Earth Day 2012

Bull of the Woods mushroom

Earth Day, 2012.

Two years after the BP-inflicted Macondo Oil disaster exploded onto the national consciousness, thousands of Gulf of Mexico dolphins are stranding themselves on the shore and food fish (red snapper, in particular) are pulled from the water bearing lesions and strange infections.  (But, don't worry!  FDA mucky-muck Robert W. Dickey assures us the fish are safe to eat!)  Meanwhile, gas prices are running at about $4 per gallon and Big Oil continues raking in money hand over fist. 

In these economically shaky times, environmental worries recede before the urgent and immediate concerns of people struggling in the pitiless currents of a "free-market economy."

Cue Dick Cheney and the resource extraction pirates.  Start the chanting and the disinformation campaigns.  "Drill, baby, drill!"   "Tree-hugging hippies want to take your jobs."  "Global warming is a hoax!"

Even if they don't believe it, people will espouse that kind of claptrap to assuage any vague discomfort that might arise from watching Creation wither before mankind's rapacious appetites.

I don't know.

We were born into this world, full of beauties and wonders.  It doesn't seem right that we should deny these things --the Siberian tigers, the white rhinoceroses, the Northern Spotted Owls, the Amazonian rainforests, the Great Coral reef --to the people of the future.

Obama puts the hammer down on BP!

Impressive, Mr. President!

After delivering a dispassionate speech from the Oval Office on national television the night before, President Obama met with the top tier of British Petroleum executives, as promised.  The result?  A $20 billion escrow fund to help recompense victims of the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico!  Twenty billion dollars! 

The money is to be managed not by BP lawyers and accountants, but by Kenneth Fineburg, the person who managed the 9/11 Compensation Commission.  In effect, BP has lost control of the money.  A $20 billion shakedown!

The President emphasized that this $20 billion is not a cap to damages.  It is a down-payment.

If you recall, Congress had been debating whether or not to raise the penalty cap from an insignificant $75 million to a more significant $10 billion, but couldn't manage to do even that because of BP's bipartisan gang of defenders in the US Senate.  Let's list some names, just so people can remember:  Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), James Inhofe (R-OK).  There are others, as well.

And recall back to the last big oil disaster, the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989.  Exxon worked our corporate-structured legal system for all it was worth.  Five years after the spill, a court ruled that Exxon must pay $5 billion in punitive damages for its negligence.  But Exxon lawyers went to work with appeals and legal stall tactics.  In the end, 19 years after the spill, Exxon had reduced the amount they must pay to a paltry ~$508 million.  The Alaska fishermen and conservationists got the shaft.

President Obama precluded any such injustices.  With this move, the President has outflanked BP's defenses.  Those Armani-suited corporate lawyers, the bought-and-paid-for Congress critters, all are rendered irrelevant.  The money goes into an escrow account over the next 3 years. 

What a victory!  My confidence in the President was flagging after what I had considered to be a desultory statement the night before.  I feared that he was afraid.  Now, BP has been given notice that the down-payment of their penance is to be $20 billion and no dividends will be paid to investors.  And all the Big Oil robber barons at the other Big Oil corporations got a message, too.

To top it all off, after the meeting, after they had just had their ears pinned back like truant juveniles, BP executives came to the microphones to apologize to the American people!

Can anyone imagine how differently it would have turned out back in Junior's day?

Wait!  I see a vision.  A grim but satisfying vision.

I see Dick Cheney, fists clenched at his temples, teeth gnashing, face bent upward toward the ceiling of his Wyoming dungeon.  He is raging, raging, raging. White hot fury!  Raging, in the darkness!  "Never!" he rages.  "Never! Never!  Never!  I'll die first!"  

Watch your back, Mr. President!

President Obama's remarks on the BP oil disaster

President Obama spoke last night from the Oval Office, regarding the British Petroleum oil disaster.  His remarks were brief (running about 17 minutes) and vague.  Very short on specifics.

A few things I noticed:

Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company's recklessness. And this fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party.

