Buffalo Boy's Blog
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oil/gas: June 2010 Archives
Spill Linked to Cheney
Anyone who argues the fact that the previous Bush/Cheney administration had their heads up the collective asses of big oil companies needs to check their facts. There is no denying it and the evidence is building that Cheney may in fact be the one who made the decision to make the acoustic shut off switches optional because of their HUGE price tag of $500,000
$500,000 could have saved this thing from ever happening and it was Cheney who called the shot. Read the excerpt below from this article:
"As the Wall Street Journal, reports, after a spill in 2000, the [Minerals Management Service] issued a safety notice saying that such a back-up device is "an essential component of a deepwater drilling system." The industry pushed back in 2001, citing alleged doubts about the capacity of this type of system to provide a reliable emergency backup. By 2003, government regulators decided that the matter needed more study after commissioning a report that offered another, more honest reason: "acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly." I guess that depends on what they're compared to.
The system costs about $500,000 per rig. BP is spending at least $5 million per day battling the spill, the well destroyed by the explosion is valued at $560 million, and estimated damages to fishing, tourism, and the environment already run into the billions.
The Minerals Management Service is the part of the Interior Department responsible for offshore drilling. Towards the end of the Clinton administration, MMS officials wanted rigs to have the acoustic shutoff switches, but by 2003, the agency had changed direction.
What happened in those three years? Well, for one thing, the MMS in the Bush/Cheney era became one of the most corrupt government agencies in American history. The Minerals Management Service proudly embraced an anything-goes atmosphere that led to literally Caligula-like corruption and debauchery -- federal officials traded cocaine and sex for lucrative oil contracts, for example.
For another, Dick Cheney's secretive energy task force concluded that $500,000 for remote shutoff was simply too great a burden, and the former V.P. and his team didn't want to force BP and other oil companies to spend the money."
Well, I know the president is a little busy right now but if the above is true this is definitely worth the tax dollars to investigate and hopefully slap a pair of cuffs around Cheney's wrists. Yet another in the list of long messes that Barack Obama was handed by the previous administration.BP Still Concerned About Shareholders
I couldn't believe the report yesterday that BP had to assure investors of their ability to pay for the mess in the gulf and that BP would have money for dividends.
Stop right there. I don't think BP really realizes how much they are on the line for here. They not only have years if not decades of clean up costs ahead of them, they also have years, if not decades of covering losses suffered by tourism and fishing industries as well as any other related losses incurred by gulf coast residents.
And why are they worried about profits for their investors and themselves for that matter? The biggest environmental disaster probably in human history at this point and their investors are worried about profit?
BP cheif executive Tony Hayward needs to get his head out of his ass and stop worrying about investors, profit and getting his life back and focus more on the clean up of the mess that his company caused.
It was greed and want to save the almighty dollar that led to the lack of safety measures that caused this mess, so to see this trend continue is disturbing
At this point BP shouldn't be worried about profiting their investors, their investors should be worried about BP surviving this mess.
Category: News | environment | money | oil/gas
