Rolling Stone's blockbuster oil spill story

[Robbien]

No one comes out of Tim Dickinson's epic Rolling Stone article, "The Spill, The Scandal and the President," looking good. BP and George W. Bush's complicity in the Gulf oil spill goes without saying. But the Obama administration, too, gets raked over the coals:

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior:

Salazar did little to tamp down on the lawlessness at MMS, beyond referring a few employees for criminal prosecution and ending a Bush-era program that allowed oil companies to make their "royalty" payments -- the amount they owe taxpayers for extracting a scarce public resource -- not in cash but in crude. And instead of putting the brakes on new offshore drilling, Salazar immediately throttled it up to record levels. Even though he had scrapped the Bush plan, Salazar put 53 million offshore acres up for lease in the Gulf in his first year alone -- an all-time high. The aggressive leasing came as no surprise, given Salazar's track record. "This guy has a long, long history of promoting offshore oil drilling -- that's his thing," says Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "He's got a highly specific soft spot for offshore oil drilling." As a senator, Salazar not only steered passage of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which opened 8 million acres in the Gulf to drilling, he even criticized President Bush for not forcing oil companies to develop existing leases faster.

Jane Lubchenko, administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric: Administration

But rather than applying such skepticism to BP's math, the Obama administration has instead attacked scientists who released independent estimates of the spill. When one scientist funded by NOAA released a figure much higher than the government's estimate, he found himself being pressured to retract it by officials at the agency. "Are you sure you want to keep saying this?" they badgered him. Lubchenko, the head of NOAA, even denounced as "misleading" and "premature" reports that scientists aboard the research vessel Pelican had discovered a massive subsea oil plume. Speaking to PBS, she offered a bizarre denial of the obvious. "It's clear that there is something at depth," she said, "but we don't even know that it's oil yet." Scientists were stunned that NOAA, an agency widely respected for its scientific integrity, appeared to have been co-opted by the White House spin machine. "NOAA has actively pushed back on every fact that has ever come out," says one ocean scientist who works with the agency. "They're denying until the facts are so overwhelming, they finally come out and issue an admittance."


http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/06/09/rolling_stones_blockbuster_oil_spill_story


The original Rolling Stone piece is much better than the highlights Salon picked. It is well worth a read. Long but good.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=0

[joeybee12]

1. KNR...n/t

[villager]

2. just as long as we're being sold out in a *hopeful, change-y* way!

n/t

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[tekisui]

4. knr.

[katandmoon]

5. K&R.

[flyarm]

6. K&R

[donheld]

7. Leave it to Tim and Rolling Stone to tell it like it is.

[HooptieWagon]

8. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[girl gone mad]

9. Are the grownups ever going to be in charge?

sigh.

[Spheric]

10. K&R /nt

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. The oligarchy rolls on, this time under a more intelligent and charismatic head. n/t

[Divine Discontent]

17. sadly, too many are wooed by the slick demeanor. Salazar, who is another let down who I was so happy

to see win election to the senate in CO, is yet another calm controlled slick politician that failed miserably at correcting the corruption at MMS.



Such dark days for the Democratic Party....

[wordpix]

33. Salazar, a letdown? He's nothing short of a collusionmeister with BigOil & BP

Letting them have this permit without ANY oversight! :grr: FIRE THE ASS and BRING HIM UP TO CONGRESS to answer some questions. HE's GUILTY

[Divine Discontent]

40. yes, he needs brought up to Congress.

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Robbien.

[bvar22]

13. Ken Salazaar was chosen for Dept of Interior....

...to tell the Oil and Mining Industries, Business as Usual!!!,
only NOW, send your bribe checks to the Democratic Party!

as were Obama's other appointments to important cabinet positions:

The DLC New Team
Big Business as Usual...no "change" here!

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

[Divine Discontent]

18. LOL.... good grief, if that pic doesn't WAKE people up to seeing the DLC's claws are too deep into

our Democratic Party, well, excuse me, our former party. They've totally taken over. BUT BUT, they all talk so calmly, I mean, c'mon you don't get more controlled speaking than Sebelius, Clinton, Salazar and Obama! The only loose cannon is Emanuel, and that's just because he's a dour unlikable type...

