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Today's Top News
Big Oil & Conflicts of Interest: Obama Owns This Mess
Troubled chickens come home to roost
INTERIOR SECRETARY Ken Salazar and President Obama say they will split up the Minerals Management Service to separate the arm that inspects and investigates the oil industry from the arm that last year collected $13 billion in royalties and fees from the industry. Both Obama and Salazar say this will ensure "there is no conflict, real or perceived.''
Splitting the agency means nothing unless Obama and Salazar revamp the culture of this lazy, conflict-ridden agency that in some years, according to the Wall Street Journal, collects more money than any other federal agency except for the Internal Revenue Service. While the IRS is the subject of national ire every April 15, the minerals agency dutifully conducted its business in unseen labyrinths until BP's deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion and gargantuan oil spill in the Gulf. One of the tragedies is that the Obama administration knew exactly what dysfunction it had on its hands entering office.
In 2006, the Interior Department's inspector general, responding to a Senate committee request and a New York Times report that the minerals agency had undercollected $700 million in gas royalties, said the agency "lacks reliable management information to adequately develop a compliance strategy, monitor progress, and assess results.'' In 2007, Interior inspector general Earl Devaney issued a report that found that the revenue management division of the minerals agency was "fraught with difficulties,'' including:
■ The bureau's conflicting roles and relationships with the energy industry disagreements.
■ A working environment in which poor communication or no communication compounded an already existing element of distrust.
■ A Band-Aid approach to holding together one of the federal government's largest revenue producing operations.
Obviously, nothing was learned because after the report the agency was rocked by a conflict-of-interest scandal in which employees received gifts from and had sex with oil company representatives. Besides saying that the scandal represented a "culture of ethical failure,'' Devaney also concluded in 2008 that the minerals agency "modified oil sale contracts without clear criteria, and that modifications appeared to inappropriately benefit the oil companies.'' It said the agency adjusted one of every six bid packages from 2001 to 2006 to the tune of $4.4 million.
That was only the known money. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2008 that auditors feared that mistakes by the agency might cost taxpayers $10.5 billion over the next 25 years. In addition, the Government Accountability Office has issued its own reports criticizing the minerals agency, saying last summer that the agency "risks losing millions of dollars in revenue.''
Obama and Salazar knew all that coming into office. But what did
Salazar do? He hired a
While Baca has not been implicated in anything connected to Deepwater Horizon, it is ironic that her former employer is not only fouling the waters, but has betrayed the toxic dynamics of partnership between government and Big Oil. The Deepwater operation was one of many approved by the minerals agency without a full environmental impact review. Government scientists have complained that other BP operations were not safe. And all during the current crisis, BP has arrogantly underplayed the disaster.
There was a time that the Obama administration could say it inherited a mess. But now, having approved hundreds of drilling and seismic blasting plans without full environmental reviews, according to the New York Times, it owns this mess. Last month, the Interior Department's inspector general office said Interior "has never had and currently operates without a scientific integrity policy.''
The Times reported yesterday that the Texas laboratory that the government is using to analyze the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is also employed by BP. Salazar and Obama have a long way to go to eliminate the reality and perception of conflict of interest.
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49 Comments so far
Show AllOilbama and Congrease are slippery characters. Tell your legislators that you DEMAND that they limit how much the political campaigns in this country's election races spend in them so the playing-fields in those races are level-enough and we get good-enough politicians! They have NO EXCUSE for not doing it. The Supreme Court is on steroids compared to the high courts in the world's other democracies, and the government has the authority to impose those campaign spending limits no matter what the Supreme Court says about it.
"Although it might seem like the ocean is the border of the United States, the border is actually 200 miles out from the land. This 200-mile-wide band around the country is called the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)."
"In 1983, President Reagan claimed the area of the EEZ in the name of the United States. In 1994, all countries were granted an EEZ of 200 miles from their coastline according to the International Law of the Sea."
"The United States Minerals Management Service (MMS) leases the land under the ocean to producers. These companies pay MMS rental fees and royalties on all the minerals they extract from the ocean floor. Individual states control the waters off their coasts out to 3 miles for most states and between 9 and 12 for Florida, Texas, and some other States."
http://www.eia.doe.gov/
kids/energy.cfm?
page=oil_home-basics
~~~~~~~~
OleManRiver asked, what about Cuba? Don't they get a 200 mile Economic Zone? Not if they don't play our game.
