GREAT SOURCE
Sometimes you are writing about something and you get a referral from a friend who is on a parallel course or has information that can save you time and might have insight into a situation or what we commonly call the inside track. David D. sent me this lead article by a corporate attorney in the oil industry. It is the most comprehensive, accurate compelling parallel data I have come about. If you are serious about learning the truth about the Deepwater horizon spill read this article in depth on the website The Encyclopedia of Earth.
LINK: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
THE FEDS STORY
QUOTE: The dynamic nature of the BP oil spill has been a challenge for a range of communities – from hotel operators to fishermen to local community leaders. We know the American people have questions about how the federal government is responding to this crisis, and we are committed to providing the answers with clarity and transparency. The site you’re viewing right now is a symbol of that commitment.
GeoPlatform.gov/gulfresponse is a new online tool that provides you with near-real time information about the response effort. Developed by NOAA with the EPA, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Interior, the site offers you a “one-stop shop” for spill response information.
The site integrates the latest data the federal responders have about the oil spill’s trajectory with fishery area closures, wildlife data and place-based Gulf Coast resources — such as pinpointed locations of oiled shoreline and current positions of deployed research ships — into one customizable interactive map.
GeoPlatform.gov/gulfresponse employs the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) a web-based GIS platform developed by NOAA and the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal Response Research Center. ERMA was designed to facilitate communication and coordination among a variety of users — from federal, state and local responders to local community leaders and the public. The site was designed to be fast and user-friendly, and we plan to keep it constantly updated.
The mapping tool includes only those vessels equipped with the automatic identification system and therefore is not representative of all the vessels supporting the largest oil spill response and recovery operation in U.S. history.
POINTS OF LIGHT - NO CONJECTURE
Tony Hayward, told Congress today that the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico “never should have happened, and I am deeply sorry that it did,”. He and BP understood the enormity of the spill’s environmental, economic and human disaster and the impending toll.
As usual at these hearings, one of several protestors in the room, a woman decked out to look like oil all over her was helped out of the room by a small army of security guards. I'm sorry but protests are one thing and in the halls of the Congress inappropriate. Hold it in the ladies room, the back lawn, a garbage dump, but not in Congress.
Screaming and yelling accomplish nothing but delay us from hearing the lies and bullshit about to be dumped on us by our overpaid government Congressmen and Senators who accept bribes from the people they are thrashing. I feel the woman's pain as she is 61 years old and a shrimper from the Louisiana area. Her livelihood, her family and future may be hanging in the balance.
Hayward offered deep condolences, no answers to many questions and many commentators kind of hinted he "lawyered up". In judicial conversation, it means say nothing under oath because it may really come back to haunt you when theres a judge at the head of the room.
The CEO of BP, Mr. Hayward’s blank stares finally shifted and he read his remarks came after an hour of statements, mainly critiques and what I call "look goods", from committee members
Rep. Waxman, Head of the Energy and Commerce Committee, dropped a few bombs and went after BP’s “corporate complacency.” He said the committee searched 30,000 BP documents in vain looking for evidence of attention to the risks of the Macondo well. No one was really surprised when stuff vanishes when you have time to prepare. “There is not a single e-mail or document that shows you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at the well," "BP’s corporate complacency is astonishing," and "BP cut corner after corner to save a million dollars here and a few hours or days there.
UNEXPECTED ZEN BULLSHIT
Then the PARTI-ZEN-SHIT hit the fan (New word- see the Jacobs Political Dictionary) when Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the head NO man on the Republican side criticized the White House’s brokering the $20 billion fund as a “shakedown,” and apologized to Mr. Hayward for what he called the politicization of the crisis. Further he added, Mr. Barton said he was “ashamed” of the meeting at the White House on Wednesday, at which top BP officials pledged to set aside $20 billion to pay future economic and environmental claims.
At that point I offered Joe Barton, a one way ticket to Cajun country and a 20% discount on the URN of his choice when the locals (also called small people by the BP magnates) decimated by this tragedy, roast this idiot on one of those well blowoffs. Slow and medium to well please!
