Yes, We Can Push Out BP

[G_j]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/29/push-out-bp/


Yes, We Can Push Out BP


The latest attempt by BP to shut down its apocalyptic oil gusher — the “top kill” maneuver — has failed, despite BP CEO Tony Hayward’s assurance yesterday that it had a 70 percent chance of success. There’s no question that the federal government, if the president so decides, can take over the challenge of mitigating the damage of BP’s oil to the shores and waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But can President Obama take charge of stopping the wellhead gusher from the foreign oil giant? The administration argues it’s keeping BP in charge of the attempts to shut down the blown out well because government doesn’t have the equipment or expertise to solve this engineering problem without BP:

Thad Allen, Incident Commander: “To push BP out of the way, it would raise the question, to replace them with what?”

David Axelrod, White House adviser: “They’ve got equipment that our government doesn’t have.”

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior: “This administration has done everything we can possibly do to make sure that we push BP to stop the spill and to contain the impact. We have also been very clear that there are areas where BP and the private sector are the ones who must continue to lead the efforts with government oversight, such as the deployment of private sector technology 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface to kill the well.”

The administration has been keeping an ecological criminal in charge of the crime scene during a national crisis. Seventeen nations have offered assistance — but “the final decision is up to BP” to accept it, according to the State Department — and only Canada, Mexico and Norway have been allowed to help so far. The law — Title 33, Section 1321 — mandates that President Obama “shall direct all Federal, State, and private actions to remove the discharge,” using any means necessary. There are not any resources — people or equipment — that Obama doesn’t have the authority to seize and put into service.


..more..

[Jennicut]

1. Top Kill was a last ditch effort until the relief well is done. BP

exaggerated the chance of success but I never thought it would be successful. It has never been tried at 5000 feet before and they did not try this first, obviously.
The cleanup I can see the govt. taking over. Stopping the leak...we really don't have the equipment or expertise. The relief well is the best bet and most deep sea drilling experts will attest to that. This brings up the fact that we should regulate that an oil company must drill the relief well while drilling the oil well. In some countries, it is mandatory.

[nashville_brook]

2. kicking...

more from the article:

It’s certainly fair to expect that private sector resources may be needed for this disaster, but BP’s only unique qualification for the disaster response is that it is the perpetrator. Although BP is by default a party responsible for implementing the cleanup plan, it is by no means the only possibility. The rig was operated by Transocean; the cementing done by Halliburton; the blowout preventer built by Cameron. Other companies involved in ultra-deepwater drilling include engineering giant Schlumberger, Norway’s nationalized oil company Statoil, Shell, and Chevron.

If the Navy can’t direct the undersea mission after it’s given authority over any needed private resources, it calls into question why we entrust it to operate aircraft carriers and nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered submarines.

Obama does not need to keep working with BP management — like CEO Tony “Very Very Modest” Hayward, BP America president Lamar “No Certainty” McKay, BP Chairman Carl-Henric “Big And Important” Svanberg, or COO Doug “Very Optimistic” Suttles — who have repeatedly laughed off the scale of this catastrophe. If federal officials believe that BP engineers should continue to work on the problem, the President has the authority to have those people working directly for the federal government.

In fact, the president has the authority to nationalize BP America and seize all of its assets, rendering the question of reliance on BP moot. If Obama does not believe that the Clean Water Act’s “spill of national significance” provisions give him sufficient authority, he can rightly declare a national emergency, or demand that Congress deliver him necessary legislation. Or there’s an easier option: BP is on the hook for all costs of this apocalyptic disaster. Obama can simply buy BP America and send the bill to its foreign parent company.

[stray cat]

3. The important question is can you stop the oil?

[maryf]

4. the critical question...

is to stop the oil, prevent any chance of a repetition...

[scentopine]

5. Just because you can't stop the oil, don't assume no one else can

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4403399&mesg_id=4403755


There can be disasters so horrible and large in scope that the response absolutely must transcend market shareholder pressure for market "incentives" and political strategy.

