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The worst oil spill in history continues in the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama gave his first national address from the Oval Office Tuesday night to address what's next in the clean up effort. He's also said his administration is working to make sure those damaged by the oil spill will receive compensation.
New estimates indicate even more oil is escaping the underwater well than previously thought — up to 60,000 barrels a day. As the disaster unfolds, people and companies from the Northwest are traveling to the region to help deal with the ongoing cleanup. Charlie Hebert, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife's only full-time spill response expert, is one of them. He recently returned from the Gulf and says this spill is unlike any he's ever dealt with, given both its size and continuous nature. Overall, though, he says the clean up is going about as well as could be expected.
What do you think of the government's and BP's actions so far? Are you involved in the Gulf oil spill clean up? How do you feel affected by the disaster?
GUESTS:
- Charlie Hebert: Spill-response expert at U.S. Fish & Wildlife
- Frank Rotondi: Vice President of sales and marketing for Hotsy Cleaning Equipment, a division of Karcher North America
- Lisa Evans: Organizer with Hands Across the Sand
- Ryan Knutson: Intern reporter with ProPublica
Tagged as: economy · environment · oil spill
Photo credit: Getty
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Premium gasoline is now a bargain at $2.99 a gallon and motorist are happy. But the Price is not the COST.
The TRUE COST of Petroleum involves Global Warming, Wars on Multiple Fronts, Islamic Terrorist Reaction, Oil Derrick and Tanker Accidents, Contaminated Ground Water and Sea Shores, an Epidemic of Obesity spawning Diabetes, Heart Disease and Cancer, Unhealthy Air causing Asthma, and Tens of Thousands of Violent Motor Vehicle Deaths per Year.
I remember in Spring 2008, Gasoline was rapidly climbing and on the threshold of $5.00/ Gallon. People were scared into an action plan! They cut back on unnecessary trips, biked to local shops, planned Vegetable Gardens, carpooled, took Mass Transit to work, Telecommuted from Home, Used Video Conferencing instead of a one day business trip, and most importantly got rid of the V8 SUV and Full sized pickup for more right-sized economical vehicles.
Despite the stress, this was more of a UTOPIA than today when we have cheap gas and mindless drivers text messaging while gulping a frappachino.
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why dont we ban imported coffee first and save all that oil in transportation costs?
ALSO if you have looked at the statistics for your self the north west has been cooling for atleased the last 4 years and it has been shown that most of the global warming stats have been altered so can we drop that argument yet.
Do you live in a house becaus eif you do it was built by people who drive trucks because it is hard to fit enough lumber in a preius to build a bird house
and the real cost of a litium ion battery in a hibrid is greater that the oil the car will save over its life.
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"why dont we ban imported coffee first and save all that oil in transportation costs?" -- frankj — Wed June 16th 9:23a.m.
So you would be willing to give up your morning cuppa coffee, and close down whole businesses, throwing tens of thousands of people out of work? That would be the result of banning imported (all) coffee, since no usable coffee crop is grown in the Continental United States. Hawai'i, yes...but again, we would have to import it.
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We assume we can transition to a new Carbon Free Future without Sacrifices. Wake up and smell the Cappachino! We want the Coal Plant in Boardman to shut down, and Windmills to go up in sparsely populated Columbia Gorge Communities, and Nuclear power plants in underpopulated Eastern Oregon. But we still drive our Subaru AWD sportswagens that get 19mpg city and expect Kenyan Coffee at our neighborhood barristas shipped 10,000 miles, and use generous amounts of thick lathering shampoos which make fuller younger looking hair, made from gulf petroleum.
Simple Solution: a 'Carbon Tax' which represents the REAL COST of petroleum. Gas at $5.00 begins to move people psychologically. In the Netherlands, Germany and UK, they pay $12-$14/ gallon and are able to run their economies effectively. I would like to see a stable base of $10 / gallon with revenue used to build infrastructure, Mass Transit, Urban Planning, Enabling persons to Move Closer to Work and Town Centers reversing Sprawl, Enviormental Rehab and Restorations, Green Energy, and Green Energy Research for future power needs.
We have been using Petroleum for just over 100 years. The End of Oil will occur in the lifetime of a child living today.
We have to make the transition; an acute transition will be Painful as we saw in 2008. A Gradual Planned Transition will be wiser. And we have to start at our own vehicles and daily commutes and even our shampoos.
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Shampoos?
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Agree with you completely!
