 23.
* BP confirms U.S. Coast Guard was “leading the emergency response” In an April 21 press release, British Petroleum stated that it was “working closely with Transocean and the U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading the emergency response, and had been offering its help – including logistical support.”
* CNN.com: “The U.S. Coast Guard launched a major search effort.” An April 22 CNN.com article reported:
The U.S. Coast Guard launched a major search effort Wednesday for 11 people missing after a “catastrophic” explosion aboard an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico engulfed the drilling platform in flames.
Another 17 people were injured — three critically — in the blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon, which occurred about 10 p.m. Tuesday. The rig was about 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O’Berry. As of late afternoon Wednesday as many as six firefighting vessels were working to contain the massive fire caused by the explosion.
“It obviously was a catastrophic event,” O’Berry said.
April 23: Coast Guard “focused on mitigating the impact of the product currently in the water.” On April 23, the Coast Guard stated:
The Department of the Interior, MMS [the U.S. Minerals Management Service], and the Coast Guard continue to support the efforts of the responsible parties to secure all potential sources of pollution. Both federal agencies have technical teams in place overseeing the proposals by BP and Transocean to completely secure the well. Until that has occurred and all parties are confident the risk of additional spill is removed, a high readiness posture to respond will remain in place.
Although the oil appears to have stopped flowing from the well head, Coast Guard, BP, Transocean, and MMS remain focused on mitigating the impact of the product currently in the water and preparing for a worst-case scenario in the event the seal does not hold. Visual feed from deployed remotely operated vehicles with sonar capability is continually monitored in an effort to look for any crude oil which still has the potential to emanate from the subsurface well.
“From what we have observed yesterday and through the night, we are not seeing any signs of release of crude in the subsurface area. However 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,” Landry stated early Friday morning.
April 25: Response team implements plan to contain oil spilling from source, weather delays cleanup.
* Storms delay response efforts. An April 25 Associated Press article reported, “Stormy weather delayed weekend efforts to mop up leaking oil from a damaged well after the explosion and sinking of a massive rig off Louisiana’s Gulf Coast that left 11 workers missing and presumed dead.” AP further reported:
The bad weather began rolling in Friday as strong winds, clouds and rain interrupted efforts to contain the spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer John Edwards said he was uncertain when weather conditions would improve enough for cleanup to resume. So far, he said, crews have retrieved about 1,052 barrels of oily water.
* Oil recovery and cleanup were to resume after adverse weather passed. On April 25, the unified command team responding to the spill stated:
The unified command is implementing intervention efforts in an attempt to contain the source of oil emanating from the wellhead at the Deepwater Horizon incident site Sunday.
The unified command has approved a plan that utilizes submersible remote operated vehicles in an effort to activate the blowout preventer on the sea floor and to stop the flow of oil that has been estimated at leaking up to 1,000 barrels/42,000 gallons a day.
Also, BP is mobilizing the DD3, a drilling rig that is expected to arrive Monday to prepare for relief well-drilling operations.
Additionally, the oil recovery and clean-up operations are expected to resume once adverse weather has passed. These efforts are part of the federally approved oil spill contingency plan that is in place to respond to environmental incidents.
April 26: Response crews “to resume skimming operations.” On April 26, the response team stated, “Sunday, an aircrew from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sighted five small whales during an over flight in the vicinity of the oil spill, which currently measures 48 miles by 39 miles at its widest points with varying levels of sheening, and is located 30 miles off the coast of Venice, La.” The command team further stated, “Following adverse weather that went through the area, response crews are anticipated to resume skimming operations today,” including 1,000 personnel, 10 offshore vessels, 7 skimming boats and more than 14,000 gallons of dispersant. At that point 48,384 gallons of oily water had been collected.
April 28: Federal officials realize spill was far more severe than BP led them to believe. An April 28 New York Times article reported, “Government officials said late Wednesday night that oil might be leaking from a well in the Gulf of Mexico at a rate five times that suggested by initial estimates.” The Times further reported:
In a hastily called news conference, Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry of the Coast Guard said a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had concluded that oil is leaking at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, not 1,000 as had been estimated. While emphasizing that the estimates are rough given that the leak is at 5,000 feet below the surface, Admiral Landry said the new estimate came from observations made in flights over the slick, studying the trajectory of the spill and other variables.
An April 30 Associated Press article reported, “For days, as an oil spill spread in the Gulf of Mexico, BP assured the government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic. Federal authorities were content to let the company handle the mess while keeping an eye on the operation.” The article continued:
But then government scientists realized the leak was five times larger than they had been led to believe, and days of lulling statistics and reassuring words gave way Thursday to an all-hands-on-deck emergency response. Now questions are sure to be raised about a self-policing system that trusted a commercial operator to take care of its own mishap even as it grew into a menace imperiling Gulf Coast nature and livelihoods from Florida to Texas.
April 29: Napolitano declares spill “of national significance”; BP insists its “plan can handle this spill.” On April 29, BP official Doug Suttles appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and stated, “At this point, I believe our plan can handle this spill, and that’s what we’re doing.” That day, Napolitano declared the spill “of national significance,” explaining that “we can now draw down assets from across the country, other coastal areas, by way of example; that we will have a centralized communications because the spill is now crossing different regions.”
* EPA preparing for oil to hit shore. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson commented at an April 29 press briefing: “[A]s the oil does hit the shoreline, EPA will provide support to assess the impacts on the coastal shoreline and play a key role in implementing the cleanup. As a daughter of the Gulf Coast, I know that it is our job to ensure people that we will be eyes and ears working with the states who have valuable and vital resources to monitor air, water and land quality.” Jackson also stated that the EPA has deployed air-monitoring aircraft “that is gathering information on the impact of the controlled burn on air quality, both in the area of the burn, and, of course, further away.”
