13 thoughts on “The consequences of BP’s Safety Lapses”
Hello progressives! Why is BP drilling 49 miles off the coast in 1 mile deep water? Well that is because of you. You should blame yourself for this accident. For all of you that think the government is here to save the day, how do you think they are doing? Your savior Obama couldn’t look more foolish. Sorry to sound so antagonistic but this is what you get when you depend on the government. This is what you get when you elect a president who has never had a job or any executive experience at all.
I blame BP but blame the government (who leases the well and has total oversight) also. Where is the massive cleanup. Good job Obama!
Yes government regulations force drilling in the deepest parts of the Gulf…BUT…it was lack of real oversight by regulators responsible for off shore drilling under both President Bush and President Obama that allowed BP to cut the corners that it did.
And if we depended on business to be in charge? If that actually worked, no matter where they were allowed to drill, BP would have had safe guards in place and actual funcitional disaster recovery plans ready to roll. Didn’t happen~
Of course the President was smart enough to know they weren’t doing a good job – and came into office complaining about Bush’s MMS. And proceeded to hire a person (Elizabeth Birnbaum) as head of MMS who was a lawyer and activist with no real, technical knowledge or background in the industry who has subsequently been fired – excuse me, she resigned.
And I should add, she was apparently replaced by Michael Bromwich, a “litigation attorney and former federal prosecutor with a history of overseeing troubled federal agencies.”
The motto of the Administration really needs to be, “if there’s a problem, throw a Harvard Lawyer at it.”
Then again, a steady supply of Harvard lawyers might just solve the problem ala a “top kill” provided the old 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean joke were taken literally.
I’ll agree that little to nothing was done by President Obama to clean up the MMS.
Ed,
Ed,
Here is the issue. The government limited BPs liability to 75 million which I believe took place under the Clinton administration but I am not positive. So it is the government who allowed the company to be reckless. What if their was unlimited liability for any spill? I guarantee you they would take this much more seriously.
I wonder when the left will quit blaming Bush. I think it must be their nature, you know, never take responsibility…. The fact is Obama’s philosophy of big government and over regulation failed. No matter what you say this happened on Obama’s watch. Just days before this happened he approved of more deep water drilling. Yes BP is at fault and should be responsible for the cleanup. If we had a conservative leader in the white house who actually had executive experience things would look much different at this point. Likely we would have never seen oil on every beach from Louisiana to Florida. See a true leader would not have studied the effects of dredging on the ocean flora when 10 million gallons of oil was going to kill everything in sight. A true leader would not have allowed the coast guard to stop skimmers from doing their thing because they didn’t have life jackets on the boats.
Dude, what part of President Bush AND President Obama did you fail to understand? And the $75 million limitation may date to President Clinton’s time in office or maybe not. If it does it will be interesting to see if the bill passed during the time the Democratic party controlled the Congress or after the Republicans took control.
And I agree lack of oversight allowed BP to be reckless. But if lack of government oversight and financial limitations on reponsibility are the reasons, then don’t tell me that free enterprise and free markets know best. Because right here is an immediate prime example of pure self interest by BP in total disregard for their implied stewardship for the surrounding communities, ecosystems, economic environments, customers, partners and the overall greater good of the world community. A certain level of self interest is implied of course, they are in the business of making money via selling energy products and services. Just meeting the minimum requirements or whatever they can get away with isn’t good enough. There is a basic moral and ethical responsibility to do the right thing no matter how long the minimum bar is set. And they shouldn’t have to be coerced into doing the right thing.
They just basically pee’d in their own drinking water on this one.
The $75 million limitation for oil company liability following spills applies to damage claims made individuals, companies and governments. It does not apply to cost to cleaning up or containing the actual spill. It was passed in 1986 during President Reagan’s administration.
Kent,
Give me the name of one Republican with “executive experience” who you’d like to see handling this environmental disaster and the economic disaster the GOP created under their laissez faire approach to governing. If you’re idea of good leadership with “executive experience” is our first MBA President, George Bush, you have got to be kidding me. The man spent 487 days at Camp David and 490 Days at his Texas ranch during the time he was in office – great hands on leadership example! See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/18/bush-spent-487-days-at-ca_n_158902.html
In terms of his executive experience and that of the GOP that you seem to adore, during the GOP’s reign of error under Bush’s eight years in office, (most of which he held with minions of his running the House and the Senate), the number of jobs created was the worst in recorded history according to the business-loving Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/).
If this is the type of executive leadership you are in favor of, I think you need to hit the history books a bit more. I’d much rather have a leader that gets things done and that moves the country forward then a backward-sliding corporate toadie.
Maybe you’d rather see half-term Governor Sarah Palin, at the helm of our economy and environment.
