Criminal Negligence & Reckless Endangerment

Investigators into the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico have uncovered evidence that BP and Halliburton, the company that poured the cement for the well, had knowledge that the cement mixture was unstable. In three of four tests performed by Halliburton on the mixture, it failed. Neither company appeared to have any concerns at the time that these failures might cause problems. Of course, both are now pointing the finger at each other.

Three failures out of four tests. A 75 percent failure rate and both of these corporations decided to risk it. No reasonable individual would dare think of using a product that failed three-quarters of the time. In a situation such as underwater drilling one would think that there would be a need for certainty rather than an expectation of failure.

Gambling that something that has failed 75 percent of the time will work flawlessly defies logic. The legal terms for what happened here are criminal negligence and reckless endangerment. Negligence may be too mild a term for completely ignoring evidence that a system is likely to fail. The workers were more than endangered, eleven of them died.

It is easy to see why Halliburton and BP are pointing their fingers at each other - when reckless endangerment leads to death the charges are manslaughter or murder. Too strong? What do you think would be the result of an individual putting workers on a scaffolding working at their house that collapsed? What do you think would happen in this case if it were shown the homeowner knew the scaffolding was substandard and likely to collapse? The answer is clear. That individual would be prosecuted.

When will corporations be held to the same standards as individuals? Do they only get to claim personhood when they are dumping unlimited cash into elections?

** Halliburton's history of cutting costs at the expense of safety is well documented. Recall that it was Halliburton that managed to electrocute soldiers by cross wiring electrical services into plumbing at bases in Iraq.

Good News About the Economy

Finally, some good news about the economy. Well, actually it's not good news about the economy, it's good news because of the economy. On Sunday, October 10th, in an article by Matthew Wald, entitled "Sluggish Economy Curtails Prospects for Building Nuclear Reactors," that appeared in The New York Times, it was reported that the recession and continued economic fears have driven efforts to build nuclear plants to a halt.

The fight over nuclear power has waxed and waned for decades. Every so often an accident occurs and the true costs of nuclear power becomes evident. After Chernobyl and Three Mile Island it appeared for a brief period of time that the world was beginning to understand that the dangers associated with nuclear reactors may be more than we can handle. Problems of storage of nuclear waste and its by-products are an ongoing difficulty that plague all nuclear facilities. Occasionally local communities become attuned to this issue when a storage facility is proposed in their backyards.

When the problems associated with nuclear energy are shoved into our consciousness, it is easy to see the folly that is nuclear power. However, as soon as the price of oil starts to rise and society is confronted with the true costs of its consumption, nuclear power advocates begin trumpeting it as a solution. This occurs despite the fact that no nuclear power plant has ever produced any cost efficient energy. The costs of construction and storage of waste make subsidies necessary to even pursue this course of action.

Costs aside, the most ludicrous claim is that nuclear energy is safe. Compared to what? Yes, oil wells explode and miners get trapped underground, but these industries don't have a monopoly on accidents. The nature of all human endeavors is that mistakes occur and accidents happen. Unfortunately, for nuclear energy to be safe there needs to be perfect safety. Even if one ignores the possibility of deliberate acts of sabotage or terrorism, it will never happen that nuclear energy can be fail safe. It is human arrogance and hubris that suggests otherwise.

Look at the damage done by the BP disaster. Drilling for oil is simple compared to harnessing the power of the atom. Think oil is difficult to clean up, try plutonium - it has a half-life of forever.

The Sleeper Has Awaken

For the past two months this blog has been inactive. Several factors, mostly too mundane to mention, contributed to this. However, the primary factor was that the BP disaster in the Gulf has led me to rethink the nature of this site.

As you may have noticed, the subtitle has changed to "A Chronicle of the Destruction of ...". The BP spill became a slow motion disaster that eventually numbed the public with its never ending pattern of incompetence. Now that its over, people are clamoring for more off shore drilling. It seems we will never learn.

The continuing destruction of the planet as evidenced by the toxic spill in Hungary, the continued ongoing disaster of oil spills/leaks/seeps (you name it) in Nigeria, and ongoing nuclear proliferation does not bode well for the future.

While it is true that the weather is not the same as climate, it is hard not to note that it was 113 degrees in Los Angeles last week, that wildfires in Russia burned around Chernobyl and floods in Pakistan displaced millions. Meanwhile, California is on the verge of having environmental reforms gutted by a ballot initiative funded primarily by oil companies.

It is the link between the destruction of the environment and corporate greed that will become the focus of this site as it slowly updates over the next several months. Several features will change and some will be eliminated. Others, such as lists of the worst oil spills, nuclear accidents, etc. will become regular fixtures.

100 Days: Broken Promises, Bogus Plans, and Big Problems

100 Days. The British Petroleum oil spill is now 100 days old. Oil has been pumping into the Gulf of Mexico for over three months. The amount of oil spilled is somewhere between 150 and 300 MILLION gallons. An entire ecosystem is threatened and a fishing industry is ruined, possibly for the foreseeable future.