[asdjrocky]

14. How can we ever believe the people we elect again?

I can't see a future here, I can't see a win at all for the people.

[pundaint]

20. The problem isn't who we elect, it's who we re-elect. Stop voting for choices that are harmful. If

you have a choice between least harmful and most harmful, first fire the incumbent, because that is genuine harmful proven through experience, and the harmfulness of the other may just be another campaign lie from the incumbent.

[mhatrw]

15. Better Excerpts

http://www.rollingstone.com/po...ws/17390/111965

Even after the president's press conference, Rolling Stone has learned, the administration knew the spill could be far worse than its "best estimate" acknowledged. That same day, the president's Flow Rate Technical Group – a team of scientists charged with establishing the gusher's output – announced a new estimate of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels, based on calculations from video of the plume. In fact, according to interviews with team members and scientists familiar with its work, that figure represents the plume group's minimum estimate. The upper range was not included in their report because scientists analyzing the flow were unable to reach a consensus on how bad it could be. "The upper bound from the plume group, if it had come out, is very high," says Timothy Crone, a marine geophysicist at Columbia University who has consulted with the government's team. "That's why they had resistance internally. We're talking 100,000 barrels a day." ...

Instead of seizing the reins, the Obama administration cast itself in a supporting role, insisting that BP was responsible for cleaning up the mess. "When you say the company is responsible and the government has oversight," a reporter asked Gibbs on May 3rd, "does that mean that the government is ultimately in charge of the cleanup?" Gibbs was blunt: "No," he insisted, "the responsible party is BP." In fact, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan – the federal regulations that lay out the command-and-control responsibilities for cleaning up an oil spill – makes clear that an oil company like BP cannot be left in charge of such a serious disaster. The plan plainly states that the government must "direct all federal, state or private actions" to clean up a spill "where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States."

"The government is in a situation where it's required to be in charge," says William Funk, a professor of environmental and administrative law at Lewis and Clark College who previously worked as a staff attorney in the Justice Department. ...

That may help explain why the administration has gone to unusual lengths to contain the spill's political fallout. On May 14th, two days after the first video of the gusher was released, the government allowed BP to apply a toxic dispersant that is banned in England at the source of the leak – an unprecedented practice in the deep ocean. "The effort should be in recovering the oil, not making it more difficult to recover by dispersing it," says Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer and former NOAA chief scientist who helped the agency confront the world's worst-ever oil spill in the Persian Gulf after the first Iraq War. The chemical assault appeared geared, she says, "to improving the appearance of the problem rather than solving the problem."

[JDPriestly]

21. Obama was correct in saying that BP is responsible.

That is because our government does not have the financial resources to take charge of this spill.

BP does.

If Obama had taken charge, we taxpayers would be left to pay an even greater portion of the bills for cleaning up the mess than we will be now. And we will pay dearly.

[mhatrw]

22. Fuck that. Obama should be leading the effort personally. He can bill BP for the entire cost.

[JDPriestly]

23. Then he would have to take them to court to make them pay.

Remember Exxon Valdez. Obama is trying to avoid the delay. He is trying go get BP to pay at least a part of the clean-up cost before this spill becomes just another paycheck for lawyers.

Will BP pay what it should without a fight? No. Never.

But Obama is being smart by making it very clear form the beginning that the clean-up is BP's baby, not some orphan that the US taxpayers have to take care of. Don't worry. we taxpayers will pay through the nose for this anyway.

Obama is doing the right thing by letting BP saddle as much responsibility and cost as possible right now.

[mhatrw]

24. The Gulf is dying. This is an emergency. Obama could seize and liquidate BP's US assets

and force BP to take the US government to court to be reimbursed.

You act as if government is powerless over corporations.

