Government can't push BP aside from oil spill response, Thad Allen of Coast Guard says

[Sgent]

Source: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/government_cant_push_bp_aside.html

The Obama administration's point man on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill rejected the notion of removing BP and taking over the crisis Monday, saying the government has neither the company's expertise nor its deep-sea equipment.

"To push BP out of the way, it would raise the question, to replace them with what?" Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, who is heading the federal response to the spill, said at a White House briefing.

The White House is facing increasing questions about why the government can't assert more control over the handling of the catastrophe, which unfolded after a BP offshore drilling rig blew up April 20.

All of BP's attempts to stop the leak have failed, despite the oil giant's use of joystick-operated submarine robots that can operate at depths no human could withstand. Millions of gallons of brown crude are now coating birds and other wildlife and fouling the Louisiana marshes.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/government_cant_push_bp_aside.html

[FirstLight]

1. hmmm...then take them over?

If this is a foreign corporation, can the US still take it over and make them use te equipment in a specific way?

ha! like that would even happen, they won't even listen to the Govt telling them to stop with dispersants. That's the worst...

[zenprole]

8. Exactly

This is what needs to happen - take them over using 'clear and present danger' doctrine, which would leave ground- and mid-level personnel and equipment and information in place, which could then be re-directed with an actual solution in mind. Stand in the way and it's a felony. Any takers?

Of course, this is an alternate-universe scenario; the corporate control of American government, all the way up to the Pope of Hope, is complete. (But while we're on the subject, how about the troops coming home to clean this up? It's a great reason and any criticism could easily be blunted by many hours of on-the-scene footage and commentary. Personally, I'd like to see the Navy forcefully displace the Coast Guard and that tool Thad Allen.)

[William Z. Foster]

2. that is disgusting, truly disgusting

That man needs to be taken off of this job immediately.

Replace BP with what? Replace control by BP over the response with control by the federal government over the response for the protection of the public welfare, that is what.

[Naked_Ape]

11. What would you "do?"

The time to "do something" was before the drilling started the "thing" to do was not to drill. What's done is done. The Top Kill has (my guess, not a WAG) no better than 20% chance of working. Even if it does "work" it will still leak. The only real fix is for the relief well to come through and who better to drill than BP?

Still, this thing will be blowing until August. There's not a darned thing that can be done. It's like once you are sliding on that rain slicked road; Too late to buy new tires. All the skimmers in the world can't scoop up what is blowing out of that hole. Just thank your deity of preference that it isn't blowing like this in the arctic sea where weather would shut down the relief well before is was through. While you are at it, pray for a mild hurricane season.

[William Z. Foster]

12. nationalize

Nationalize the response to the disaster.

Of course. That is what all civilized societies do when faced with dangers such as this. It is the very reason we have a government in the first place.

[aquart]

14. "Who better to drill than BP"?

I'm guessing here, but how about a company and employees with a better safety record? Some company that lets SLB complete its tests.

[William Z. Foster]

3. that is simply awful

That man needs to be taken off of this job immediately.

Replace BP with what? Replace control by BP over the response with control by the federal government over the response, for the protection of the public welfare, that is what.

It is shocking that so many Democrat right here do not understand this very simple concept, or are fighting so furiously to prevent it from being heard or discussed.

[Lorien]

7. +1. Cameron offers equipment, Iran offers help, but the government still feigns

utter helplessness. The hollow cry of "help us BP, you're our only hope" rings false.

[Naked_Ape]

10. nt

[William Z. Foster]

13. very fishy

The whole thing smells very fishy, and the more people defend it here the fishier it smells.

[izquierdista]

21. OBPwan Kenobi responds

We're a farce Luke, we're a farce.

[Earth_First]

4. Is this the sme Coast Guard who is threatening arrest of media trying to get into the marshes...

to cover the disaster in full detail?

:shrug:

[wordpix]

17. not to mention the same BP that says only BP's people can rescue wildlife

obviously so the true numbers will not be known.