Not forceful enough, frankly.  First of all, why did the President refrain from naming Tony Hayward, British Petroleum's CEO? Why allow Hayward that bit of anonymity?  Many of President Obama's critics claim (preposterously) that he is a socialist.  A real socialist would seize BP's assets and nationalize the corporation.

Beyond compensating the people of the Gulf in the short-term, it's also clear we need a long-term plan to restore the unique beauty and bounty of this region. The oil spill represents just the latest blow to a place that has already suffered multiple economic disasters and decades of environmental degradation that has led to disappearing wetlands and habitats. And the region still hasn't recovered from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That's why we must make a commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment.

I make that commitment tonight.  Earlier, I asked Ray Mabus, the Secretary of the Navy, a former governor of Mississippi, and a son of the Gulf, to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan as soon as possible. The plan will be designed by states, local communities, tribes, fishermen, businesses, conservationists, and other Gulf residents. And BP will pay for the impact this spill has had on the region.

Certainly, when President Obama says this, the words carry more meaning and significance than ten thousand of the lies that Junior used to blabber in the aftermath of Katrina.  But the President's rhetoric was vague.  Speaking in vagaries worked as a tactic in the health care debate, but this is different.  We're in the midst of a real-time national disaster.  I was looking for something more immediate:  a summoning of resources, or a call to action.

One place we have already begun to take action is at the agency in charge of regulating drilling and issuing permits, known as the Minerals Management Service. Over the last decade, this agency has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility -- a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves. At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.

One unlooked-for benefit of the BP oil disaster is that it seems to have shut Dick Cheney's yap for the time being.  Remember those energy policy meetings that Cheney fought to keep secret all the way to the Supreme Court?  I wonder, was the Minerals Management Service discussed at all in those meetings?  Could Attorney General Holder find out?  Did Big Dick's ticker do a little hop-kick when he heard the President's words?  I hope so.

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we have talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked -- not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor.

Straight talk.  We could use a lot more of it.

The President went on to discuss the need for energy independence and some general ideas about how to approach it, concluding:

...the one approach I will not accept is inaction. The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is too big and too difficult to meet. You see, the same thing was said about our ability to produce enough planes and tanks in World War II. The same thing was said about our ability to harness the science and technology to land a man safely on the surface of the moon. And yet, time and again, we have refused to settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom. Instead, what has defined us as a nation since our founding is our capacity to shape our destiny -- our determination to fight for the America we want for our children. Even if we're unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don't yet know precisely how to get there. We know we'll get there.

It seems clear that the President plans to approach energy legislation using the same tactics he used in the health care debate.  That is, as a "community organizer," setting the framework, making suggestions, advocating positions, but leaving the hard-knuckle implementation to Congress.  And why not?  Although the health care debate was bruising, in the end, Congress did produce.  But with toxic black spew gushing into the Gulf, reminding us of the urgency, President Obama seems detached.

All in all, I'd have to say the speech did not inspire confidence. The President's remarks left me vaguely disappointed, and very sorry.  Disappointed, because the President seems reluctant and uncertain.  Sorry, because I can't summon enough faith in, or respect for, my countrymen to believe that we can pull together.  Not even in the face of this disaster. 

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President Obama, take down British Petroleum!

Make them pay, Mr. President! 

I think it would behoove us all to come to some stark realizations fairly quickly:  the Mississippi Delta, the Gulf Coast that we have known all our lives is gone forever.  It will never return.  No one alive today will ever again know it as it has been before now.

Thank you, British Petroleum.

BP is in the process of poisoning the entire Gulf Coast of the United States.  The results of their negligence will cause grievous and long-lasting damage.  Damage far greater than any conceivable terrorist attack. More devastating to this nation than any military attack throughout her history.

Right now, thirty-some days into the crisis, BP is marshaling all its vast resources.  But not to stop the catastrophe in the gulf waters.  They have no idea what to do, all this talk about a "top-kill" notwithstanding.  No, BP is even now bringing all of its formidable empire in line in order to stave off the repercussions of its negligence.  That's the way these corporate mobsters work:  take, take, take and when something goes wrong, when you destroy the Gulf Coast, have the lawyers get to work.