Not only should Obama be personally leading this effort, the law states that he must.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=5

Instead of seizing the reins, the Obama administration cast itself in a supporting role, insisting that BP was responsible for cleaning up the mess. "When you say the company is responsible and the government has oversight," a reporter asked Gibbs on May 3rd, "does that mean that the government is ultimately in charge of the cleanup?" Gibbs was blunt: "No," he insisted, "the responsible party is BP." In fact, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan – the federal regulations that lay out the command-and-control responsibilities for cleaning up an oil spill – makes clear that an oil company like BP cannot be left in charge of such a serious disaster. The plan plainly states that the government must "direct all federal, state or private actions" to clean up a spill "where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States."

"The government is in a situation where it's required to be in charge," says William Funk, a professor of environmental and administrative law at Lewis and Clark College who previously worked as a staff attorney in the Justice Department. ...

The effect of leaving BP in charge of capping the well, says a scientist involved in the government side of the effort, has been "like a drunk driver getting into a car wreck and then helping the police with the accident investigation."

[JDPriestly]

26. I believe the Justice Department is looking into criminal charges.

I'm not sure that short of criminal charges against BP (?), it would be possible or under our Constitution for the President to simply confiscate the assets of a corporation. There are a couple of problems, like the Fifth and 14th Amendments. The assets belong to the company's shareholders.

And, theoretically, Obama has satisfied his duty under the plan in that the Coast Guard is really, technically, in charge. Seems to me that the Coast Guard has delegated some duties to BP. Due to the technical expertise required to handle the spill, only BP could deal with many of the problems, especially up to this point. The clean-up is another matter. But Obama is wise to make BP as much a part of the clean-up as possible since he is going to demand that BP pay for it. Otherwise, we pay for the clean-up and hope that by some miracle BP will either have the decency to actually pay for it or we will win quickly enough in the courts to get the money to pay for it out of BP before the company has been dissolved and sold in bits and pieces to the highest bidder (and there will be no incentive for anyone to bid very high for BP and its liabilities at this point). Obama is making a judgment, and he could choose to make a different one. Either way, he has to gamble and in gambling weigh the need for a thorough, efficient and quick clean-up and making sure BP pays for as much of it as possible before BP shareholders opt out or some vulture buys BP up and there is nothing less for the American taxpayers for repayment of clean-up costs.

By the way, there is a very long list of hit-and-run corporate assaults on the environment that have never been remediated, for which remediation costs have never been fully paid. I don't know whether it was Harper's or Mother Jones that had an article a few months back about the Hudson River pollution. And that is just one. Think about your local dump. We are sitting on a cesspool of pollution in this country. Environmental disasters are everywhere.

[wordpix]

38. accroding to this oil contingency plan, Obama SHOULD seize the assets & command

the operation. But I have lost all hope and confidence in him

[Dr.Phool]

35. The governments own rules REQUIRE them to take over the response.

Instead, they're letting BP turn a catastrophe into Armageddon.

[wordpix]

29. I agree. The commander-in-chief needs to start commanding NOW & bill BP later

he doesn't even have to bill BP, just slap those fines on for Clean Water Act and Fish & Wildlife violations in the billions. That will pay for SOME of this.

[mikelgb]

16. when you roll a stone you get to see the dark underbelly

[FlyByNight]

19. Time and time again...

...Obama's cabinet appointees have failed him. Mike Papantonio isn't happy with Mr. Salazar either.

However, to be honest, I'm tired of blaming the cabinet members. Obama's a smart guy and he knew about his appointees. He's right in at least one regard: the buck stops with him.

The administration has an interest in the PR-end of the gulf oil gusher too. From a corporate point of view, they can't be seen as coming down too hard on BP. They want corporate money flowing in from whomever, so they give BP an all-too-wide berth on spill remediation (no fly zones, use of dispersant, PR lies, etc.) to attempt to minimize the public outrage.

Simply, Obama is DLC and I really don't think he gives that much of a shit about the working class in the country. Gibbs didn't exactly distance the White House from that cowardly anonymous statement made in the wake of the Lincoln "win" (potential electoral irregularities notwithstanding) in Arkansas.