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realy you want to do what europe does? europe that is completely broke including england and so forth?
sinc ewe are really talking about cars I am a car guy so you should understand that cars in europe get much better gas milage because they do NOT have acatalitic converters so they polute much more that our cars do.
We chose to have catolitic converters to reduce our poltion there are always compromises you cant have everything.
so chose 25 miles to the gallon and less polution or 45 miles to the gallon and worse polution.
speaking of choices they didnt build sand berms because there was no environmental impact study so they just let the oil com ashore it a a choise. and ther is going to be a negative no matter which choice you make so quite making things out to sound like this chioc ethere are no bad results.
My I remind everyone that we went to oil instead of killing wale for lamp oil. it was a better solition at the time. it may not be the best now but stop educate yourself and understand there is no impact free solution.
Also please dont just say throw all the crap out in eastern oregon just because you dont ever come out here and it doesnt impact doent make it ok
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I was wondering if anyone has ever considered just pulling that pipe out of the ocean floor and let mother nature heal the hole. It reminds me of a syringe where the plunger came out and the puncture is bleeding. Perhaps they don't want to lose that part of their investment in this well? Also, how much of the toxic dispersant will be taken into the atmosphere through evaporation or storms and spread by rain over much more of the country than just the Gulf Coast? Should we be planning for a wide-spread toxic rain this season? Marty Fitzpatrick, Eugene
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The unfolding story of the Gulf Oil Catastrophe shows clearly how subservient government at all levels has become to the power of big business. BP causes the spill, yet Washington continues to rely on their falsified data to a large extent, and local authorities enforce BP’s orders to keep the media out of the worst affected areas.
The history of previous spills, as well as the on-going devastation of Appalachia by Mountaintop Removal Mining does not make me optimistic for the future.
I predict that this crisis will end up like the Exxon Valdez spill, with the cleanup left unfinished, damage claims tied up in court for years, and a return to business as usual after all the clamor has died down.
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What about using activated charcoal packs? I understand it adsorbs 80 times its molecular weight; they would sink, then could be towed up. It is used in many biological applications.
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There are tons of ways of soaking up oil. Many americans have worked hard and have good solutions. But they havent been tested or aproved by the EPA.
or had an environmental impact studdy???? This is why this is so frustrating there really couldnt be much more harm than the oil so let them go at it. If you find out someothing is perticularly bad quit using it.
I am for the environment but this constant stop you cant do that or that or that. the environmental movement in part is to blame for this they have created so much regulation that even when somehting couldnt be worse you cant do anything.
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My annoyance over this is with the main stream media in general, who seem to be focussing on, and therefore helping to foment, hysteria. I see little about what IS being done, but lots of coverage of what isn't. I see continuous interviews with people who have unrealistic expectations, anger, dispair, etc. but little from, or with, practical people and what they are doing. I see a lot of dwelling (sometimes gleefully) in the disaster part, but little if any on the mundane responses, on what the long term plans are.
I see lots of blame, and calls for punishment, but little of the call to action we need. Basically, I see a complex and changing situation, brought down to sound bites and photo ops.
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You are absolutely corect about the creating hysteria. It is getting old and I think dangerouse. It seems like fear and anger is dangerouse because people begin to act on their feeling instead of thinking about what is the correct plan of action.
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All of this makes me think about how our cities are designed. How we have created our cities to be auto oriented and how we need to stop investing in auto infrastructure and work towards transforming our cities to be bike and people oriented. A moratorium on funding for anything auto related and redirecting all of that money to this transformation. A New New Deal that supports life without oil. This may sound idealistic but it is an issue of national security.
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There is an article in the November 2009 Scientific American magazine, "A Plan For A Sustainable Future: How To Get All Energy from Wind, Water, and Solar Power By 2030", by Mark Z Jacobson and Mark A Delucchi.
We can do this, all we need is the political will to do it.
We really ought to totally mobilize just like we did in WW2 and win this Energy War!Let's take our world back from Big Oil!
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What this disaster has reminded me, everyone plays the fool. All sides sound ridiculous, and pump out the same boring garbage. Is there any creative thinking in this country at all? Is there any thinking that focuses on the actual problem---um, like, stopping the leak. Instead of speaking about our dependency on oil, and, conversely, how much money the moratorium is costing the people of the gulf, and oh the fisherman, and the beach goers, and the hotel owners. Then we had to listen to President Obama's pathetic god-speak at the end of his lame speech.