Note: In 1993, Barton ran in the special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Lloyd Bentsen, who became Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration. Barton finished third in the contest and missed a runoff slot. Congressman Barton has taken $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the Oil industry since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Over 100.000 this year alone. The Congressman is the Ranking Minority Member on the Energy & Commerce Committee. Because of the bribes he takes he should not be on any committee other than decorations for the Bush Library. Another of our bought off political party hacks and possibly prejudiced in his thinking and upbringing.
WHITE-HOUSE RESPONSE
Later, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, responded to Rep. Barton’s remarks. “What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction,” Mr. Gibbs said in a statement. “Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.”
After that Haywood took a lesson from the party of NO and just about set a record for answering nothing. Just like some of the people we pay a lot of money to to protect us in Washington and some things are apparently clear...and require answers, legislation, controls and the possibility of criminal actions being brought forth.
WHERE IS HALLIBURTON?
BP had a partner called HB.Halliburton put the castings around the bore hole in the sea bed. If the castings failed, the entire operation can and due to many circumstances, did fail. The two step process involved in part one is to seal the casting in the hole because there are pipes in the pipes and they have to be secured to prevent blow by. This serves to block any seepage of gas and oil. The second cement job secures the site for later collection from the well heads. Think of it as a partial attachment or temporary filling you get at the dentist till the permanent tooth or bridge is installed.
This is the second incident that Halliburton AND Cement MEET only in Timor. They come together with a similar end result. An oil disaster. Who was calling the shots at the scene. We know the scenario. Halliburton will say BP accepted the work and BP will claim Halliburton did sub par installations.
My question is where was the oversight? Where were the inspectors, MMS watchdogs or even Ronald McDonald when all this happened. This stinks higher than a two day old McDonald's fish sandwich, thats if any fish survive the Gulf spill. Ok, I know where McDonalds gets their battered fish patty, usually White fish, aka Whiting, or Hoki processed and filleted on huge factory fishing ships at sea.
Where was the safety net when reports of anomalies occurred. Who held the kill switch to possibly stave off the impending disaster. Nothing, no answers, even Haywood didn't have a clue. Or did he...
WHERE IS THE TRUTH ABOUT THOSE MEETINGS?
My heart is strained by this mess with BP but, it easily could have been Shell or Exxon. They all operated by a set of rules determined by the deep well oil regulators, the supposed watchdogs of the sub surface well drilling. The meetings to establish these rules and regulations or LACK OF were closed to the media and the public.
VP Cheney ordered that under the Homeland Security rules that he conveniently did something he did not want scrutinized by the public or the press. In fact many on his staff, denied the oil people were not in attendance. Tapes and other photos proved different. It was their deregulation and the removal of certain safety codes that were to blame.
Since 2001, the year these meetings were held little has improved in deep well safety, and technology other than how to "drill, baby, drill", faster and more efficiently. The ability to stop leaks, repair and prepare for events such as what happened were not on the table. As the emergency plans requested by Congress were published, our Senators and Congressmen were astonished to note that 55% or better of those catastrophe plans were about "How do we handle Media Fallout".
In a sense we all looked the other way as it was explained to us by the Bush administration that certain things had to be done to protect this great land of ours. Some ideas fell under the war powers acts, homeland defense, and presidential powers.
HE LIVED - TOO BAD
Cheney is very silent now, his recent heart problems might have quieted him for a while. His daughter with no credentials whatsoever is still babbling on, about what a great job her dad did. Spoken like a true daughter. We'll see if hearings take place on those MMS meetings and who said what.
If I had to fault Obama for anything, it is his complacency in not going after a regime filled with lies and deceit, greed and abuse. I am not talking of Karzai in Afghanistan. We in the states participated in invasion of privacy, torture, payoffs, greed, bribes of government officials, favoritism, cronyism, partisanship, blackmailing, slander, and deregulation resulting in banking, mortgage, oil spill, investments, jobs and manufacturing losses and thats what a normal day in Washington was about during the last administration.
But the good side was a lot (maybe 5% of the populace who were on the right side) of folks made a lot of money. Like the oil gushing out of the ground, it was there for the taking, and accessible till someone lit a match...
There are several media groups demanding the minutes and information of those meetings be disclosed to the public arena and then be judged before they "accidentally" get destroyed.