Actually Sarah Palin wouldn’t be bad in this situation, so would Dick, Lynn, or even Liz Cheney! I would also feel comfortable with Chris Christie. Bobby Jindl. “W”, Tommy Thompson, Rudy Gulianni or my personal favorite Mitt Romney. Anyone of the above folks have shown leadership in crisis mode, and the ability to get past Red tape and get things accomplished. As for Bushes day’s away from DC The fact is the President is never really away from Govt. even when the “Bamster” in solving the “Gulf” crisis of the “GULF COURSE”. It’s a silly argument and considering how much time energy and money this Prez spends on dates with his wife that immobilize half of NYC or Chicago, or the feel good speech he gives in Indiana that put hundreds of workers out for the day with no pay so he can make a 10 minute speech.
So does a lack of experience, outside of the classroom mean a President will be a disaster? All the facts are not yet in..but so far it looks like the old adage is true….”Those who can, DO; those who can’t TEACH!”
I have this to be true in so many discussion in my life It’s uncanny!
By the way anyone who is a conservative could do better than this joke of a president. We need someone in who can restrain government and their actions. What do you think would happen if we unleashed a sea of ships with oil skimmers, etc… A true leader could rally the American people but Obama is too busy playing golf and going on vacation to be bothered by these things.
By the way maybe you should take a look at the sloppy WSJ analysis done, the jobs columns are out of order.
Please don’t post trash from the Huffington post, not even going to waste my time reading it.
By the way, Bush won the Iraq war. Seems that Obama is getting his ass kicked in the Afghanistan war but no I am sure that is not a surprise to anyone!
We need a leader that takes this country forward toward market freedom. Not someone who takes over car companies, banks, healthcare. Not someone who goes golfing during the worst environmental disaster in our history.
Don’t worry adults are about to be in charge again.
Yeah, President Bush won the Iraq war before he lost it and couldn’t find the exit until he was pointed to it.
Prsident Obama isn’t getting his assed kicked as bad as President Bush was and we wouldn’t even be there anymore if 43 had finished the job instead his Iraq folly.
Oh, here we go again. Blame Bush when you have no ideas of your own.
I have plenty of ideas but I am not going to go into Afghanistan any further when we are talking about oil spills in the gulf.
Hello progressives! Why is BP drilling 49 miles off the coast in 1 mile deep water? Well that is because of you. You should blame yourself for this accident. For all of you that think the government is here to save the day, how do you think they are doing? Your savior Obama couldn’t look more foolish. Sorry to sound so antagonistic but this is what you get when you depend on the government. This is what you get when you elect a president who has never had a job or any executive experience at all.
I blame BP but blame the government (who leases the well and has total oversight) also. Where is the massive cleanup. Good job Obama!
Yes government regulations force drilling in the deepest parts of the Gulf…BUT…it was lack of real oversight by regulators responsible for off shore drilling under both President Bush and President Obama that allowed BP to cut the corners that it did.
And if we depended on business to be in charge? If that actually worked, no matter where they were allowed to drill, BP would have had safe guards in place and actual funcitional disaster recovery plans ready to roll. Didn’t happen~
Of course the President was smart enough to know they weren’t doing a good job – and came into office complaining about Bush’s MMS. And proceeded to hire a person (Elizabeth Birnbaum) as head of MMS who was a lawyer and activist with no real, technical knowledge or background in the industry who has subsequently been fired – excuse me, she resigned.
And I should add, she was apparently replaced by Michael Bromwich, a “litigation attorney and former federal prosecutor with a history of overseeing troubled federal agencies.”
The motto of the Administration really needs to be, “if there’s a problem, throw a Harvard Lawyer at it.”
Then again, a steady supply of Harvard lawyers might just solve the problem ala a “top kill” provided the old 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean joke were taken literally.
I’ll agree that little to nothing was done by President Obama to clean up the MMS.
Ed,
Ed,
Here is the issue. The government limited BPs liability to 75 million which I believe took place under the Clinton administration but I am not positive. So it is the government who allowed the company to be reckless. What if their was unlimited liability for any spill? I guarantee you they would take this much more seriously.
I wonder when the left will quit blaming Bush. I think it must be their nature, you know, never take responsibility…. The fact is Obama’s philosophy of big government and over regulation failed. No matter what you say this happened on Obama’s watch. Just days before this happened he approved of more deep water drilling. Yes BP is at fault and should be responsible for the cleanup. If we had a conservative leader in the white house who actually had executive experience things would look much different at this point. Likely we would have never seen oil on every beach from Louisiana to Florida. See a true leader would not have studied the effects of dredging on the ocean flora when 10 million gallons of oil was going to kill everything in sight. A true leader would not have allowed the coast guard to stop skimmers from doing their thing because they didn’t have life jackets on the boats.