Of course, what exactly is Mr. Obama to do? Stick his finger in the hole? The same environmentalists who lauded Mr. Obama and helped get him elected with their own lack of acumen and vision, are now decrying his actions, and, at the same time patting themselves on the back because of allegedly having their finger on the pulse of our terrible dependency on petroleum (oh, who knew?)---which is of course beside the point of the disaster at hand, I guess everyone has to get in their plug.
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Scott:
Suppose YOU are the President.
What should be done? Where do we begin? And do you know anything about deep sea diving and underwater exploration to make a sensible answer? Try not to look like a fool.
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Jacob,
What are you talking about? And, how am I looking like a fool? Maybe other people get your point, but I certainly don't.
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Scott: What is your plan of Action to Solve This Problem?
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J-
What problem? The leak? The dependency? I don't have a plan! Did, I say I did? Why would I? Do you have a plan, Jacob? Is that your point---that I don't have a plan? Surely, there must be more... .
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"Is there any creative thinking in this country at all? Is there any thinking that focuses on the actual problem---um, like, stopping the leak."
That Problem.
We can either be Constructive working on a solution. Or be Destructive and harrangue others to build our own ego. Offer solutions, don't critcize others to be mean by calling them fools.
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Scott, let's stick to the subject. I have a plan and offered it above in my second comment. Carbon Fuel Tax that bites at the Pump. $10.00 per gallon. And it probably will get all Representatives fired who vote for it.
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J-
I don't know what you think I misrepresented. Nor, was I speaking about you personally in my comment. I said 'everyone plays the fool,' notice 'everyone.' Me too, often enough.
Yes, I have heard ridiculous nonsense from all sides on this issue, and that is upsetting and 'foolish.' It is irrelevant whether we are dependent on oil, that is a separate issue from the disaster occurring. Even if our use of oil is greatly decreased, we still can have an accident on the sole remaining oil well. Linking our dependency on oil to the present disaster is like saying if you weren't obsessed with cycling and didn't do it so much, you wouldn't have gotten hit by that car. It is dangerous to link things together that are really separate issues.
Your plan doesn't address the leak. My non-plan is to focus on fixing the leak and using all the possible minds and resources to do so. I (probably) would wait until I had accurate evidence, that the leak wasn't just a fluke, before I started rashly changing how the oil business operates. Then in a separate sphere, address what to do about oil dependency. This would hopefully give credibility to both of my efforts and allow them to stand on their own, which helps create a clear message and lessens scrutiny. And, going the whole time without mentioning prayer or god.
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Emily, please add a list of places where people can do something, either donate money or groups and skills needed for volunteering. Some of us have some money or time and would like to help wildlife, the people of Louisianna, or some other need.
I've checked the Audobon Society Home Page http://www.audubon.org/ and they have some information on the right hand side.
The New Orleans LA page NOLA also has info
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/how_to_help_volunteers_needed.html
Some require very specific skills like HAZMAT training, but there must be other things one can do.
Thanks for your important show.
Susan
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Hi Susan - Looks like you've got a good start on your own! I googled "oil spill help" and one of the first things that came up was this USA Today article from early May with several organizations listed. I can't vouch for any, but it may be what you're looking for.
best, Emily
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One of the dumbest ideas I have heard is to shove a small nuclear bomb down there and explode it to seal the well. Hey, that's all we need, isn't it, to end up burning radioactive gasoline in our cars and trucks! And end up spewing out radioactive exhaust?
Sheesh!
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I have to drive. My family lives 4 hours away in the country and I live in the metro area. I will no give up driving. I have tried to drive less but public transportation is not great in my ‘burb. It would take 3 hours to travel the 15 miles to my job. All I’m seeing are greater budget cuts in all avenues that would help me drive less.
But what truly burns me about the president’s speech and all of this discussion is that everyone talks about driving and very few mention everything else that uses oil or it by-product in everyday life. Where is the emphasis on manufacturing changing its use of oil in most products; toothpaste all the up to cell phones and computers? I can’t jump on the drive less bandwagon but I can reduce in other ways.
NaTasha
Portland, OR.
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Simple Solution: Move closer to work. OR work at home. Or Telecommute.
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Although this disaster will do a great deal of damage, it is another wake up call and an additional reason for all americans to realize that we must move away from our dependance on fossil fuels. The cities of the U.S. were designed around cheap fuel and the love of driving. A visit to European cities built prior to the automobile show many places where people very rarely use vehicles on a day to day basis. I moved my business literally an eight minute walk from my home. I live very close to the city center, a close walk or bike ride to many shops, stores and restaurants. I'm glad Portland is moving in the direction of more mass transit. We will find in the decades ahead that we have a system of mass transit, street cars and the like, much more like those days prior to the automobile.
