Tony Hayward's Congressional Grilling: Does It Mean Anything?

Tony Hayward heard it from Members of Congress this week, but to what end? He claimed that the blame was not BP's alone, but that his soon to be ex-employer will be helping to ease the pain of their many victims. Compensation and public relations have already been doled out in some fashion (though hardly enough of the former), so my question is besides good press for the Representatives who pummeled Hayward at the hearing, what good will that do? Especially in regard to preventing future spills (like this one).

Sticking You With BP's Bill: Something The "Party Of No" Says Yes To

Republicans used to claim that they were the party of fiscal and personal responsibility. Of course, that only applies when they aren't the ones (and their oil industry friends) that are accountable for billions upon billions of dollars worth of damage to the Gulf of Mexico's ecosystem and economy.

Scary

It really is amazing how technology has advanced to track our destruction of the planet:

Rand Paul Said What??

Ron Paul may have faded from the political limelight since his Presidential quest went down in flames but his son's star is on the up and up. Rand Paul is now the Republican nominee for the Senate seat in Kentucky, besting the local party's pick to replace Senator Jim Bunning. Paul's victory is a testament to the nascent power the teabaggers are beginning to hold in various conservative strongholds around the country. However, his views and recent statements are showing the mainstream just how far out there Paul and others like him are.

From Crooks and Liars:

Presidential bashing of corporate crime, corruption and greed is as American as apple pie. While Republican Teddy Roosevelt decried "malefactors of great wealth," his distant Democratic cousin FDR announced, "I welcome their hatred." But now just days after insisting the federal government had no right to bar racial discrimination in public accommodations, Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul again reversed victim and villain in calling President Obama's criticism of BP, "un-American."

In the face of the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, Paul rushed to the defense of BP on Good Morning America. When George Stephanopolous asked, "But you don't want to get rid of the EPA?" Dr. Paul's diagnosis was that the Obama administration was persecuting the oil giant and the American free enterprise system. Accidents, he insisted, "happen".

Paul's assertions may reside upon libertarian values, but they certainly are not American values. Accidents do not always just "happen," oil spills like that of which we are dealing with now must have consequences when the companies at fault did not take adequate precautions to prevent millions of barrels of oil from polluting the Gulf of Mexico. The same goes for enforcing anti-discrimination laws so that commercial establishments do not keep black people from sitting at the lunch counter as Woolworth's did not fifty years ago.

Mr. Paul, we have government for a reason, and that is to make people behave civilly and to respect each other's liberties. BP does not have the liberty to destroy an ecosystem that millions of people depend upon, let alone the myriad species that live in the waters and surrounding shorelines. The fact that someone with such horrifying views has made it a general election is both shocking and depressing. This year, it is the responsibility of the Kentucky Democratic party to take this seat back not only for politics, but for the common good.

Gene Taylor Needs To Know Oil And Chocolate Milk Do Not Mix

Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) might represent an area near the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but he certainly isn't qualified to talk about oil in any regard. The Mississippian was given a helicopter tour of the area surrounding the sunken rig this past Saturday, and he gave one of the wackiest observations of a man-made catastrophe that I've ever heard.

From The Sun Herald:

Taylor flew over the site of the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig Saturday along with Department of Marine Resources Director Bill Walker and Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama. [...]

"At the moment, it's not as bad as I thought it would be," he said, shortly after returning from the three-hour tour. [...]

What I want people to know is this isn't Katrina. This is not Armageddon. I did this for the Coast Guard many years ago. Yeah, it's bad. And it's terrible that there's a spill out there. But I would remind people that the oil is twenty miles from any marsh. [...]

That chocolate milk looking spill starts breaking up in smaller pieces... It is tending to break up naturally.

I don't know if Gene has ever tried to drink crude oil, but I doubt it would taste the same as chocolate flavored milk. And unlike milk, oil does not just 'break up naturally.' Introducing chemicals to break up oil, siphoning it and wiping it off from the surfaces it touches is how deal with a scenario like that is being dealt with in the Gulf.

Either Congressman Taylor needs to learn the fundamentals of chocolate milk and oil, be pulled away from the oil lobbyists that control part of his brain or be forced out of office by the people he supposedly serves.

Disastrous Oil Slick Must Stir A Mighty Wind

For anyone trying to minimize the effects of the spill British Petroleum and Halliburton are responsible for, try this one on for size. Or this. Or that. Seriously, it's huge.

Now imagine that instead of having these impossible events occurring every few years (actually every month or so), we could fuel our planet from the wind that naturally blows across the surface of the ocean. A meteorlogist can explain it better than I, but basically at the coasts the temperatures differ between a moderate ocean and a warmer or cooler landmass, which propagates wind. The question is, why do some of us scream "Drill, Baby, Drill!" when we could have something much better.

From The NY Times:

The United States does not have a single offshore wind turbine, though there are more than 800 off the coast of nine European countries. So what do the wind gauges outside New York Harbor tell us?

“There is a lot of power out there,” said Brian A. Colle, a professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at Stony Brook University. “We are in a pretty nice location for the winter and for the warm seasons.”

The city and Long Island are now speaking to manufacturers and developers about building a wind park in the ocean about 13 miles from Rockaway, producing enough energy to power 250,000 homes.

This tragic event might just contain a silver lining to jump start an off-shore wind industry in America. The problem up until now is that the oil industry has dominated and the federal government has done next to nothing for decades to change our nation's energy equation. Critics will contend, and rightly so, that wind is erratic and never blows at a consistent rate, even in the best locations. However, with a system advocated for within the article referenced above that places turbines up and down the coast, the wind will be harnessed on a level that has never been seen before. On top of that, oil boosters conveniently leave out the fact that the price of oil is far greater than what the New York Stock Exchange claims it to be. Not only will there tab in the tens of billions for this one oil spill, but the U.S. taxpayer pays in more ways than they are generally aware.

The reality is, it is time for a new direction and President Obama should switch gears by letting go of trying to love oil and wholeheartedly embrace renewable energy.....bipartisanship be damned.

Big Oil And Hurricane Ike's Environmental Impact

Once Hurricane Ike came ashore, the mainstream media all but forgot about Houston, Galveston and every area that was affected by the monstrous tropical system. Sure, you could go to Chron.com and see what was happening, but that is mostly only known to residents of Texas Gulf Coast. The larger outlets quickly moved onto other news, perfectly on cue as the 24 hour news cycle dictates. Though there was one small side issue that almost everyone missed, now finally being noticed by the AP, of all places.

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

In the days before and after the deadly storm, companies and residents reported at least 448 releases of oil, gasoline and dozens of other substances into the air and water and onto the ground in Louisiana and Texas. The hardest hit places were industrial centers near Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, as well as oil production facilities off Louisiana's coast, according to the AP's analysis.

"We are dealing with a multitude of different types of pollution here ... everything from diesel in the water to gasoline to things like household chemicals," said Larry Chambers, a petty officer with the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center in Pasadena, Texas.

Half a million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf and only a month later does anyone notice? That's utterly ridiculous. You would think someone with a camera and a helicopter could have pointed this out to the national press before October, but like most people with common sense combined with a want of accountability, you'd be wrong.

One group that benefits from the national ignorance of the problem is the "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd. John McCain has lied and denied that there is a problem when it comes to oil rigs and Hurricanes, but putting the truth aside for his largest contributors is the GOP way. Of course, this is just one more lie to add to the biggest elephant in that room, that more drilling off our coasts won't do anything to meet our energy needs. McCain and Palin will lie for fossil fuel industries from now to election day and that is why we must reject more of the same policies that our nation has been beaten over the head with by George W. Bush.