John Metzler Archive

Gulf oil slick has White House surrounded

The terrible accident in the Gulf at a major BP offshore rig was an unexpected disaster but let’s face it, there should have been a serious contingency plan to plug the well and stop the spill. Now more than two months later, fingers are pointed but the oil gushes forth. Despite the ongoing disaster, the gushing oil into the Gulf’s waters has hardly been contained nor abated despite BP’s best technical efforts.

Three issues confront the Gulf Coast more than 60 days after the accident. First, the actual gushing “leak” pumping over a million gallons of petroleum into Gulf of Mexico waters has not been sufficiently abated or stopped. All the scientific technology to stop the massive petroleum hemorrhage has not worked so far. The oil keeps gushing at a rate of 60,000 barrels a day. This remains the primary problem.

Second is the widening oil slick continues to spread killing marine life, birds, fouling Louisiana’s rich fishing waters, and will soon to hit the beautiful beaches in Mississippi and Florida. The major waves of pollution slosh onshore in southern beaches and will be felt for decades. But let’s face it, the biggest hit will come this year and next as pollution shuts down the American fishing fleet, spoils tourist beaches, and causes a long term ecological and economic damage. BP has pledged at least $20 billion for a long-term clean-up effort. This may hardly be enough given the toxic political atmosphere and the Administration’s bitter blame BP game.

Third is the muddled response of the government itself. President Obama was slow to engage in a serious counter-attack on the crisis, but was quick at the draw threatening BP with massive legal action and plans about who was going to pay for the pollution. Initial leadership was lacking. Then seeing his political poll numbers fall, the president executed a rapid about face and started visiting the Gulf communities especially in hard hit Louisiana with shuttle diplomacy damage control.

Britain’s Economist magazine advised, “Although responsibility for the accident plainly lies with BP, a slick of recrimination now laps around the White House too.”

The massive government run and BP financed cleanup effort looks good on paper, but even the otherwise Obama-friendly New York Times called the ongoing oil cleanup a “fiasco” and there was “total chaos” in the efforts.

So when in doubt, appoint a Czar. Addressing the nation from Washington, President Obama presented a case, a speech which should have been in mid-May at the latest, outlining how to hopefully solve the problem and save the Gulf region from wider environmental damage. Obama’s case was pedantic, almost petulant, and lacking the emotional passion which Gulf Coast America needs to hear. This was a corporate pitch, lacking the genuine gravitas of a Presidential Address, yet ticking off talking points. But the ongoing oil spill remains the big story, not government spin cycle about it.

Now that there’s an Oil Slick Czar, to coordinate more bureaucracy, regulation and recrimination, we should nonetheless ask some questions.

Following the initial explosion and oil gusher into the Gulf, at least a dozen countries with oil cleanup and containment technology offered assistance among them Canada, the Dutch, and Norway. The Administration rebuffed the calls. Is Obama above taking needed advice from experts to stop a growing environmental disaster?

Let’s face it, maritime and eco-focused nations like the Netherlands and Norway have precisely the technology and expertise to at least try to tackle this problem. Moreover firms in the state of Maine have the oil boom technology available in quantity to at least contain the spill and slick from reaching the beaches. This would not shut the gusher but would contain and control the spreading mess.

While the oil spill was clearly not Obama’s fault, the mismanaged cleanup efforts certainly are. Contrary to the massive and violent natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this crisis was man made, but has expanded and spread from one small point, not a huge weather front spreading over hundreds of miles.

It’s time to stop the droning political blame game and bottle up the leak. Millions of gallons have spilled so far and the crisis is far from over. The Gulf Coast residents nervously wait for results, not rhetoric.

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