NMBill
Excellent point. Regarding Cuba, one wonders if Cuba will ever demand that the United States return Guantanamo Bay to its rightful owners, the island of Cuba.
Obama could return it anytime by withholding the rent.
The USA pays $4000.oo per year, which is money that Cuba does not accept. The US government and its Cuban US puppet government made a lease. It has a fixed price of $4000.oo per year, forever. After the Cuban revolution, the Cuban government, opposes the presence of the naval base, claiming that the lease is invalid under international law.
If Obama had an uncharacteristic surge of honesty, he would return Guantanmo bay back to Cuban control, and Cuba would not receive the $4000 that it never accepted anyway.
The most unfortunate aspect is Mother Earth, our environment can't wait for corpo-fascists to come up with their own definition of 'conflict of interest' and what they deem appropriate actions to eliminate it ... EVERYWHERE ... and to prevent it EVERYWHERE!
'Conflict of interest' is everywhere in Washington. It's pervasive. It is pervasive even down to the lowest level. Even small town public works departments are corrupt. YES ... 'conflict of interest' = corruption!
If one were to ask the members of the MMS if their conduct caused them any ethical concern, if they felt any conflict of interest, any dereliction of duty I suspect the answer is no. There is no conflict of interest because those currently in the agency know who their real boss is--the oil industry. It's where they worked before they came into the MMS and where they will go after they leave it. There would be an ethical or moral conflict if one recognized a difference between the private for profit interests of the oil industry and the the public good and safety. This conflict is avoided by believing that what's good for the oil industry is good for America. Why wouldn't it be? The oil companies own the government and its public representation. Mary Landreau doesn't get elected to serve any interest other than those who pay her way, who finance her election. These regulators know how sold out the government is, how futile it would be to oppose what the oil companies want. If they did they would get it from both sides. The politicians would attack them and they would be blackballed from any lucrative opportunities in the industry once they left the agency. There is no petty corruption here either. These regulators are not taking bribes, how could they--it would just make their real bosses angry at them. Incestuous sex is a good metaphor for what is going on here, "one mistake on top of another." Just like the SEC regulators who spend most of their time looking at porn--who really expects you to actually regulate and what would happen to you if you actually did? Something far worse for you than what will happen if you just go along for the ride.
No worse that the Mine Inspectors.. all the paperwork and the cititians had been duly written. After that what is there to do but go back to the office and watch porn.
How many good people who wouldn't shut up are holding those jobs? None,0, everytime sombody tries to step up they get steped-on. Everybody knew there was a problem, nobody lifted a finger to stop the drill and fix it.
Just like nobody forced the Coal Mines to stop operations until they could pass an inspection!
Just like the SEC inspactors sat around watching porn. Knowing they were just biding time till it time to go back to GS, AIG, BofA or some other Bankster Syndicate.
We have plenty of laws they just never seem to get enforced.. on the truly bad people. You know the ones who cost Hendreds of Thousands their homes, Millions their Pensions, Billions the chance at getting a good job at a true living wage with Benefits and a chance to grow.. Those Bad People. who never get whats coming to them.
>^^<
Sioux Rose
RICHARD: Please purchase a dictionary!
Spell check alert here:
line 1, you wrote, "cititians," is that citation with titties?
line 4, they get steped-on, as in stepped on?
line 7, SEC inspactors, as in inspectors?
line 12, never get whats coming, try what's coming.
I am yet to see you write a post of more than 1 line without MANY errors. Sloppy writing = sloppy thinking, regardless of what the CD "grammarian liberals" prefer to think.
Sioux, now isn't the time to be grading papers. It's about having a voice and communication. If you knew what he was saying, then who cares? Language is fluid, ever changing. There isn't a "right" way. If spelling and grammar are supremely important, then Lewis and Clark would be portrayed with dunce hats. The issues facing us all are critical, life threatening, planet threatening and everyone deserves to be heard. Don't discourage people. We need everyone to get involved.
I agreed with everything Richard said.
Peace and goodwill, Buck
Buck, I'm with you. I didn't know how to say it but you said it best. There are things to get picky at like issues and Dems vs Greens but spelling, punctuation, inuendos, and paranoia problems don't belong here. Peace and goodwill to you and Richard too.
