Gulf Oil Spill: "Government by Corruption and Exploitation"

While an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil gushes into the Gulf of Mexico, nary an utterance of “Disaster Recovery Plan” by British Petroleum or Washington. You would think an existing plan—if there were one—would be common knowledge by now.

Most adept organizations have a Contingency Plan and a Disaster Recovery Plan. So far, the oil spill plan has been trial and error, “work-in-progress.”

We know several attempts to cap the well have failed, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) is corrupt and the U.S. government has done little to help in the recovery process. This demonstrates “Government by Corruption and Exploitation.”

Most troublesome is Obama’s reaction to the oil spill compared to his response to the earthquake in Haiti. About the earthquake he said, “We have to be there for them in their hour of need.” He went on to promise an all-out rescue to help overcome a "cruel and incomprehensible" tragedy." He authorized military aircraft, ships and thousands of troops to help the people of Haiti, and we followed through with that commitment.

Yet, during a crisis in our own country, our government stands idol in terms of supplying resources or cooperation.

Louisiana and Florida have essentially begged for help, to no avail. Governor Jindal said with emotion, "We need more boom, more skimmers, more jack-up barges." Louisiana, however, has received only a fraction of the supplies it requested to protect itself.

Could it be the administration simply does not know how to deal with the oil disaster? Are they too incompetent? Do they not care enough to take action—any kind of positive action? We have the armed forces, a fleet of naval ships, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Corps of Engineers and vast resources ready for the job. Washington is simply doing nothing, or at best, dragging their feet.

It may be they could have a special agenda to leverage the crises. No action is tacit proof that assistance in the oil spill disaster is a low priority, but exploitation is. As touted by Rahm Emanuel, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Hence, the Obama administration has finally decided to do something: threaten to sue BP and possibly take over the company. This seems to be the normal process. First, it was the automobile industry, then health care, the financial sectors, energy and even the Internet! Perhaps that is all we can expect from a gang of Chicago operatives, lawyers and a radical leader. Moreover, President Obama is using the Gulf Oil Spill to push his radical environmental legislation for clean energy, etc.

The irony is astounding. The government has not federalized the disaster response under the Oil Pollution Act. Besides, the MMS was supposed to be the watchdog, and they failed miserably. The MMS mission is to “manage the ocean energy and mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf and Federal and American Indian mineral revenues to enhance public and trust benefits, promote responsible use, and realize fair value.”

In fact, all offshore operations should have a Disaster Recovery Plan. The Plan should include, based on a criteria of conditions, the de-commissioning of operations and a contingency plan to minimize impacts and implement the recovery process. The MMS, the Department of Energy and relevant Gulf State authorities should have pre-defined and enforced the criterion and the Plan.

Bottom line, the corrupt MMS and other agencies did not ensure disaster planning was in place. Neither did Washington respond to offers by several nations to provide assistance in the recovery effort.

Instead of focusing on the recovery process and cleaning up internal corruption, the DOJ adds BP, along with Arizona, to the growing list of administration legal targets. The BP disaster is “. . . an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” This administration practices Chicago-styled politics and games of exploitation, particularly in view of the Romanoff and Sestak pay-for-play scandals.

While the economy is on the skids and national security is threatened, Washington remains in the political stupor: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

I wonder, will we read about “Government by Corruption and Exploitation” in history books?

Semper Fi,
lou@gallio.net

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