Tony Hayward of BP Wants His Life Back…Coast Guard Clueless…What Next?
My brother and I went to a public forum in Mobile last night. It was hosted by SeaGrant and consisted of various representatives from agencies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill/flow/catastrophe. I came away with two major realizations.
One–The Coast Guard appears to be clueless. They sent a representative that didn’t even know Rear Admiral Mary Landry had been relieved of oil spill duty. It’s not Commander Brady’s fault. He is a reservist that has been recently activated to be a liason between the Coast Guard and the public. He could answer NOTHING that was asked of him. It was a slap in the face of those attending the forum, a big ‘we don’t have time for you’ from the agency that is supposed to be in charge.
Two–The EPA and FDA are also clueless. Stan Meiburg from the EPA touted dispersants as the answer to the oil flow. Has he been around Tony Hayward too much? Seems huffing the stuff can alter good judgment. On one hand he said, “Dispersants are the least bad trade-off,” and then said, “There is a lot we do not know about long-term use of dispersants.” The FDA representative, Robert Dickey was an even bigger joke. He said that dispersants are harmless to the public and they are safe and then says there is environmental concern. Which is it Bob?
The stand-out star, in my opinion, was Buck Sutter of NOAA. He actually made sense and did a much better job of directly answering questions. At least he didn’t dance around questions about PLUMES. BP is denying they exist. Buck said there are plumes and NOAA has two ships studying them now. He stated that the water in the plumes is clear but it is full of dispersed oil. He said because the oil is so dispersed it is very difficult to detect.
Finally….we see the value of dispersants. They make it very difficult to detect oil. Ah, so that’s why BP is adamant about using them. We wouldn’t want Tony Hayward to lose another night’s sleep would we? His company’s grand plan is unfolding–use unprecedented amounts of toxic dispersants so Tony can get his life back. At least we’re getting closer to the truth.
P.S. BP was supposed to be at the forum but didn’t show….are you surprised?
One Reply to “Tony Hayward of BP Wants His Life Back…Coast Guard Clueless…What Next?”
Encounters such as this reflect just how far our nation is removed from the environment and how the corporations are essentially running roughshod over public interest and the environment to boot. Examples besides oil are rampant ( eg trawler “fishing” in the Bering sea killing off the seed halibut and other species as wasted (thrown away) “by product’. But this BP fiasco has got to signal a death knell on deep sea drilling. It seems surreal that a multi billion dollar industry is stymied by a failed saw or broken pipe which is creating a billowing tornado underwater of oil and chemicals.
NOAA should be the government agency protecting our ,
LIFE.