Bird’s-Eye: It was the week when “Drill, baby, drill” became “Roost, chickens, roost”. Suggestions ranging from the lunatic (“Nuke the slick!”) to the desperate. The extent of the danger and the success of the attempts will become clearer, and will get local press, so we won’t cover them here and now. Instead, some background on BP’s actions, a Big Picture view of the disaster from explosion to shoreline, and a cri-de-coeur from Juan Cole.
* Reports Show BP Opposed New Safety Rules WSJ.com
As BP PLC defended its handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, documents show it argued against new, stricter safety rules proposed last year by the U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling. The British oil giant was one of several companies that wrote to the U.S. Minerals Management Service this past September saying additional regulation of the oil industry was unnecessary. In a letter, BP said the current voluntary system of safety procedures was adequate.
* BP’s Payoffs Backfire - The Daily Beast
The oil giant behind the spill is now apologizing after trying to get local fishermen to waive legal rights in exchange for $5,000.
* Oil spill approaches Louisiana coast The Big Picture
* I want My Country back from Big Oil Juan Cole Informed Comment
I want my country back. I want back the country of Teddy Roosevelt, who cared about our natural environment. I want back the country of Harry Truman, who wasn’t afraid to give em hell. I don’t want an administration that authorizes offshore drilling to make political deals with the most despicable forces in American society. I know that Big Oil is making billions in untaxed profits that it uses to buy my government so that it can despoil America the beautiful, and I want my country back.
Do you doubt the reality of global climate change, caused by human beings pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? You are the victim of propaganda and foot-dragging by big oil corporations. Virtually all the peer-reviewed academic articles published on global warming acknowledge carbon-fuelled climate change,, but a majority of press reports quite a scientist on “one side” and another on the “other side.” The “other side” is bought and paid for and lacks a scientific leg to stand on– the equivalent of the “scientists” who denied that smoking causes lung cancer.