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Forget ethinol it has terrible reprocutions for fresh water the mid west used to grow wheat and then they switched to corn they bagan pumping huge amounts of water out of a very slowly replenishing aquafer. It is not a good solution.
The original model T ran on pea nut oil. We subsadise that so maybe that could be used at 15 percent instead of ethonal.
Why do I not ever hear an uprising against home heating oil use that is deisel oil it just isnt colod for road use so you cant get out of paying the tax. Why dont we get the millions of people using that to heat there home s to switch first.
It is a lot easier to make some alternate energy thing that can take the place of your furnace than a alternative energy thing that has to travel efficiently in a car
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Really? The Model T ran on peanut oil? Where did you come up with that? According to Wikipedia, the Model T was designed to run on gasoline, kerosene, or ethanol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_T
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I think it was Rudolph Diesels invention that was originally designed to run on peanut oil. If I recall correctly.
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I think you're right, Tom...
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America needs to wake up and change our behavior with our continued gluttinous use of all our resources. Our environment needs to take top priority. Presently, I am being fined $1,000 for using clean energy by using a clothesline. We all need to be given the right to conserve by simple means. Planting vegetable gardens, using solar panels and yes, using clotheslines rather than energy consuming, carbon emitting clothes dryers is long overdue. I certainly hope this disasterous oil spill will direct us into taking action that President Carter had the insight for our country 30 years ago. Less government does not work when legislation is needed that mandates what we SHOULD all have been doing a whole lot sooner, conserving and preserving. The Clothesline Lady in Bend
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And what would happen if you declined to pay that idiotic fine? (I agree with you, and think you should not pay the fine if possible.)
That is about as stupid as the incident I heard about in Sacramento not long ago. A homeowner allowed their lawn to go brown during a drought when there were restrictions on water use, and found themselves looking down the business end of a fine from the city for not watering! (They would have been fined for wasting water if they had watered the lawn, ironically.)
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As I recall when "Hands Across America' occurred in 1986 there was a breakout of World Peace and Life was exciting and worth living. True, there were large stretches of desert in Arizona and the Midwest where there was not enough participants.
But afterwards everyone joined in for 15 choruses of singing Kumbaya and drinking cocoa with marshmallows. And we sold tie dye t-shirts and made a profit...it was WIN-WIN.
"Hands Across the Sands": That will solve all our Scietal Problems!--Clean Green and Safe Energy.
PS I AM BEING SARCASTIC.
Will the transportation costs of driving 1000's of Americans to the beach even justify the cost of the fuel and carbon burned?
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There is something ironic about the fishermen being annoyed that they can't kill their fish. Oh, and the poor birds, when there is a KFC on every block, oh, but those are the special pretty free birds, that need a good scrub with Dawn.
The reason America got this way, was not because of a love of gasoline, duh, it got this way, because of circumstance and function. Anyone notice the USA is a big country? Anyone notice how small most European countries are? Yes, it is a problem now, but people did not set out to love oil, it is a confluence of events and geographic circumstance that created the dependency. -
Great point about size Great Britan (england ireland wales and scotland) I belive is almost exactly the same size as Oregon.
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Oh and oregon is the 10th largest state most of the rest are not that much smaller.
except rhode Island and delaware Rhode island is about the same as from portland to salem. or roughly the size of the average county in oregon They are little itty bitty ;)
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To be clear, I wasn't saying we didn't have a problem now, or shouldn't encourage alternative forms of transportation. I was saying that we can't read too much into, or overstate our oil dependency, by making a broad statement about Americans, by injecting erroneous causation into our history. This doesn't take us off the hook, it just means the hook doesn't go so deep.
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oregon had it's bought with oil the Clarisa I think was it's name off Newport
they eventually sank the rest of it off shore
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President Bush waved the act that prevents for ships from operating in us waters after catrina so why didn't president Obamma to that and accept all the forein assistance that was offered?
Why was the minerals managment department pushing green energy instead of regulating the oil companies that was there job. there are people whos job it is to push green energy.
This is what happen when you persue an agenda with out thought or reason. If the minerals managment people hadnt been directed to push green energy the problems that caused this.
it is fine to persue green technology but that isnt everyones job if yo uhave a perticular job those people need to do that work.