Thank gawd no one's listening to that bullshit

[Autumn]

28. That would be the same Thad Allen who says

"By the time the leaking well is finally capped, the amount of oil discharged could be comparable to the total released in the Exxon Valdez environmental disaster 20 years ago," Bullshit of the day. The gusher surpasses that in three days. What a tool. I think he must be working for BP on the side, to down play what they have spilled is criminal.

[KT2000]

5. He is stating a fact

and that is what we have to deal with.
I appreciated Allen's press conference because he knows his stuff and explained it well.
The only way the government could be prepared to take over something like this is if the company was nationalized and the employees of BP became employees of the US.

[KT2000]

6. delete

[tomm2thumbs]

9. Corporations are good at creating Too Big To Fail - right before Failing miserably

taking everything around them down with 'em

that old saying 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall' isn't whistling Dixie

[wordpix]

15. "the company's expertise"---yeah, BP's demonstrated lots of that

:sarcasm:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

16. Thad is POS pawn for the BP message machine.

I really wish that Obama would replace him with a more intelligent PR person.

[Trillo]

18. Allen Outlines Federal Role in Oil Spill Response

Source: American Forces Press Service via Defense.gov

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2010 – The Gulf of Mexico oil spill could soon reach levels on par with the 250,000 barrels of crude oil lost in the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill, the Coast Guard commandant said yesterday in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

“By the time we get this leak sealed, the volume that’s out there is probably going to start to approach that much,” Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the Gulf oil spill, told Candy Crowley.

“Our big concern right now is oil that's coming to shore around Port Fourchon in southern Louisiana and trying to redeploy our forces there to meet that,” he continued. “At the same time, we're seeing tar balls in Mississippi and Alabama. And this spill has really spread out wide, concerning its perimeter, but it's really concentrated, heavy starts, throughout the area of about a 200-mile radius.”

In a White House news conference today, Allen outlined the basic command-and-control structure for how oil spill response works. He told reporters that although the federal government has oversight, the spiller is responsible for financing cleanup, equipment and recouping damaging, according to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

Read more: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=59316

[skeptical cynic]

19. He's completely out of touch and downplaying the spill volume

The "spill" has already far surpassed the Exxon Valdez in volume. The Coast Guard is downplaying the volume. A more realistic estimate is about 2 million bbl = 84 million gallons or about 8 times the Exxon Valdez. They're using BP's lies to justify their incompetent federal oversight.

On the other hand, the amount of BP and government bullshit surrounding this catastrophic event might actually be greater than the volume of the discharge...

...wait a second...

...I have an idea...

...I think I have an idea to stop the leak. We could call it Bull Shot...or maybe Shit Kill...

It's the perfect solution. Bullshit seems to be the one technology in which BP and the federal government share competency.

[DatManFromNawlins]

23. Thad Allen is NOT out of touch

That guy is 100% professional. Internet message board commentators, on the other hand.... not so much....

[skeptical cynic]

27. If professional means

being a parrot for BP, then he's professional.

[EFerrari]

25. They should get out of oil and stay with the bullshit, agreed. They do it much better. n/t

[madchick44]

20. People don't want government regs. or control over anything

yet the government is always blamed for the shortcomings of private enterprise..no matter what it is. Peopl;e, especially teabaggers, don't want rules, regs, or even government enforcement of utilities, energy, medicine, banks, Wall street, and they don't government help either UNLESS they are directly affected. Then they want fast government help for their own bad decisions. Go for it!!!

[Doctor_J]

22. TAKE their equipment

then you would have it.

[ShortnFiery]

24. Well, IMO, Thad may need to take a running leap off of a short pier? We need several avenues

of action to assist the people to save their shorelines. We need to mobilize everyone we can to help aid in the clean up. We should be inviting the world's tankers to help us vacuum up the spill like the Saudi's had their people do. Where is the REQUEST for assistance from our leadership in Washington, D.C.?

[Bigmack]

26. Ummmm... don't we have....like... GUNS?....

How about this scenario. CG and Navy simply take over the operation. Everybody stays in place, only now the top guys are CG, Navy, EPA, e etc. Press their asses into the service.

I love it. We spend uncounted trillions on the military. They have enough power to blow the shit out of brown people halfway around the world, but when something happens that really is a threat to the US.... they just stand there with their dicks in their hands.