Frederick Johnson
On the contrary, I would like to think, as a former English major, that writing well involves more than the content of one's message. It also means that spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. is, and most certainly should be, important even, if one can dare to point out, on the Internet. One should take pride in not only what one says but also how one says it. I find it extremely bizarre when one says that spelling and punctuation do not belong here and then somehow attempts to link those two with innuendos and paranoia problems. What this country needs are more, not less, people [as Susan Jacoby wisely notes in her most relevant book The Age of American Unreason] who can actually string together two or more sentences in not only a coherent fashion but who can also write those sentences that would demonstrate that they are grammatically correct. If that were to actually take place, one would certainly like to hope that that would be something that a person would be proud of doing. There are simply too many examples that one sees today where the phrase The Dumbing Down of America has become all too relevant. I think that it becomes all too sad when one attempts to make another feel ashamed because a person has attempted to express him or herself in a clear, concise and grammatically correct way.
Sorry, but content is everything. It is that which is in people's heads and hearts that count. If you are an English major, then you realize the changes that have happened through the years to the way people speak and write. To declare "your" way proper and the only way is elitism replete. Communication is the crux.
Your comprehension skills must be a little lacking because it was another who was trying to make someone feel ashamed, thereby, potentially driving them from this site called Common Dreams. During these times of great turmoil, it is ridiculous to make grammar an issue, worse to drive away a like minded person.
Go listen to some Zappa, read some Kerouac or Will Rogers, then get back to me. Tell me if they communicated ideas within the bounds of your sacred grammar.
What's next, criticizing people for their dialects because it isn't the same as yours?
Oh my, am I using the right fork to eat this salad?
Buck
Your example of criticizing people for their dialects is bizarre, to say the least. You still have not explained why speaking and writing in a coherent way should be viewed as being a bad thing. Your examples of Zappa and Kerouac and Will Rogers are also quite odd as I never stated and nor did I infer that their particular styles of communicating are invalid.
Again, I must strenuously disagree as to your amazing assertion that content is everything. Do you then advocate that children no longer be taught English in the public schools? You can probably taker great solace in the fact that your view point has probably become the prevailing one in this country as very few Americans seem to care how they speak as well as communicate via the written word.
Get back to me after you have read Susan Jacoby's most valuable book regarding the deterioration of communication in the United States and how so many Americans would rather watch a program like American Idol instead of cracking a book which follows the format of [gasp!] subject, verb, noun and with some adjectives and adverbs mixed in along with a few predicates and prepositions.
As I stated before, it is rather stunning to behold someone claiming that it is a good thing, or that it does not matter, if one writes in a sloppy manner. Here is a novel thought. It never seems to have occurred to you that it would be quite beneficial if one actually combined content with form. How one says or writes something should not be automatically considered to be of secondary importance. One would like to think that it should be considered just as important as the message itself. Alas, that thought, unfortunately, seems to be quite defunct these days in semi literate America.
It seems you many things bizarre and odd.
It will be a while until I read Jacoby's book, though it sounds groundbreaking and original. Who would have ever thought that television could be a negative factor? Evidently, she is selling the idea that communication is important, exactly my original point.
Man, for someone that brags about their major, you don't seem to be able to hear what people have to say. I didn't say anything about coherence or badiness. Quite the opposite. I understood everything written above, including the original post. I just don't find fault in it.
To now claim acceptance of Zappa's, etc, styles is disingenuous. One second, grammar is imperative. Then, when it's obvious brilliant people disregard your standards you turn about face.
Now, for a small test, which person is smarter:
Subject number one said/writes, "War is a glorious and wonderful benefit to society and all of Nature's biota. It facilitates peace and security, brings harmony to all of God's creation."
Subject number two said/writes, "War no good. Reck Erth. Hurt peeple, much teers."
Mr. Buck, to point out that your two comparisons in writing are quite specious is to state the obvious. What you conveniently neglect to mention is that people such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Chalmers Johnson, Sidney Lens, John Prados, Marilyn Young, Andrew Bacevich, David Cortright, Stanley Karnow, among others, have written laboriously and quite eloquently on how loathsome and destructive war is without the gibberish of your last sentence. Those authors have proven that they can demonstrate how destructive and unnecessary war is [especially when the U.S. is directing those wars] while doing so in a clear, coherent and intelligent manner. That, I believe, is a goal that all writers, whether they are amateur or professional, should attempt to achieve.
You also claim that I am not able to hear what people have to say. If you actually reread what I had written, you would have found that my main objection to what you had to say was when you boldly stated that "content is everything." My argument is that one can can write incisively while also writing in, again, a clear, coherent and grammatically correct way such as the above writers that I had earlier cited. Again, that would also include writing on the Internet as well as in book form. As I attempted to point out earlier, to do so should not be considered as something negative or wrong.