Dude, what part of President Bush AND President Obama did you fail to understand? And the $75 million limitation may date to President Clinton’s time in office or maybe not. If it does it will be interesting to see if the bill passed during the time the Democratic party controlled the Congress or after the Republicans took control.
And I agree lack of oversight allowed BP to be reckless. But if lack of government oversight and financial limitations on reponsibility are the reasons, then don’t tell me that free enterprise and free markets know best. Because right here is an immediate prime example of pure self interest by BP in total disregard for their implied stewardship for the surrounding communities, ecosystems, economic environments, customers, partners and the overall greater good of the world community. A certain level of self interest is implied of course, they are in the business of making money via selling energy products and services. Just meeting the minimum requirements or whatever they can get away with isn’t good enough. There is a basic moral and ethical responsibility to do the right thing no matter how long the minimum bar is set. And they shouldn’t have to be coerced into doing the right thing.
They just basically pee’d in their own drinking water on this one.
The $75 million limitation for oil company liability following spills applies to damage claims made individuals, companies and governments. It does not apply to cost to cleaning up or containing the actual spill. It was passed in 1986 during President Reagan’s administration.
Kent,
Give me the name of one Republican with “executive experience” who you’d like to see handling this environmental disaster and the economic disaster the GOP created under their laissez faire approach to governing. If you’re idea of good leadership with “executive experience” is our first MBA President, George Bush, you have got to be kidding me. The man spent 487 days at Camp David and 490 Days at his Texas ranch during the time he was in office – great hands on leadership example! See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/18/bush-spent-487-days-at-ca_n_158902.html
In terms of his executive experience and that of the GOP that you seem to adore, during the GOP’s reign of error under Bush’s eight years in office, (most of which he held with minions of his running the House and the Senate), the number of jobs created was the worst in recorded history according to the business-loving Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/).
If this is the type of executive leadership you are in favor of, I think you need to hit the history books a bit more. I’d much rather have a leader that gets things done and that moves the country forward then a backward-sliding corporate toadie.
Maybe you’d rather see half-term Governor Sarah Palin, at the helm of our economy and environment.
Actually Sarah Palin wouldn’t be bad in this situation, so would Dick, Lynn, or even Liz Cheney! I would also feel comfortable with Chris Christie. Bobby Jindl. “W”, Tommy Thompson, Rudy Gulianni or my personal favorite Mitt Romney. Anyone of the above folks have shown leadership in crisis mode, and the ability to get past Red tape and get things accomplished. As for Bushes day’s away from DC The fact is the President is never really away from Govt. even when the “Bamster” in solving the “Gulf” crisis of the “GULF COURSE”. It’s a silly argument and considering how much time energy and money this Prez spends on dates with his wife that immobilize half of NYC or Chicago, or the feel good speech he gives in Indiana that put hundreds of workers out for the day with no pay so he can make a 10 minute speech.
So does a lack of experience, outside of the classroom mean a President will be a disaster? All the facts are not yet in..but so far it looks like the old adage is true….”Those who can, DO; those who can’t TEACH!”
I have this to be true in so many discussion in my life It’s uncanny!
Madcityman,
Who claimed that BUSH was a conservative? Not me! Lets see, what was unemployment under Bush ~ 5%. What is it under Obama? Lets look at the budget and federal deficit by CBO numbers for the two presidents http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/04/bush-vs-obama-deficits-in-pictures.html.
By the way anyone who is a conservative could do better than this joke of a president. We need someone in who can restrain government and their actions. What do you think would happen if we unleashed a sea of ships with oil skimmers, etc… A true leader could rally the American people but Obama is too busy playing golf and going on vacation to be bothered by these things.
By the way maybe you should take a look at the sloppy WSJ analysis done, the jobs columns are out of order.
Please don’t post trash from the Huffington post, not even going to waste my time reading it.
By the way, Bush won the Iraq war. Seems that Obama is getting his ass kicked in the Afghanistan war but no I am sure that is not a surprise to anyone!
We need a leader that takes this country forward toward market freedom. Not someone who takes over car companies, banks, healthcare. Not someone who goes golfing during the worst environmental disaster in our history.
Don’t worry adults are about to be in charge again.
Yeah, President Bush won the Iraq war before he lost it and couldn’t find the exit until he was pointed to it.
Prsident Obama isn’t getting his assed kicked as bad as President Bush was and we wouldn’t even be there anymore if 43 had finished the job instead his Iraq folly.
Oh, here we go again. Blame Bush when you have no ideas of your own.
I have plenty of ideas but I am not going to go into Afghanistan any further when we are talking about oil spills in the gulf.
but this is one that President Bush can’t dodge.