:grr:

[wordpix]

34. p.5 re: O's ignoring ocean scientists' warnings, praise of Salazar & pushing more offshore drilling

:grr: I'm sorry, but what's the difference here between him and BushCo? I don't see any, despite O's rhetoric :grr: And he could at least FIRE SALAZAR to send a message that while he's still president, which is likely to be one term, things are changing NOW.

But I won't hold my breath :eyes: :nuke:

[katty]

25. thx for posting-K&R a must read

[hay rick]

27. Excerpts from the Rolling Stone article...

...the "moratorium" on drilling announced by the president does little to prevent future disasters. The ban halts exploratory drilling at only 33 deepwater operations, shutting down less than one percent of the total wells in the Gulf. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the Cabinet-level official appointed by Obama to rein in the oil industry, boasts that "the moratorium is not a moratorium that will affect production" – which continues at 5,106 wells in the Gulf, including 591 in deep water.
____
During the Bush years...MMS managers were awarded cash bonuses for pushing through risky offshore leases, auditors were ordered not to investigate shady deals, and safety staffers routinely accepted gifts from the industry, allegedly even allowing oil companies to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil before tracing over them in pen.
____
One of the Bush-era managers whom Salazar left in place was John Goll, the agency's director for Alaska. Shortly after, the Interior secretary announced a reorganization of MMS in the wake of the Gulf disaster, Goll called a staff meeting and served cake decorated with the words "Drill, baby, drill."
____
...a new policy instituted under Bush scrapped environmental analysis and fast-tracked permits. Declaring that oil companies themselves were "in the best position to determine the environmental effects" of drilling, the new rules pre-qualified deep-sea drillers to receive a "categorical exclusion" – an exemption from environmental review that was originally intended to prevent minor projects, like outhouses on hiking trails, from being tied up in red tape. "There's no analytical component to a cat-ex," says a former MMS scientist. "You have technicians, not scientists, that are simply checking boxes to make sure all the T's are crossed. They just cut and paste from previous approvals."

Nowhere was the absurdity of the policy more evident than in the application that BP submitted for its Deepwater Horizon well only two months after Obama took office. BP claims that a spill is "unlikely" and states that it anticipates "no adverse impacts" to endangered wildlife or fisheries. Should a spill occur, it says, "no significant adverse impacts are expected" for the region's beaches, wetlands and coastal nesting birds. The company, noting that such elements are "not required" as part of the application, contains no scenario for a potential blowout, and no site-specific plan to respond to a spill. Instead, it cites an Oil Spill Response Plan that it had prepared for the entire Gulf region. Among the sensitive species BP anticipates protecting in the semitropical Gulf? "Walruses" and other cold-water mammals, including sea otters and sea lions. The mistake appears to be the result of a sloppy cut-and-paste job from BP's drilling plans for the Arctic. Even worse: Among the "primary equipment providers" for "rapid deployment of spill response resources," BP inexplicably provides the Web address of a Japanese home-shopping network. Such glaring errors expose the 582-page response "plan" as nothing more than a paperwork exercise. "It was clear that nobody read it," says Ruch, who represents government scientists.

[wordpix]

30. seems like there are some criminal charges in there somewhere

once some people name names. One of the names on my list is Ken Salazar. GET HIM OUT OF THERE! Put in Carol Browner, at least.

[Jefferson23]

28. K&R

[depakid]

31. This is nothing short of a devastating piece

As the facts come out, this is going to take a big political toll- and unfortunately, a well deserved one.

[wordpix]

32. I am seething over Salazar AND Obama---FIRE Salazar!

[Dr.Phool]

36. Kick & Rec!

"It's like a drunken driving accident where the police let the drunk conduct the investigation".

[wordpix]

37. p. 6 The only one coming out well in this story is Rep. Markey. Markey for president!

Now THERE is a leader who did what he could to ensure BP could not cover up their crimes.

[IcyPeas]

39. Tim Wilkinson was being interviewed on "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman...

this morning. If you want to hear/see it, she has a show on teevee now at about 11:00 ish on pbs. also a podcast on NPR.