* AP: “Air Force sends planes to help with Gulf oil spill.” An April 30 Associated Press article reported: “Two Air Force planes have been sent to Mississippi and were awaiting orders to start dumping chemicals on the oil spill threatening the coast, as the government worked Friday to determine how large a role the military should play in the cleanup.”
* WSJ: Navy joins Obama’s “robust response.” An April 30 Wall Street Journal article reported that “The U.S. Navy said it will send more than 12 additional miles of inflatable oil booms to the Gulf, as well as seven towable skimming systems and 50 contractors with experience operating the equipment.” The article continued: “The Navy is making two large facilities available to the Coast Guard personnel and BP-employed contractors who are currently taking the lead in fighting the spill. Military officials said the booms and skimmers were being sent to a Naval construction base in Gulfport, Miss. The Navy also opened its air base in Pensacola, Fla., to the effort.”
JJWFromME // May 2, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Paul Krugman got it right:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/the-oil-spill-is-obamas-fault/
You guys are utterly predictable.
Krom // May 2, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Is this *really* the direction you guys want to take this? Because it absolutely isn’t going to pay off with anybody who hasn’t already gone off the deep end.
andydp // May 2, 2010 at 3:39 pm
annoyed said: // May 2, 2010 at 3:45 am
“andydp: Governor Jindal annnounced the National Guard has been mobilized for three months (through Federal funding)
Jindal requested the National Guard, but they resources have not been released yet, do not try and say something when you do not have the facts.”
Mea culpa. I should have said he “requested” funding for the three month mobilization. I simply remembered hearing Gov Jindal talking about the mobilization.
Rob_654 // May 2, 2010 at 4:35 pm
rbottoms // May 1, 2010 at 11:37 pm
The Obama administration is being called out for something it had nothing to do with! Shocker! Now all you offended people know how we felt when Bush was blamed for 9/11, Katrina and Al Gore’s weight gain.
An airplane attack on a skyscraper in New York, man who could have seen that coming. (And possibly had a protocol in place to stop the second tower attack?)
>>>> Who could have seen this coming? Well – one simple and quick example I refer you to “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla”.
“As the World Trade Center security chief for the financial services firm Morgan Stanley, Rescorla anticipated both attacks on the towers and implemented evacuation procedures that are credited with saving many lives. He died in the attacks of September 11, 2001, while leading the evacuation efforts.”
As for no one seeing a freaking disaster with Off-Shore drilling – perhaps you haven’t been paying attention to the fight over off-shore drilling that has been going on for decades? You know the one where those crazed liberals have been saying – its not a good idea because one disaster could be really, really bad?
But then the Far Right – like Sarah (Drill) Palin says – “Drill Baby Drill” and derides the people who predict disasters (apparently correctly)…
easton // May 2, 2010 at 5:57 pm
JJWFromME
“You guys are utterly predictable.” What are you talking about? This thread has been varied and not predictable at all.
TerryF98 // May 2, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Well this worked out well!! What could go wrong.
BP, the company that owned the Louisiana oil rig that exploded last week, spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident.
***
But according to aides to Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has followed offshore drilling issues for years, the industry aggressively lobbied against an additional layer of protection known as an “acoustic system,” saying it was too costly. In a March 2003 report, the agency reversed course, and said that layer of protection was no longer needed.
“There was a big debate under the Bush administration whether or not to require additional oil drilling safeguards but [federal regulators] decided not to require any additional mandatory safeguards, believing the industry would be motivated to do it themselves,” Carl Pope, Chairman of the Sierra Club told ABC News.
JJWFromME // May 2, 2010 at 8:01 pm
“This thread has been varied and not predictable at all.”
The tack movement conservatives use of promoting false equivalencies and false outrage is utterly predictable at this point. The title of this blog post, “Obama’s Katrina?”, is straight out of Fox News. Take something inflammatory, with very little basis, and add a question mark at the end, and you have an instant Fox headline! Jon Stewart has beat this point to death.
…Which was why Paul Krugman could so easily predict it. The sun rises, the sun sets, and movement conservatives make false equivalencies and stoke false outrage. It’s like clockwork, and there are whole media outlets and institutions who basically do it for a living.
Wally // May 3, 2010 at 12:22 am
“Obama’s Katrina”! … bwahahahahahaha!
This is an economic and environmental catastrophe … and workers lost their lives.
That headline offends me.
cannongood // May 3, 2010 at 8:01 am
Hannity couldn’t even get his facts straight. He said about the clean up operation, “The sole responsibility would be the federal government… They sat back for nine days and they did absolutely nothing.”
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/force-factor-review-amp-free-trial-2113761.html
ottovbvs // May 3, 2010 at 8:35 am
cannongood // May 3, 2010 at 8:01 am
“Hannity couldn’t even get his facts straight.”
…….When does he ever get his facts straight……this ploy was entirely predictable but I’d say they are going to be as successful with blaming this on Obama as they have been blaming him for the financial crash…..it feeds the base’s prejudices of course but just turns everyone else off
Rob_654 // May 5, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Obama is being blamed for not acting sooner.
Originally BP lied when they said (A) they have it under control and (B) that the size of the leak isn’t anything what it really was.
Can you imagine the Far Right’s outrage if Obama had told BP, “I don’t believe you and I am sending in government resources” – they would have been screaming Socialism and the Government getting in the way of Private Enterprise.
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[...] Barack Obama, for any disasters that now occur, even labeling the recent Gulf Coast oil spill "Obama's Katrina." However, it's more complicated than [...]