Erroll, Buck and I have nothing against learning English and communications correctly but we live in an era of sound bites and one liners and this is what tempts people into thinking in certain directions. If conservative sound bites worked, then there could be progressive sound bites to reverse the thinking and then we could find ways to bring people back to thinking and writing like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Chalmers Johnson, Sidney Lens, John Prados, Marilyn Young, Andrew Bacevich, David Cortright, Stanley Karnow, etc... I live in South Carolina and I cannot get people to talk about issues unless I give them laymen talk. I like your writing and I honor your degree as an English major but right now we look too elitist to them and we can't afford to let them ditch us for the wrong guy. We have to first confront sound bites with sound bites and then progress from there if we're to reverse the tide.
Frederick,
I usually don't write long posts, let alone carry on conversations. I like Sioux Rose and Erroll, but didn't like it that she berated one of our fellows. In English 101, it is taught that writers must consider the audience. Poke them in the eye and they will leave.
I, too, am an English major, but don't believe in rules being a limiting factor in communication. I like to create short sweet sound bites. One was snatched by a writer here and used as a foundation of an essay. Another was pirated by the editors (I guess) and used as a title. The key is that the sound bites have to carry as much meaning with as few words as possible, like poetry. Most important is that they have to carry truth. We're all in this together. Let's keep trying.
Peace and goodwill, Buck
I think that we are almost in agreement. Thanks.
Frederick, Understood. I saw the other threads and we may be more in agreement than it appears. I should be thanking you for jumping in to refute the destructive, counterproductive, narrow minded elitism. I'm going to start doing it every time it turns up. Buck
It's nice to know that many English teachers are progressive. :-D
Pretty funny chess master dude, only I'm not a teacher and am way past being progressive. Peace.
Erroll,
We're friends now, so please just call me Buck. It's a family nickname that stuck.
Richards Catz wasn't attempting to be a writer. He is a concerned citizen that wants to be heard and he deserves to be heard regardless of his style or skills. I'm guessing that he comes here to find like minded people and learn a little. He should be encouraged to do so. Tolerance of others is one of the missing ingredients that led to this failure of a society.
Of course there are better writers. I like to build things and pound nails every once in a while. Does that make me a carpenter? Certainly not. Do I worry about doing it the right way? Nope, I just want it to be functional. Same goes for people that communicate over the internet. They bring what they have.
You are clearly a decent man. Thanks for the give and take, and the names of authors of which I'm not familiar. I cut and pasted them and will keep my eyes out for their books. I hope I wasn't too obstinate. My intent with the artists mentioned and the test was to build acceptance of people that intend no harm and demonstrate the importance of content over form. Everyone has value regardless.
Peace and goodwill, Buck
I know, I've always been a terrible speller, but a decent writer--or so I've been told. Firefox alerts me and I can correct most of my spelling errors instantly. Spelling seems to bother some here, but it need not. That said I'd recommend Firefox to those like me who are notoriously bad spellers. Peace.
Erroll, I respect you and Rose on English. I didn't mean to rail against punctuation and spelling but right now, the dumbing down of this nation has gone too far and if we have to reverse it, we need to take the right steps in the right order. We need to get people to think progressively first before we can talk about grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Spelling can matter but as progressives, aren't we supposed to be lenient and nurturing towards others? Nobody is perfect and how many people are going to be as smart as you and Rose at a time our education system is failing systematically? The Dumbing Down of America is more than punctuation, spelling, and grammar. It's about thinking in general. No offense sir but grammar will have to wait until the basics can be restored first.
True, but it is neither necessary, nor polite to be a picky pedant. We are not grading papers at this site, or at least we shouldn't be.
I thought that I was saying just that. I just wanted to pay respect to Erroll who is a respectable poster on this site.
I was just supporting your comment.
The purpose of the new BP oil spill 'commission' is to pacify the public and make them think some real investigation was done. In fact, they serve to cover up the enormity of the crime and assure that NO ONE who is powerful will be charged with even a misdemeanor. Gross criminal negligence on the part of MMS, BP, Halliburton, and Transocean? No problem! The investigation will 'discover' that it was a complex accident and no one is to blame. Sound familiar?
Send somebody to jail for growing pot for 10 years, but for destroying the coastline of 4 states, a fishing industry, potentially the coastlines of other countries like Cuba, Jamaica, etc.--No Criminal Prosecution! Just like 9/11. There's no case that will go to trail because THIS CRIME IS TOO BIG TO PROSECUTE. And the guilty are rich, white men.
