and a report in Washington Post states that BP knew of a potential problem last June.
This will be very expensive lesson for BP and hopefully they will learn.
''Obama is in so far over his head... he needs SCUBA gear '' Don Imus
Thought for today .
People here know I am not a fan of President Obama, to engage in a mile under statement.
However, there is a limited amount he can do. (The same goes for BP in terms of stopping it.) Everyone has to just keep trying and trying and trying.
It is an unprecedented situation. If you want to try new things in any and all aspects of live, you will face new problems.
There is blame to go around to everyone except me. Even the environmentalists share some blame in that if we need oil, and we do, there was no reason to drill so deep when there is oil at lesser depths, but closer to shore.
Do you think for 2 1/2 seconds that Norway, one of the "greenest" countries in the world, is going to slow North Sea oil drilling.
Most of what I like to do in life, dance, travel, theater, etc is made possible or enhanced by oil.
There is no reason in the world for President Obama to be delaying the fix one second. I am sure he is doing everything he can. The only thing I don't like is I wish he would ease up on the rhetoric. That doesn't help and just makes people mad.
Imus was correct and it covers more then just the oil disaster .
The Government also has the responsibility to hire people who are well versed in the jobs they are appointed, especially so when safety of workers, and our environment is concerned..MMS had well known problems under Bush, and the Obama administration had a duty to fix those problems to the best of their ability.Elizabeth Birnbaum had no credentials whatsoever to oversee safety when in fact she had never worked on a oil rig, and knows absolutely zilch, nothing, nada, about oil rig engineering..
She was a absolutely ridiculous appointment.
With a 300 million dollar budget for the MMS,I would expect oversite of safety from people with actual experience,and not a simple resume of Editor in chief in College, for the Harvard Environmental Law Review.. I am 100% in support for equality and fairness in hiring practices for women,and everyone else, however equal does not constitute hiring someone who has no clue of how to perform their job.
I blame BP much more than the Government, although both are at fault IMO.
BP is also guilty of allowing a big cheese official to make instant decisions, contrary to the rig workers on deck safety objections, who have much more actual experience..I am curious if the BP officials who ignored warnings from rig workers on site,had ever actually done physical work on a deep sea oil platform, or were they promoted via the good old boy syndrome?? Looks like the few million the good old boys tried to save is going to cost BP billions, and ruin thousands of lives.
http://poststar.com/news/local/article_73d337ce-693b-11df-926f-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_15170591
Birnbaum may be the head but MMS has been out of control for eons.
Obama has appointed some of the most qualified people since Bill Clinton. Does most qualified people avert oil rig blowouts, probably not.
Indeed, very unfortunate situation, can blame anyone and their uncle but, in reality you learn from fix the problem for the future. Would that fix the problem forever, unlikely. We are dealing with the forces of nature and there is so little anyone know about it. Science is educated guess based on some hypothesis and it works most of the time and when it doesn't work, it can be huge at times.
Hindsight is 20/20. Monday morning QB always wins the game.
Many regulations are common sense but when it comes to technological regulations they are almost always based on history of operation which is a nice way of saying accidents. Some regulations are trying to use things like FMEA but on the surface the results can seem even more daring than what their intention were set out to be.
Easy targets to shoot at, when an article is written, and then re-posted, that states to the effect, ...Obama has told his director of the Coast Guard, to inform BP that a new method of capping the well must now be attempted , LMRP cap 
-- Modified on 5/30/2010 9:44:25 PM
Obama in a statement said Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry "directed BP to launch a new procedure whereby the riser pipe will be cut and a containment structure fitted over the leak."
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/100643-obama-says-new-procedure-needed-to-stop-oil-leak
A solution must be found right now and then we can hold those responsible with all the investigations and blame later.
and a report in Washington Post states that BP knew of a potential problem last June.
This will be very expensive lesson for BP and hopefully they will learn.
I say its time to look at Nuclear power.
I know the left hates it, but France (a country deeply admired by many on the left) gets 70% of its power from Nuclear.
BTW, if the weren't so anal about drilling, we souldn't have to go so far offshore and drill so deep that if there is a problem we can't fix it.
Nuclear Power industry has advanced so much now they can build smaller plants safer and cheaper even underground.
Being that said, it will take another 50 years for our esteemed politicians and ill informed public to understand.
We do have aircraft carriers powered by nuclear power plants.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/TaskForce_One.jpg