What has been learned is that BP made promises that no such disaster could occur, bogus plans to clean up after such a disaster, and has likely made matters worse by its efforts to use dispersants, apparently in a bid to prevent an accurate accounting of the actual spill amounts.

This whole fiasco has demonstrated that the oil industry has been feeding the public a barrel of lies (covered in oil) as regards its ability to prevent, contain and clean up from such a disaster. Its promises to pay for the spill and reimburse those whose livelihoods it has destroyed must be viewed with skepticism given their past track record for lying.

Several politicians have shown their true colors in attempting to defend Big Oil. Many have even made pleas for continued and accelerated drilling. Disappointingly, almost none have pushed for major reforms and any real effort to address the deleterious effects of the oil industry on the planet. They cash the checks while the Gulf drowns.

HMS Stupidity

Tony Hayward, disgraced British Petroleum executive, was in attendance at a yacht race in the Isle of Wight over the weekend. No doubt this is part of his efforts to get his life back. Yes, one would need to engage in a little relaxation after stonewalling Congress concerning one's knowledge of the negligent safety procedures employed by one's company.

No time to attend to the greatest oil spill disaster in history, there's a yacht race. Less than a week after BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg referred to the victims of the spill as the "small people" Hayward demonstrates utter contempt for those who lost their lives and those who have lost their livelihoods.

Such cavalier attitudes displayed by Hayward and Svanberg stand as testimony as to why corporations, especially BP, cannot be allowed to police themselves. These men should be in custody not enjoying a yacht race.

GOP: Gobs of Petroleum

It is nearly impossible to believe, but there are actually politicians in this country who are working to protect BP from their responsibilities to the people of the U.S. Joe Barton, Republican House member, actually apologized to BP executive Tony Hayward and called efforts to make them pay for what they have done a "shakedown." Michelle Bachman (R-Minnesota) and Sarah Palin (R-Insanity) have made similar comments.

The truth is coming out. Republicans are shills for the oil companies and transnational corporations in general. Big business is their real constituency. Their outrage towards big government is really about removing any roadblocks to the looting of the resources of the nation by big corporations.

Don't buy the rhetoric, the tea is poison, flavored with oil.

BP: Beach Petroleum

British Petroleum continues its bumbling efforts to stop the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The latest effort, involving cutting through a riser pipe so it could be capped, has failed as the diamond bladed saw became stuck. Now they are planning to use giant shears (think scissors) to cut through the pipe. Thad Allen just announced that the pipe has been cut and phase two of this process begins.

In what little permit process there was and in what little review occurred for this project prior to drilling BP assured regulators that it could handle a spill ten times as large as what is currently transpiring. Given their clearly inept efforts and even more glaring lack of any preparation or plans for what to do in the event of an accident, BP lied during the permit process. The Justice Department is looking for criminal behavior, fraud in the application process seems the first place to start. The deaths of the eleven workers should be investigated as negligent homicide at the least.

I'm tired of hearing the BP management team bemoan the fact that their task is difficult because they are working a mile underwater. That is exactly why they should have had multiple contingency plans. Instead of trusting that nothing could go wrong, they should have planned for the worst case scenario.

But they didn't plan. Now oil is in the wetlands and rolling onto the beaches. Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi have already had oil on their beaches and Florida is expecting it before the day is out. An area of 750,000 square miles has been closed to fishing. Plumes of oil fill the water column and the oil spill is clearly visible on satellite images. The oil and the dispersants are entering the food chain.

Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, stated over the weekend that he wanted his "life back." The people of the Gulf would like their ecosystem and fishing industry back.

Drowning in a Bathtub of Oil

For all the advocates of small government who want government to get so small it can be "drowned in a bathtub," this past six weeks of environmental destruction in the Gulf should serve as a wake up call that their ideology is dangerous when put into action. Government has a function in society and often that function requires action on the massive scale.

It is more than a little ironic to see Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana and Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi, criticize the federal governments response to the oil spill. Both governors, it should be recalled, have attempted to block stimulus funds and generally oppose any federal efforts.

The lack of government as regards regulations and regulatory oversight have directly contributed to the size, duration and occurrence of the spill. Putting oilmen in office in 2000, the nation developed an energy policy in secret with Dick Cheney as Chief Operating Officer of the transnational cabal.

Turning over government to private corporations and privatizing all of the functions thereof is not the way to run a society. It is the way to take all the wealth from the public commons and transfer it to private citizens while socializing the costs and risks.

Drowning government in a bathtub is a great slogan right up until there is a disaster that requires a definitive response. The corporatist response, that which we are seeing from BP, is only about cost containment and public relations.

