Lieberman on the Oil Spill: Sh*t Happens

[marmar]

from Grist:



Bingaman rebukes Lieberman’s oil disaster excuse that ‘accidents happen’
by Brad Johnson

11 May 2010 3:53 PM


Cross-posted from the Wonk Room.


Last week, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) defended the inclusion of expanded offshore drilling in the climate bill he will unveil tomorrow, brushing off the deadly Gulf disaster by saying that "accidents happen:"

There were good reasons for us to put in offshore drilling, and this terrible accident is very rare in drilling. I mean, accidents happen. You learn from them and you try not to make sure they don't happen again.

Today, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chair of the Senate energy committee, rebuked this attempt to excuse the BP oil disaster as an unforeseeable anomaly. Bingaman's committee today began the Congressional investigation of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion in a hearing with executives of the companies involved -- BP, Halliburton, and rig owner Transocean. Bingaman noted that this disaster is a failure of technology, people, and regulations, not just an "accident" that was, as BP claimed, an unforeseeable mechanical failure:

At the heart of this disaster are three interrelated systems -- a technological system of materials and equipment, second, a human system of persons who operated the technological system, and third, a regulatory system. Those interrelated systems failed in a way that many have said was virtually impossible. We need to examine closely the way each of these systems failed to do what it was supposed to do. I don't believe it's enough just to label this catastrophic failure as an unpredictable and unforeseeable occurence. I don't believe it's adequate to simply chalk what happened up to a view that accidents do happen. If this was like other catastrophic failures of other technological systems in recent history -- whether it was the sinking of the Titanic, Three Mile Island, or the loss of the Challenger -- we will likely discover there was a cascade of failures and technical and human and regulatory errors.

Watch it: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-11-bingaman-rebukes-liebermans-oil-disaster-excuse-that-accidents-h/


After fighting off stricter safety regulations and failing to prepare for a major blowout, BP ludicrously described the disaster as "inconceivable" and "unprecedented."

The final draft of the climate bill, which Lieberman was devising with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), will be unveiled tomorrow without Graham's involvement. After a political squabble with Sen. Harry Reid, Graham has said that the Senate should not consider comprehensive energy reform until the oil disaster is resolved.


http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-11-bingaman-rebukes-liebermans-oil-disaster-excuse-that-accidents-h/

[LakeSamish706]

1. "Lieberman’s oil disaster excuse that ‘accidents happen’" I will be sure

and pass that on to my Grand kids Joe.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Huh? "..accidents happen. You learn from them and you try NOT to make sure they don't happen again."

:wtf:

"There were good reasons for us to put in offshore drilling, and this terrible accident is very rare in drilling. I mean, accidents happen. You learn from them and you try not to make sure they don't happen again."

Huh???

[roguevalley]

11. when you think his damness can't dip lower, he opens his yap and

goes to a lower level of hell. he doesn't have a damned clue what he's talking about, the fucker. he's shooting his mouth off and he doesn't know dick. we had a rig, the steelhead, blow up a while ago and killed people. they are ticking time bombs. it is a calculated risk to drill no matter what you do about it and its an act of God's mercy that they don't do this more often. dig anywhere in the prince william sound and you will find oil twenty years later. the oil in the gulf will never, never, NEVER disappear or get cleaned up. It is there FOREVER. FUCK LIEBERMAN!

[WCGreen]

3. Man this Lindsey is almost as volatile as Disney's Lindsey..

Thank god the Senate's Lindsey doesn't go around letting peaks of his private parts get spread around the media...

[Canuckistanian]

4. The state of Connecticut already knows about "accidents happening"

And so does Al Gore and (almost) the whole Democratic party.

[BeFree]

5. You would think,....

....that BP with all that money and all the skills would have plugged the damn pipe by now. EH?

It's been three gawd damn weeks. If they really did want to make a big problem, and collect insurance on an old rig, they couldn't have done a better job.

[BulletproofLandshark]

6. I bet Senator Shithead would sing a very different tune

if this happened off the Connecticut coast.

[nebenaube]

8. it will get there eventually... n/t

[jpak]

9. yup!

and to think he might have been a heart beat from the presidency

:scared:

[katandmoon]

7. That's what the doctor who delivered him said to his mother after he was born

[David Zephyr]

12. I swear that's what went through my head when I read the title to the OP

Exactly! Shit really happened on his birthday.

[AtomicKitten]

10. Lieberman is tone deaf and utterly clueless.

Allowing him to keep his committee chairmanship was flat-out wrong.

[Swamp Rat]

13. That explains Lieberman

[Angry Dragon]

14. Lieberman is a terrorist

[Wilms]

15. He used to get decent grades on the environment.

He's morphing into a freepin' teabagger.