Losers in the BP Oil Spill

I kept meaning to write about the BP Oil incident, but I was more interested in watching the news and learning about what was going on. After 30 days, I was baffled by how oil could still be pumping out into the Gulf of Mexico. Then it was 60 days. Then 80 days. If you had told me on day 1 that it would take 86 days to fix that leak, I would've told you, "No way, our government isn't that incompetent."

I should have known better.

Now that oil has stopped gushing out, the media is moving away from the oil spill. I keep hearing the headline, "Where did all the oil go?" This suggests to people that the oil is all cleaned up and everything is okay, but the oil isn't cleaned up and everything is definitely not okay.

If you want to find oil, go to Louisiana's marshes. Once oil gets into the wetlands, it's there to stay. That's not good for people or the wildlife.

The other issue is employment. Lots of people are still out of jobs. The problem is exacerbated by the moratorium on deep-water drilling.

Do I think the moratorium is necessary? I don't know. I'm truly conflicted on this one. On the one hand, people need jobs, they need income, and they need the oil companies to not say, "Bah, it's not worth it" and take their business elsewhere. On the other hand, if another rig explodes and we end up with more oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, then we've just committed an egregious and foreseeable error that can be called 'making the same mistake twice.'

The problem is that this whole mess never should have gotten this far. We shouldn't have to choose between jobs and another possible oil spill. There were supposed to be all these roadblocks and fail safes. What happened to those?

Well, first there's BP. They should've been practicing "Safety Always." They weren't. Bad decisions were made by many people, from the 'keep on drilling' to the 'we turned the alarm off to prevent false alarms.' BP also lied about having a back-up plan in case of an emergency. Papers state that they're committed to saving the walruses in the Gulf. You know, the walruses that aren't there.

It's not just BP, either. Lots of oil companies have the same exact back-up plans as BP… word-for-word, walruses and everything. Shouldn't this have caught the MMS's eye?

This brings me to my second point: the MMS. We all know that big business takes shortcuts at the risk of employees and the environment. We know that oil is a dangerous business. That's why the we created the MMS. They're supposed to keep an eye on the oil companies, make sure they have worst-case scenario plans, make sure the scientific studies are completed, make sure all safety standards are adhered to. Did the MMS do any of that? Not really. Instead, they were friends with people in the oil companies. They couldn't police their friends! ...Isn't that like the definition of a conflict of interests?

So yeah, the government screwed up big time. And they try to divert attention away from that fact by holding interrogations where they ask questions they knew wouldn't be answered. They posture and they yell and they try to prove that they're actively doing something. If they really wanted to impress Americans, the senators would be out in the Gulf helping to clean up the spill. Watching them congregate in an air-conditioned room in DC to lecture BP's CEO is a disappointing display. Stop wasting time. Concentrate on cleaning up the spill first.

In some ways, the government screwed up more than BP. After all, the government realizes that the oil companies need to be closely monitored to prevent incidents like this. But they didn't follow through. 'Oh, you say it's unlikely an oil spill will occur in the Gulf? Go ahead and drill. We don't need scientific studies. We don't need proof.' Yeah, great policy.

So yes, the government made a mistake by not enforcing regulations. BP made a mistake by ignoring safety standards. And the government made another mistake through inaction: BP said, "Everything's okay," and the President said, "Oh, okay," and even when it was clear that nothing was okay the President still didn't act.

On day 62 of the Gulf oil spill (June 20), Louisiana designated a statewide date of prayer. Things were just getting worse and worse, and they wanted God's help with this crisis. On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart responded:

Apparently, in Louisiana mortals only get sixty days to solve problems. After that, f—k it, let's call God. … You know, actually, the oil is under a mile of seawater and another two and a half miles of solid sediment earth, so I think God's done enough to prevent these spills.

Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

That's right, there were so many obstacles that should have prevented this from happening, no one should have to ask, "Sandbars or oil? Jobs or possible oil?" Because there are no good answers to these questions. At the end of every road is a dead end and a sign saying "You Lose."

We all lose.