When CNN's Anderson Cooper says this:
COOPER: It is sort of fascinating, David, for a president who watched Katrina and saw the- you know, the failures of the Bush administration- and
there were failures, also, at the state and local level, we all know, in Katrina. But for a president who saw that and- you know, was very critical of it, to now find himself in a situation in which he's being criticized for the lack of response or lack of coordination, is kind of stunning.
Read more:
CNN's Cooper: It's 'Stunning' Obama Let Oil Leak Become 'Katrina in Slow Mo' | NewsBusters.org
You know you've got a problem.
Obama will not let this "good crisis" go to waste for his own personal gains. I would expect energy costs to increase substantially and the backroom deals with "green energy" companies to flourish.
In the Katrina disaster, state and local (city) had primary responsibility.
In this disaster, except for BP, the Feds had primary responsibility since the whole event took place outside state borders, and the Feds had the responsibility to regulate, and they did a poor job at it. According to an article in the WSJ (June 1st) BP changed design of the well a week before the spill.
According to WSJ the MMS allowed the regulations to be breached time after time in the days leading up to the explosion, signing off on repeated requests to change plans which did not conform to requirements pertaining to advance notification.
"In only one other case, a 2005 well drilled in just 48-feet of water, has a company submitted three revisions within 24 hours, as happened at BP's well. BP's well is in more than 5,000 feet of water, making dealing with the well far more complicated.
Changing procedures at the last minute is discouraged in the oil industry. The industry has long emphasized the importance of strict "management of change" policies -- protocols for making sure that changes to well design and drilling plans don't introduce new risks, or to address them if they do."
Is the Administration doing everything they can even now that they have finally stopped their almost complete dithering on requests by governor Jindal?
A former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister and Nick Pozzi, a former pipeline engineering and operations project manager say that a solution to cleaning up the Gulf Coast Oil spill is right under BP’s noses."
"They say that BP could use their very own supertankers to suck up the spilled oil in the gulf and possibly salvage it for sale down the line. The tactic was proven effective during a Saudi spill in the 90’s — it sucked up 85% of the renegade oil. BP has tankers already sitting in the Gulf of Mexico, so we’re thinking, with their tactics failing left and right, why don’t they get on this already?"
"Using their tankers for cleanup would mean tying up a huge part of their money-making process, not to mention they’d have to unload them of the oil that they’re holding first — which could prove a huge endeavor. It would take some planning to get in motion, but almost assuredly would clean up a vast amount of the oil already spilled across the Gulf. Plus they could deliver the oil to port, separate water out and then process it for sale. So what are they waiting for?"
Wouldn't a competent administration have done the obvious, and asked for immediate consultations with people who are experts in the field, like from American oil companies, for instance, which have a wealth of knowledge and a vital interest in ameliorating this disaster?
