One of the strangest and widely held ideas in the debate over the handling of the gusher

[TheKentuckian]

One of the strangest and widely held ideas in the debate over the handling of the gusher is that a corporation can be a responsible party.

To me that is simply asking the impossible, no matter how fair or desirable it would be.
Companies are just not set up to be responsible in the way that is relevant to the discussion which is to the general welfare. I'm not certain even conservative types are crazy enough to actually believe that but rather that the "invisible hand of the free market" will smite them if they stray too far from the needs of society.

Companies can be culpable.

Companies can be liable.

Companies can be at fault.

Companies can be negligent.

Companies can be in or out of compliance with laws and regulations.

Companies can be (at least in theory at this point, do we still have the will? Are the courts fully captured?) be held accountable.

If those things are what is meant by "responsible" then fine but if you think any company can be relied on to put the interests of the country, our citizens, and our habitat first then I have to ask, plead, or beg you to re-think at least the last 150 years of corporate history.
You might also take another moment to review in your mind what we know about BP in general and how we got to where we are today.

We can just look at how the rate of flow was obviously lied about. Clearly, any possible solution that might be tried is rendered worthless when the wrong numbers are plugged into the equations and used for the modeling. If you are dishonest about the flow rate and pressure then all of the answers are going to be garbage and a response could also create the risk of increasing the damage.

BP wasn't being "responsible".

Also, BP faces substantial fines for each barrel of oil spilled so they have every incentive to lie about the scope of a spill and to underestimate it. They also means have every possible incentive to hide oil by keeping it below the surface, breaking it up, or by any other means they possibly can.

BP may also know they have done some shady stuff that might be able to stay hidden if they can limit the eyes on the situation. BP might be in a situation where inviting too much help will increase the possibility of a misdeed being discovered and exacerbating their culpability.

BP can't be "responsible", being responsible inherently makes them irresponsible to their actual primary duties...profit and legal culpability. The more responsible a company in this situation is the more it is going to cost them. Getting under reported flow rates and using any possible method to sink, hide, or disperse oil is functionally more central to them than any actual mitigation of the real damage.

BP can't possibly be trusted to be responsible because again their interests lie in mitigating damages and billable costs. If they can make a decision on a dispersant, just as an example, that saves or even makes them money that has the possibility of some rather nasty side effects that they won't be held accountable for then that's what they will use over a more expensive but less harmful product.

A company will never spend themselves out of existence or even to the point it hurts unless utterly forced to. If BP was offered a sure-fire solution to close the well but it costs say 11 billion dollars, they'll just wait it out. If they knew for a fact that even a relief well wouldn't stop it and the gushing would go on for years but they could spend 20 or 50 billion and stop it right this second, I think we all know full well they'd just let the gulf become blacktop and take their chances in the courts.

Folks are calling for the government to take command and control because they instinctively know that BP will always first work in BP's interests and secondly in the interests of their broader industry. The national interests and this companies interests converge at closing the gusher and even that convergence has it's limits.

Virtually no one expects super hero action. Hell, most don't even really expect that anyone knows how to do anything but I bet you most want an honest broker making the final calls with the very best help to make those calls that can be found from around the globe.

We want an actual responsible party making the calls on what chemical cocktail is being dumped into our waters not greedy suits.

We want actually responsible parties allocating resources to protect the shores.

We want actual responsible parties deciding what is worth putting large sums of money into that might help contain or lessened the impact of the problems.

We want an actually responsible party to decide what help is appropriate to enlist not someone afraid of losing competitive advantages or having their culpability exposed.

Nobody wants private industry bailed out.
No one seeking for an actual responsible party wants private profits and socialized risk. In fact, I'm certain that there will be virtually no limit on the accountability desired and perhaps the greatest concern that culpability will be successfully evaded.

We are eager for the full weight of BP's resources, knowledge, and money be thrown fully into this effort. Hell, many if not most would go beyond BP and engage every resource the industry as a whole as well. Hell, I strongly believe that every possible resource the nation has be on the tale and that we fervently work to enlist every resource in the region and in the world, if at all possible.

All of that said, I and I suspect a great many others simply insist that responsibility is a fantasy when expected from this company in particular and all companies in general.
BP cannot and will not act in the broad general interest and that is why it is necessary that government be in the catbird seat and that any action or plan be approved and overseen by those at least theoretically capable of being responsible. This isn't about specialized knowledge or equipment in the sense I think some believe but rather of culture, focus, goals, and duty.

Just as we have and demand civilian control of the military even though most of those civilians are lawyers and business people with no expertise or experience in such matters it is required here. There just has to be some kind of referee on the field whose responsibility is to the "game" not the "players" or the "teams".

[SwampG8r]

1. yeah...what he said +1

[TheKentuckian]

2. Sorry for the length but I'm no good at boiling stuff down to bumper stickers

and I think its important that I try to express as complete a thought as possible on this.