Ken Salazar and other MMS reps should GO TO JAIL for criminal conduct in their lack of oversight and failure to require stricter protection (acoustical switches for example) for any off shore oil drilling. The Obama administration should face an inquiry about why THEY APPROVED MORE PERMITS for offshore drilling as the spill was happening! Oil company executives and some of their flunkies should have ALL ASSETS TAKEN FROM THEM and used to pay reparations. BP, as some have argued, could be nationalized just as any insolvent business 'too big to fail' might be.
Can a people rise up? When? How? The media controls everything and everyone is just trying to survive. But one day, there will be hell to pay for all these criminals at the top.
Need more conflicts of interest?
Goldman Sachs was one of the partners who bought Nalco in 2003.
Nalco makes Corexit, the toxic chemical dispersant that BP is using.
Exxon and BP sit on the board of Nalco.
BP just told the EPA to stuff it, they're not switching dispersants.
Obama yawns.
Another job well done for Goldman Sachs.
No conflict of interest their all just doing what their paid to do :(
Thanks NMBill,
For acknowledging my question about Cuba and the 200-mile EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). It still remains a question, however.
As for this article, it barely scratches the surface on conflict of interest. Salazar "hired a BP executive, Sylvia Baca, for the post of deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management." And when she returns to the private sector after leaving that government job, how much more money will she get than before?
It's called the revolving door, a term that Jackson strangely neglected to use in the article.
-30-
I like the little map on the web site showing the zones. It's like some countries don't exist. Shows how self-centered our thinking is on that map.
Sioux Rose
Save the state money. Why not let all criminals provide their own forensic reports? That's about in line with how the oil execs and operations managers get to run the show and then control not only the would be clean-up, but the gathering of all evidence. (911 redux repeats on an environmental scale this time.) Then there's the similar M.O. seen in how Wall St was given the generous bailout money (sans regulations!) to see benefits extended to those who caused the crisis. Inversion of the ownership society is the unstated name of this new disaster capitalism game. The public is accountable for all costs and mistakes, while the "well meaning" engineers in each arena walk away with the richest of rewards.
Considering the fact that the direction of change is ever backward, not forward, and that from the get-go the system's been rigged against us, doesn't it follow that either we rise up en masse and change the world or it'll be lights out for all life on earth?
But rise up how?"
At the right moment, of course...
Based on?
Vision + Plan + Spirit = Change
the Vision?
A just and peaceful world
the Plan?
A work in progress whereby each and everyone participating in the
uprising has a say
and the Spirit?
The all for one and one for all in pursuit of a better
world, with today's anti-establishmentarianism being the
initial expression of said spirit
but is this the moment?
It's not as if we can pick & choose, what with perpetual war + global warming = doomsday, and with time running out.
Meaning it's now or never?
Exactly
It's all well and fine that this article has made it to the pages of the Globe, but how can we stop the madness that corporatism is causing? I mean it's ecocide. Haven't we gone far enough to realize the agenda is no longer reflecting the common good but rather narrow corporate interests? I mean the facade has been lifted for years, at least here in the alternative media. All that remains to be seen is how much damage and destruction this free-wheeling, palm-out style of government will cause.
Do we have to let things deteriorate so badly that we're homeless and jobless before anything gets done to protect Americans first and foremost from corporate raiders and polluters, along with their own government's transgressions? Apparently it's not enough to let corporations downsize and outsource. We also have cronyism feeding the corporations with below-market lease rates on public lands. And disaster capitalism has evolved out of opportunities created by deregulation and lax enforcement. The Army Corps of Engineers neglected the levees in New Orleans now they "help" with Deepwater.
Can you honestly tell me that Wall Street was hurt by the 2008 credit crisis? Bonuses were record levels in 2009. Plus, today Obama's Justice Dept. (Or was it the SEC..does it matter?) said that no one at AIG would be prosecuted. This on top of the fact no one has been prosecuted for lender-based mortgage fraud, according to William Black.
Can we honestly believe the elections between twiddledee and twiddleedum will bring change? The political duopoly simply perpetuates the status quo, deepening the trough for the Inner Circle who have the most clout. Meanwhile the rich grow richer as the environment and middle class are sacrificed. It's like I've said: they'll continue to get away with everything we let them get away with.
Peak OIl...