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Two points, one on how we respond to ecological disaster, the other about our energy use and focus on cars and transportation.
We saw it following the Exon Valdez spill and we're seeing it again today: Lots of people running around, demanding that resources be moved to Alaska to respond to the spill and a lot of recrimination that suggested that science and technology should solve the problem.
The problem is that neither science nor technology is an instant persuit. Science is not a fast, instant process. It takes years to find, test, and bring a new drug to market, and it takes years to think a problem like a giant oil spill through, perform experiments, test possible solutions, and then build and deploy the resulting technology. You have to do all of this ahead of time, and we haven't given it a thought . . . until now, when it is too late.
My other gripe is how, over and over again, people seem to focus on how much energy our cars take when 3/4 of our energy consumption is due to structural heating, lighting, and industrial consumption. You can save a lot more energy by turning lights out and using compact flourescent or LED lighting, keeping the thermostat down, adding insulation, and, most importantly, living in smaller houses. It amazes me that, in our neightborhood of family-sized housing, most of the homes here are occupied by older couples whose children have grown up and moved out. It takes a lot of energy to heat, cool, and light a 3000 square foot house. We could save a whole lot of energy if people chose housing that meets their needs, not their egos.
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To your second point thank god! I have said for years why dont we focus on all the people still using home heating oil which is deisel just not colored for hiway use. It is a lot easier to make something for your home than it is for your car.
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I was one of the guest speakers on the show this morning. If you would like additional information about the various events that are happening in Oregon and Washington, I encourage you to go to the Hands Across the Sand website www.handsacrossthesand.org.
Jacob...despite your sarcasm, you bring up a good point. I have good news for you and others who don't want to drive out to the beach. While there aren't any events planned in the Portland area, you can take the bus up to Vancouver, WA and participate in that event. Events are also being held in Salem, Eugene and Corvallis.
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Large permanent magnets
could save the day ! Just an idea.
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Questions to Charlie
1) I would like to now if the initial blast on the drill rig could have blown out the drill casing below the Ocean Floor.
2) And if this could have created a Multi Path Sub-Seabed leak which would compound trying to control and/or stop the leaking process on a permanent basis.
Lovin You... TOL
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Yes, everyone hates big oil. However, this is a safety issue. Any industry can have safety issues. Someone making solar panels could get poisoned by chemicals, or they could be poisoning rivers with improper hazmat storage.
In my opinion this is #1 BP's lack of commitment to safety. #2 Where was OSHA in this?
In my work anyone can call "stop the job" when they deem it unsafe. It seems like BP doesn't have this culture. The jury is still out as to how they are criminally neglagent.
What I would have liked to hear in obama's plan is that they plan to audit all of BP's operations for safety concerns.
To those that blame big oil, there really is no other way to power america. The econimic insentive to create huge green energy companies is just not there. Petro is just cheaper.... What I've been waiting for Obama to say is some kind of challenge to the generation industry to make clean energy that has a better return on investment than petro counterparts. If we can get the solar / wind / nuclear industry to be competitive then the market will do the change naturally.
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The true cost of Oil includes most of the cost of our military. Most of the wars that the "West" has fought over the past 150 years or so have been for Oil.
Oil is not in any way "cheaper".
Big Oil has a strangle hold on the energy industries and we need to break that hold and free ourselves and our government from Big Oil.
If we subsidized alternatives as much as we do Big Oil they would certainly be more than competitive.
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someone just argude that my suggestion to bann imported coffee would put tons of people out of work which is true and not what I want to do I was just making the point that people constantly talk about feul use bud dont look at their own actions. I dont buy coffe.
And arent you suggesting that we pute probably twice as many people out of work buy getting rid of using oil?
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This disaster is the inevitable result of Conservative "small government, anti-regulatory policies".
This what we anti-Conservatives have warned about for years, that if we don't have a large enough "Government of The People, by The People, and for The People", legislating laws and Regulations, and effectively enforcing those Laws and Regulations, then big Corporations will allow things like this to happen.
This a big win for Conservative Republicans, they got the result that they fought for, that we warned they would get!
Ronald "Amiable Dunce" Reagan was wrong, "Government of The People, By The People, and for The People" is not the problem, it is the solution, and we need to take our government back away from the Corporations and bring the Corporations to heel.
We need to reject the Conservative idea of government by a few very powerful and un-Regulated Corporations, reject The Conservative Corporative State.