God damn it if I hear one more MBA lecture us about the "profit" incentive that guarantees BP and the government are doing the best possible job I am going to call bullshit every time I see it. BP has much more incentive to downplay and obfuscate ALL information about this spill because of the damage to brand reputation. What if the fuck are you talking about??? They could spend 100 million a day and it wouldn't fucking matter, they just have to uncork another well. Exxon is still fighting against Valdez compensation in the courts.

BP has the worst record of any operator in the USA. They have a history of recklessness around the Gulf and in Alaska. They have deliberately restricted the public from public property. They have lied about the flow rate and they have refused to release information about the chemical composition used in the dispersant.

FROM A SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE PERSPECTIVE IT IS A LEVEL FIELD, MANY OPERATORS ARE EQUALLY QUALIFIED TO MANAGE THIS RESPONSE.
BP is a general contractor. They manage pay and manage contractors. They have no more or less inherent knowledge about how to handle this spill then any operator in the Houston area. But what isn't equal is their motives and incentives that led to this catastrophe in the first place. That should disqualify them from making the being in charge and making decisions. They demonstrated reckless behavior that caused this disaster and they are engaging in reckless behavior in their response. Even local operators in Houston and industry associations are starting to ask what the hell is BP doing?

Finally - there are many essential steps to problem solving. Good engineering is not being practiced here.

1. GET AS MUCH DATA AS YOU CAN INTO THE HANDS OF SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS. Maybe we don't have solutions BECAUSE THE DATA IS BEING KEPT SECRET. Right now the entire scientific and engineering community is contemplating war with the whitehouse over the lack of data from spill. Its going on two months and the Whitehouse is still spew lies about 5000 barrels a day for christs sake. Even the most conservative unofficial estimates are 25,000 barrels a day. This massive amount means there could be another source of the leak than a single 21" diameter pipe.

2. GET THE BEST PEOPLE ON THE JOB. BP is not the best people. Past performance IS and indicator of future success.

3. LET THE PRESS DOCUMENT THE SPILL. Censoring the media and keeping the press away is fucking unbelievable. How any democrat can sit back and high-five Obama over this is fucking unbelievable. He has to say one thing "let the press have access". He won't. He knows the press is being controlled by BP and he agrees with this. He is duty bound to protect the constitution. But executive power seems to trample this under Obama just as it was trampled under Bush. You want change? Let the press do its job.; You want BP groomed PR? Keep things the same. (The irony is that the mainstream press will treat them as royalty because 1. they are rich, 2. they buy airtime. Its the independent media that scares the shit out of BPs dickheaded chairman).

Bhopal killed 8000 to 10,000. Do you think market incentives made a rat's ass of difference? How about Exxon and Valdez? Yeah - the magic of the free market.

AIG should be out of business, Goldman should be shut down, GM, Chrysler, on and on and on. Enron and the first S&L left Govt. with 150 billion debt. Wall Street bailout estimate is in trillions for all associated costs to Govt.

God Damn all the free marketeers who come here and lecture us about the magic of free market incentives guaranteeing that the white house and BP are doing the right things.

They obfuscated the facts about the Iraq war. They obfuscated facts about wiretapping. They obfuscated facts about Katrina. They obfuscated facts about torture. They are obfuscating the facts about this disaster. Up til this very day it has been an exercise in preserving Obama's and BP's brand reputation.

Both Bush and Obama know that if you control the press you control the message. If you control the press and message you can say what ever the fuck you want and people will believe it. BP spends millions and millions on campaign contributions. If they didn't, they'd have their ass in jail by now. Justice is blind all right.

Tell you what - how about you go out in the Gulf with a few thousand barrels of oil and accidentally dump them into the gulf. Then, you tell the government to go fuck themselves, you are managing the clean up and hire the coast guard as body guards and see if you can get away with it.

This BP chairman is an oily piece of shit. BP should be removed from office. The senators and politicians protecting BP are oily pieces of shit. They should also be removed from office.

I've been hearing about this for a month:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDGAoU1H2gM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/20/868145/-Why-Cant-They-Use-Tankers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/bp-is-big-and-important-b_n_589675.html

The Gulf of Mexico is too big to fail. BP is not.

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

:kick:

[G_j]

7. k