Where is all the media outrage on the spill?

The Coast Guard is charged with protecting, you know, the coast. Their whole MO is to deal with coastal disasters, not deep sea oil wells that they don't regulate. The CG has no staff expertise in deep drilling or any of the technology that is on some of those rigs. They do have a lot of experience in cleaning up spills and such, but this on a whole different scale.

The one agency that should be regulating the rigs and have some expertise is the Minerals Management Service. You'll remember them from the Bush administration where they were taking bribes and sleeping with oil industry lobbyists.

Also, I did hear RFK Jr. say this morning that the rig was drilling at a depth well beyond it's permitted allowance. He also made a pretty damning case against BP and their fellow companies, as well as the lax oversight during the last decade. If this is true, how can you blame the CG for not being more prepared?

 

i haven't seen fox -- so i hadn't heard any criticism of the response.

Rim -- in your honest assessment (partisanship aside ) has the gov't response been adequate and appropriate? Not compared to Katrina -- but compared to what you would have liked to have seen?

I am disappointed there hasn't been a greater connection to the Admin's proposed extension of offshore drilling in sensitive areas -- hopefully this is just a timing thing, and not complacency by the enviro groups because they prefer the current gang at the whitehouse to the old crew.

 

Thanks for the info, although it is rather unsettling.

 

I'm not in a position to say if everything that could be done has been done. Offshore rigs and spills of this magnitude are outside the realm of my experience and training. However, I do know that a sense of urgency has been communicated down the line and that the resource orders are flowing and planning is taking place. One of the cardinal rules of emergency response is that you absolutely must take time to plan regardless of what hell is breaking around you. If you go into a pure reactive mode, you will fail dramatically. So, I'm glad to see the planning effort gear up for when the oil hits the shore. It will make the response much more efficient as the communications and supply and deployment sites will have already been lined up and primed. Also, it cuts down on redundancy between different responding entities.

As implied above, this is a multi-faceted disaster. There's the rig accident, the leak, the ocean ecosystem, the coastal ecosystem, the broader issue of deep water wells, the economy of coastal areas. the economy of the country, etc. What I do on fires and other incidents is work on a team that organizes and manages and supports a large number of people working on a specific task within a certain geographic area. This will be the kind of work that occurs on every mile of shoreline affected by this spilling. I think so far the response for that has been textbook. The challenge will be to put those plans in action and move and support thousands of people working on the beaches for what looks like will be extended timeframes. This thing is just starting.

Regarding your other point, Obama and his advisers deserve some heat on this. Not for the response, but for cynically offering up offshore drilling in the hope that it would mollify a few Repubs who would support Cap and Trade. I can understand their reasoning and I understand that we are a decade or more away from any of that drilling occurring (before BP), but it was still an unnecessary concession to Repubs, who will inevitably find a made-up reason to vote against anything Dems support. It was a calculated and probably a good political move at the time, but now it just looks absurd. Such is the way the world works sometimes.

(To put another way, he's not getting a lot of heat from enviros because it was understood that the drilling concession was primarily a bone to try and get Cap and Trade passed and because the way he framed it would make it difficult for something to happen in those areas anytime soon.)

However, by taking that stand that early, Obama has now hamstrung his capacity to push for more regulations and use this as a cause to rally around for alternative energy. Not impossible that he could still do it, but it makes it harder. But all that's politics. Again, the response so far is looking good from where I sit.

 

Wait....Sarah Palin is calling for MORE govt?

 

Thanks Rim. Appreciate your insight.

I disagreed very strongly with putting drilling in sensitive ecological areas 'in play' -- regardless of political motives. And am frustrated that there hasn't been more effective opposition from the groups that usually fight these things. They simply shouldn't accept that being offered as any type of a concession. But that's a separate issue. Probably best for another time.

We're busy planning another summer jaunt into your part of the country (Oregon, right?). Keep the fires out. Take care.

 

Cool. Where are you headed?

The one saving grace from the fire perspective is that the SW and Great Basin got lots of moisture this year and large fires should be fewer than average. The only hotpots forecast for this year are the Northern Rockies (MT, ID) and the Pacific NW (OR, WA). However, those areas usually don't come on line until mid July or later. Thus, given the predicted seasonal weather, we can probably support Gulf stuff without it impacting us too much until late July or early August, which would be right at the 90 days timeframe that has been tossed around so much, though I'm guessing it will be longer than 90 days.

 

More Federal response...

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel10/oilspillfraud050410.htm

 

More...

 

How's this?

 

You're wasting your time if you think he's actually going to respond to his own thread now that it's been proven to be stupid.

 

I really can't blame Obama and his advisors for offering the drilling concession. While a disaster like this might've been in the realm of possibility I'm not sure how much that risk was known to the Obama Admin. especially if they were relying upon the oil industry to asess that risk. How anything gets done in DC is compromise and Obama going all the way back to his campaign said he was going to reach out to the other side of the aisle. On top of that after a major health care fight the fight for cap and trade was going to be just as hard with possibly many Democrat defections. They had to do something to shore up support ahead of time and this seemed fairly reasonable. At the time.

 

Ironic talking point considering conservatives rarely give a damn about the poor people affected by Katrina or the environment. I am outraged by this spill however, we should stop offshore drilling right away until we can more fully ensure the protection of the environment from future disasters. I KNOW conservatives are with me on that one.

 

Call just came in for a list of all our biologists and botanists that are available to go to the Gulf.

 

To Republicans American lives are not valuable unless they are unborn or died on 9/11.

 

OddsOn, what is your opinion on the articles pertaining to what you posted?

 

Have you not been reading rimrocker's posts? You do know he works for the government right?

 

Just when I thought you had reached the pinnacle of stupidity, you post this. Bravo. Don't stop now, OddsOn - this is high comedy and I, for one, love you. Your like the bbs's personal Joe the Plumber.