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Tom, I half-way agree with you. In the last ten years we've seen widespread misbehavior in the the finance industry, health insurance industry, and now big oil. BP, our current favorite whipping boy, has seen repeated safety and environmental lapses in the last few years that have resulted in substantial environmental damage in Alaska, more damage in the Gulf of Mexico, and loss of life in Texas and in the Gulf.
What has been missing these and other industries is thoughtful, meaningful regulation that protects the interests of the people and their economy, future generations, the environment (in the case of oil), and investors. The conservative credo of less regulation is better has clearly failed to protect these constituencies.
I do not, however, think President Regan was wrong when he worked to reduce government regulation in the early 80s. Looking back, many of those regulations failed to protect the people, environment, and so on while costing the economy huge amounts of money. Many of the regulations in place in the 70s were not "thoughtful, meaningful regulation."
Where things went terribly wrong is through the application of a single solution -- less regulation, less government -- to all problems. What we've done is let corporations police themselves, with predictable results: Near collapse of the financial system, health insurance policies that don't provide the promised care, and oil companies that rain economic and environmental ruin on thousands of miles of coastline.
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Emily,
You asked "what would happen if this disaster struck our coastline". In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: proactive measures like a science-based network of marine protected areas and a Territorial Sea Plan that can accommodate a variety of industrial and recreational uses will help ensure the long-term health and productivity of Oregon’s nearshore.
There is a strong legacy here in Oregon of taking preventative steps away from disasters occuring in our nearshore. Currently, establishing of a network of marine reserves and protected areas off our coastline in accordance with the Territorial Sea Plan and Goal 19 is the most productive thing we can do to ensure a safe & productive Oregon Ocean. Anything the public can do to get involved and strengthen the conversation is crucial.
Thanks for your information. Any advice as to which organizations in the Gulf are worthy causes to donate to would be helpful.
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Fortunately, in Oregon thanks to the leadership of great representatives like Ben Cannon, we put the moratorium protecting our territorial sea (beach to 3 nautical miles) back in place thru 2020. This was supported by a range of business', conservation groups, and fishing organizations, and passed the legislature with bi-partisian support in February of this year. On top of that along the West Coast our Senators and Representatives have the political will to ensure that a spill of the nature never happens in our federal waters (3- 200 nautical miles). This piece of legislation is know as the West Coast Moratorium.
From the Press Release:“We are united in the principle that no oil drilling should occur off our shores,” said Senator Merkley. “The Oregon Legislature has acted to stop drilling off the coast up to three miles but they can only do so much. It is up to us in Congress to protect coastal jobs and Oregon beaches.”
Tell the President and your electeds to permanently restore the federal offshore drilling now! Take action here: http://action.surfrider.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1727
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There had been news that the oils spill mess is worst than we ever thought and yet the responsible for the clean up doesn’t show any sign of cooperation. Perhaps you knew the company that I am talking about the- BP. The oil spill became the world dilemma. Perhaps this is not just about the BP, although the company have the sole responsibility for the clean up I guess as a concerned citizen we should also done our part to make a quick recovery. We should work collaboratively, because if we just wait for the BP clean up, we will going to prolong the agony of the adverse effect of the oil spill.
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We had seen the effort of President Obama in trying to fix the oil leak dilemma. He had exhausted all the possible mean of addressing the traumatic dilemma that had ever happened int eh Gulf of Mexico. Maybe this is already a wake up call for the government that there's no way for them to impose a very lax regulations. BP should be responsible enough for the clean up. They are the one accountable for the said tragedy. I hope they will cooperate because many sectors had already been affected.
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Comments are now closed.
Just wondering...has anyone else noticed that the lion's share of Federal Emergency response funds go the lower-right quarter of the country? (Not that I think there shouldn't be emergency assistance.) But Hurricanes are an annual thing, Deepwater Horizon is at least the SECOND oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, not to mention the tornadoes and floods down there.
By contrast, I don't remember (and I lived here at the time) there being much, if any, response by FEMA after Mt. St. Helens blew itself up in 1980. I also don't remember there being much response by FEMA to the Loma Prieta Quake (1989) or the Northridge Quake (1994), but they're Johnny-on-the-spot whenever anything happens in the Gulf or the Southeast.
THAT SAID: I think that BP should have had a real plan on file with the government (one that didn't address how they were going to save the Gulf Walrus). Also, I think they should have looked at the Ixtoc I spill of 1979 to see what DIDN'T Work.