The folly of the "death to government," crowd as exemplified by Grover Norquist and the Teabaggers, becomes apparent in moments such as this. Time to recognize that government has a role in society. Right now that role has been impeded by the actions of the previous administration and the inaction of the current administration. Time for the Obama Adminstration to step up and use government and quit worrying about the criticisms.

BP: Biblical Proportions - 40 Days & a Plague of Oil

British Petroleum has failed in its latest attempt to plug the hole in the bottom of the sea that is currently unleashing a plague of oil upon the Gulf of Mexico and its ecosystem. Estimates of the spill range from the governments 12,000 to 19.000 barrels (approximately 500,000 to 800,000 gallons) per day. Some independent scientists put the flow from the spill even higher. No matter what figures are used, at least 20 million barrels have already leaked and there is no end in sight.

As noted, BP's effort to plug the spill using high density drilling fluid (called mud in the trade) failed. Their next effort will involve sitting a container over the top of the faulty blowout preventer. Efforts to drill another well to relieve the pressure will likely not be completed until August.

What is happening is an entire ecosystem is being destroyed while BP fiddles about. Initially attempting to minimize the spill, reporting only 1000 barrels a day flow, BP has consistently underestimated damage and overestimated their technical abilities. It is now coming out, as reported on ABC News, that BP used a riskier metal casing on the well head due to its costs.

From its explosion at a refinery in Texas to its shoddy pipeline maintenance in wilderness areas, BP has a history of cutting corners when it comes to safety and environmental protection. Its efforts to maximize its profits have always come ahead of these priorities. BP Managing Director Bob Dudley, making the rounds on the morning news shows, defended BP's actions and attempted to minimize their blame. Had a relief well been drilled along with the first well, or there had been redundancy in the blowout preventer, this tragedy could have been averted. Dudley repeatedly stressed how difficult it is to stop this. EXACTLY, that's why extraordinary safety precautions should have been taken before beginning to drill a mile underwater.

When a similar disaster occurred off the coast of Saudi Arabia years ago, the spill was surrounded by tankers which sucked up the water and removed the oil. Dudley stated that it was not feasible to do this because it was a different mixture of oil. In essence, he admitted that the reason BP is not doing this is that it is cost prohibitive. He failed to mention that there are no tankers available because of a world oil glut that has tankers sitting full all over the world awaiting better prices before selling (don't take my word for this, check it out and you'll find that its true).

From using environmentally toxic dispersants to failing to protect the beaches, from cutting costs by not drilling relief wells to using cheaper metal casings than recommended, BP has been responsible for creating this disaster. It is not just an accident, it is criminal negligence. If a private citizen had a tool shed full of gasoline and it exploded and killed the neighbor, no one would see it as just an accident. The negligence of improper behavior would likely result in a charge of homicide. Given that eleven workers have already been killed, it is only proper to expect charges of criminally negligent homicide in their deaths. Who has jurisdiction?

Mitch McConnell: Lamest Excuse Ever

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), gave what might be the lamest excuse ever heard for his opposition to a bill this Sunday morning. McConnell, speaking with David Gregory on Meet the Press, stated that he was opposed to raising the $75 million cap on oil companies for the damages they create because it would hurt "the small operator."

I thought McConnell was from Kentucky until I heard this remark and now realize he must be from another planet. The idea that raising the cap from $75 million might somehow produce conditions that would prevent small operators from being players in the oil market is straight out of fantasy world. Does McConnell, or anyone else for that matter, actually think that there are small time, mom and pop operators in the oil exploration businesses? Companies with $75 million are apparently small operators in McConnell world and oil world.

Get real. Oil is a business restricted to transnational conglomerates that hide behind laws written by their politicians. The company in question, British Petroleum, made billions last year alone. McConnell cannot possibly expect anyone to believe his talking point that he is concerned with the little guy.

For Mitch McConnell the truth is as murky as the Gulf of Mexico.

Behemoth Proportions: BP Spill Likely Larger Than Estimated

New evidence suggests that the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be far larger than the 5,000 barrels a day estimate given by BP and the U.S. government. Remember that BP initially reported that the spill was only 1000 barrels a day. That estimate was ratcheted up when the Coast Guard arrived and began to investigate the spill.

Ian McDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State has estimated the flow to be four to five times the government estimate. According to an article by Justin Gillis in the New York Times on Friday, May 14th, McDonald and other researchers are questioning the official government estimate of 146 gallons per minute. Alun Lewis, an expert in the area, estimated that the flow was much higher than the official tally after viewing film of the leak itself. NBC News, in a report by Thahn Truong, reported that as much as 70,000 barrels a day (close to 3 million gallons a day) may be leaking.

All told, the estimates by scientists seem to conclude that a minimum of one million gallons a day is leaking into the Gulf ecosystem. Tar blobs have begun to wash onto area beaches and the worst of the damage will likely not be known for some time.

BP: Beyond Preposterous.