Glenn Greenwald has a good post about the collusion of government and industry in the Gulf oil disaster.
Most amazingly, even as BP continues to spew oil in unfathomable quantities into the Gulf, this all continues now: "The Obama administration waived environmental reviews for 26 new offshore drilling projects even as the BP oil disaster spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico." And just this week: MMS "approved a new drilling permit for an offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico."
Read the whole, enlightening, disgusting post.
Recently I saw one of the TV news-like programs showing an interview with a man who survived the explosion. As he told it, the faulty equipment was known about, and execs ordered the operation to continue anyway because of the cost of repairing it.
This business of industry and government ties is as old as government itself, I suppose. Actually, we are governed by industry. I remember an entomology course years ago in my college days when the professor decided we should learn that chemical insecticides are good things. He gave us some material showing just how good they are and told us to write a paper on the impact of agricultural chemicals on the planet. He made no secret of his conviction that environmental concerns were completely unfounded. In fact, all his information seemed quite convincing. What did I know? But I began my research for the paper I had to write, and it wasn't long until I found a list of the people sitting at the EPA. Almost to a person they were from the chemical industry. I didn't get a very good grade on that paper.
I also learned in my graduate work that the chemical companies provide most of the research money, with the caveat that the findings of the researchers become the property of the company. It seems – and I know this will surprise you – that even when there is a university level researcher who works without company money, if he makes too much noise, he can be in danger. One of the professors at UC was trying to alert the agricultural community that the US had been infested with fruit flies and needed to have a different approach to managing the pest in order to be effective and prevent great losses in the industry. He used the government's own data to prove his point. Alas, if the USDA admitted a permanent infestation, it would not be able to export to Japan. Therefore, instead of accepting the truth and changing management policy in accordance, the government/industry sent death threats (yes!) to the professor, and the University was being pressured by the government to either shut him up or fire him.
The Gulf may die, but BP will continue to prosper.
Many Louisiana fisherman are complaining that BP has only paid them $ 5,000.00 per claim. That would be less than one weeks income to some fisherman who are in the season now where they make most of their income.
BP claims are very slow to pay, their phone lines give no information and it is evident that BP is slow to pay for their obligatory payments to the businesses of Louisiana.
BP claims it has spent over 1 billion dollars thus far in the clean up however most of that was due to their own errors and incompetence. More dollars are being spent on capturing the oil from ships above the well than they are paying to clean up spill and again more money has been wasted by them to fix the leak and they failed. These mistakes have cost BP money.
[...]
BP has many dozens and dozens of mistakes which led to this spill by cutting corners, cutting safety and proceeding with a well that was under great pressure which killed 11 men. Meanwhile yesterday they paid out over 10 billions in dividends to their shareholders as President Obama pointed out in his press conference at 4:00p.m., today. Also BP Oil’s expenditures were 50 million dollars for TV commercial ads to repair their tattered image to Americans while withholding payments for lost businesses in the Gulf.
Politico
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
