The oil spill in the gulf of Mexico will be one of the greatest environmental calamities in history. The administration needs to do more than record videos from the Oval office.
Dear President Obama,
You may be waking up this morning thinking about sanctions for Iran, or the pointless waste of lives and money in Afghanistan. Or maybe you’re putting your finishing touches on a speech about financial reform. It’s a Saturday, so maybe you’re going to spend some time with the kids or get in a round of golf.
WAKE UP. The greatest environmental catastrophe in history is currently unfolding along the gulf coast, and terrified citizens are desperately looking for some kind of leadership. We currently sense NO urgency from the administration. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY OF THE HIGHEST ORDER. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in the world right now. It requires your IMMEDIATE AND TOTAL ATTENTION. This is an all hands on deck moment. Every possible avenue of mitigation and containment must be tried. BP cannot and will not be responsible for the consequences of this spill: WE WILL.
The consequences of inaction are too horrible to contemplate. But we must see them clearly. Excuses about technology gaps or legal responsibility or whatever are useless and infuriating. This disaster has exposed a corrupt system of graft uniting industry and their supposed regulators, as corrupt and destructive as that uniting the financial industry and their supposed regulators. When we hear that new drilling leases are being granted as we speak, when we hear that alternative and potentially more effective methods of mitigation exist but are not being tried, when we hear that BP has a shameful safety record in general, and that they systematically short cut the safety process on Deepwater horizon, and yet BP is still thought fit to manage the response, that says that your administration does not take this issue seriously, that your administration is abdicating it’s basic responsibility to protect the public trust and welfare. Because one thing is sure: BP is in no way shape or form qualified, entitled, or justified to handle this spill. And we have every reason to believe they will A) Lie about what is happening B) pursue their own self interest at the cost of the public’s interest. You MUST step in, you must show that YOU are in charge, not BP.
This is not a political issue where you can wait a few months to carefully plan your strategy. This is a CRISIS that requires the total effort of your administration RIGHT NOW, that requires you gather every possible resource, technique, and expertise, and, just as important, that you communicate honestly and emphatically about the scope and meaning of the danger.
GET ON THE BALL RIGHT NOW!
Torpid:
Obama’s done acting. He’s appointed a commission to look into this. So, 9 months down the road, they will conclude that BP broke some regulations and that the government likely shouldn’t have given it waivers to drill.
Let’s face it: yes, BP is a villain in all of this but so is Obama. He is the guy who reversed a 27 year old ban on offshore drilling. He’s the guy, who on April 2, 2010, told the world that oil rigs are safe nowadays and that oil leaks don’t come from rigs but from refineries based on shore. He’s the guy who selected the environmentally challenged Ken Salazar to be his Secretary of the Interior. When Obama made that boneheaded mistake, he was warned by environmental groups that Salazar had a poor record in defending the environment and that he was a drilling advocate. Obama picked him AND has kept him in office despite the news that Salazar’s department gave BP waivers for filing environmental impact statements. without those waivers, the drilling would not have been possible.
Obama should:
Your political points may be sound, but I don’t know what’s in Obama’s head. I hope he means well. I certainly regard some of his decisions (escalation in Afghanistan) as fundamental and perhaps disastrous mistakes. But I don’t know claim to know what his intentions are.
6. is the most important thing. The other things you mention may be necessary in the long term but do nothing to control this unfolding disaster. He needs to take personal responsibility for this. I do think he is a smart adult who is capable of sensible actions. We as citizens may not be able to do much, but we have a responsibility to speak the truth. This is a CRISIS. The priceless and irreplaceable ecology of the gulf coast is at stake. I grew up in the florida panhandle and I’m in literal daily pain about this. Everything we can think of must be directed at stopping this extinction level event.
Torpid, You have to recognize that there is a policy side to the reasons for the BP disaster and there is a technical/oversight side. Surely BP and its allied agents (like Haliburton) bear the brunt of the responsibility for the latter. But the Obama administration bears the brunt of the responsibility for the policy side. Had the Obama administration not reversed a 27 year ban on offshore drilling, this incident would not have happened. Had the Obama administration not given BP waivers so they did not have to file environmental impact statements, this disaster would never have happened. Had Obama not chosen Ken Salazar as his Interior Secretary and had instead selected a real steward of the environment, someone who could have cleaned up Interior, this disaster likely would never have happened. Harry Truman said it best, “The buck stops here” in referring to the presidency. Obama has to come to grips with that and so do some of his supporters who can find no harm in anything he ever does. Obama himself said during the election that he would make mistakes, and boy has he made a series of them in this disaster. Salazar should be fired immediately and the offshore ban on drilling reimposed.