It is only adding to the problems. Those in the industry, are desperate, desperate desparate, to make sure they keep pumping, and the money keeps flowing in. The minute our government admits, that the cost of pumping and drilling is not worth it, SINCE WE CANNOT KEEP SQUEEZING ROCK TO GET OIL, ETC... they end up with a dead golden goose.
Now, do I think that the gov is going to wake up to this fact, HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But I can wish.
Peak Oil will force everyone including the government to wake up.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
From what I'm hearing and reading the sheer magnitude of the Gulf Oil Torrent and the decades upon decades of damage, much of it perhaps permanent, that it is doing are not fully grasped yet by many people in this country, including in the political class and perhaps even in the White House. Every month that goes by with this thing still spewing a river of oil into the sea, Obama's chances of being re-elected (regardless of any other policy successes which have thus far been negligible) becomes more remote.
Even before the spill began I'd come to the conclusion that he & Rahm were just a couple of Chicago pols on the neo-lib corporatist make. Obama already seemed uninterested in being anything more than a one term wonder. I think he's already made his golden parachute deals and is just felching as much corporate ass as he can before the door smacks him on the way out.
But this Gulf Oil Deluge could make Obama as hated in retrospect by Americans as George W. Bush still is by many, including many in Bush's own Party. The very LEAST Obama could have done was to order the emergency manufacture and/or import and distribution of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of oil booms to better protect crucial barrier marshes. They wouldn't have been perfect protection, but they would have been better than Obama's usual nothing. Obama: The NOTHING president.
America's and the world's authentic progressives should prepare as best we can for Republican gridlock of Congress after November and Republican control of the government again in 2013. The best thing we as American progressives can do is to call for a national progressive leadership summit to chart a path to a new, well organized national movement and/or Third Party to replace the intellectually and spiritually dead Democratic Party.
So, you're saying that they actually have all those booms and DIDN'T use them? Mmmmmmmmm.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
I don't know how many booms were available. But Obama could have ordered the purchase of any around the world that do exist (because other countries use them) and he could have ordered and paid for the emergency manufacture of more. He is coasting on this issue like everything else. Just like Bush II he is incompetent to be president and in well over his head. There is no alacrity in his response to ANY crisis and he deserves to lose office ASAP.
Same Shit, Different Day
What a waste of time reading about grammar versus content.
Please stay with the beat: Content is First; good grammar helps:
And Poetic license can transform both!
The Question Is Will
A black slime sea raging,
Preparing a gulf to be devoured,
Will it stop at Cuba,
Blacken a Amerikan Schooner,
Pierce the White cliffs of Dover?
A greed filled folly repeated,
Or will the crime awaken the sublime,
Piercing the reptile brain,
Where cold black blood is changed,
To warm blue verdant vapor,
Lapping on the shores of radiance,
All living creatures,
Respectful of the balance,
Of our swirling whirling planet?
Is the Gulf oil spill an intentional attack on the USA??? If not,then why is this simple technology
not being used to contain the oil?
Keeping the oil from reaching the open ocean is the critical consideration. Sealing off the leak can happen later.
Here is a way to keep the oil contained and collectable.
http://www.tentnology.com/tent-gallery/fabric-structures.aspx#
(see image #2, #3, #8 )
By taking this, placing it over the pipe at the bottom of the ocean, and extending the top to connect to a 20 foot fabric tube going 5000 feet up to
huge fabric storage tanks floating on the surface to be pumped to ships, could stop the spill.
The leak can be plugged later, and must be. But in the meantime, no oil would reach the environment.
Oh.. the US now owns PB, all their assets should be impounded for collateral.
How can those responsible for the leak be so stupid as to allow the oil to escape? Is it intentional?
timothy price
timothy.price@valley.net
Sigh. People who never leave their basements really have no sense of scale, or what the open ocean (even in the gulf) looks like. "Placing it over the pipe at the bottom": as if working a mile under the ocean was as straightforward as doing a little gardening in the backyard.
And no, the people are not stupid. They are greedy, and the responsible individuals know that they personally will not be going to prison.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
"in which employees received gifts from and had sex with oil company representatives"
No, the word you are looking for is "whores". The KGB used to do this too - engaging in espionage via a cadre of women they called "swallows" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clandestine_HUMINT_asset_recruiting#Love.2C_honeypots_and_recruitment ). Companies involved in espionage against the government should simply be delisted and their assets nationalised.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
Keep at least two pairs of shoes but be prepared to run barefoot.
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