It is hard to understand why British Petroleum is not being treated as a declared enemy of the United States.

The Gulf Oil spill is not an accident; it is the result of criminal negligence.  Negligence committed with the complete security that the billions of dollars of profits BP has been raking in, would dwarf any petty punitive damages meted out by the federal government.

Let me postulate, for a moment:  what would be my fate, were I to exhibit similar reckless behavior on an individual scale?  What if my own negligence in pursuit of profit caused a destructive fire in my neighborhood?  Would I be left in control of my own resources and allowed to deal with the problem as I saw fit?  Or would I be arrested and thrown in jail? 

I have a great deal of respect for Barack Obama.  The man has been gracious in the face of base and degrading insults from boorish, ignorant people.  But unlike the tea-baggers, these capitalist mobsters that run Big Oil are serious, deadly men.  And they will stop at nothing; Dick Cheney has proved that.

I believe that the BP Oil Spill has the potential to fundamentally change political realities. We could be at a real crossroads in the history of this country.  This is certainly not the first time in American history when the federal government has come into conflict with Big Business.  But the stakes are higher than ever before.

So, Mr. President, the time has come.  At this point, British Petroleum is a threat to this nation.  Seize its assets.  Arrest its executives.  And don't stop there.  We need a crackdown, Mr. President.  Take down British Petroleum.

Update:  The ANSWER Coalition has a website at which you can sign a petition to advocate the seizure of British Petroleum assets.   If we, the people, nationalize BP watch and see how fast the other Big Oil pirates start falling into line!

Who needs terrorists? We've got Big Oil!

Al Qaeda got nothin' on these guys!

 As the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico unfolds, it is now apparent that the threat posed to these United States --indeed, to all of humanity! --by multi-national resource-extraction industries is far greater and far more lethal than is any threat posed by a relative handful of Muslim extremists.

That's right, people.  British Petroleum, Exxon, Shell Oil, Halliburton, and so on are the biggest political threat to the world in existence.  They are terrorist organizations.  The prima facie evidence cannot be denied.

British Petroleum, which made $5.6 billion dollars in profit in the first quarter of 2010, is even now inflicting economic and environmental damage on this nation that will far out scale what was done to us on September 11, 2001. Let me repeat that:  this Gulf spill is a greater disaster to the United States than was the attack inflicted by al Qaeda, when they knocked down the Twin Towers. 

BP failed to follow federal regulations (as reported by Scott Pelley on 60 minutes) and now, due to its criminal negligence, we are suffering this disaster, which is still unfolding, a full month after it began.  No progress has been made toward stopping the oil from gushing into the Gulf.  There has been no slowdown in the flow.  They have no solution.

Meanwhile, BP's chief executive Tony Hayward is muttering soothing placations, telling us we don't need to worry.  It's a "relatively tiny" spill, he says!  The environmental impact will be "very, very modest," he says! He has no idea what is going to happen!  No one does!

British Petroleum is so powerful that their attitude toward the federal government of the United States is nothing short of contemptuous. And why not?  Our government is being exposed as impotent.  The Obama administration is doing nothing.  The oil continues to gush into the sea.  The feds don't know what to do about it.

And something else, something much more frightening, is becoming apparent.

Ask yourself:  Why isn't Eric Holder issuing indictments?  Why aren't British Petroleum assets being seized?

The truth is terrifying:  Because Obama fears Big Oil!  Because Big Oil has either bought off or intimidated our federal government!

In 1991, we were told that it was imperative that we go to war to take down an Iraqi strongman who had gotten too big for his britches.  But now, US Senators urge us not to be too hasty, not to overreact.  We don't want to hurt BP, they say.  They say this even though, unlike Saddam Hussein, BP has inflicted real and terrible devastation on our homeland.

They would kill us all.  They will kill us all.

If the Bush administration taught us anything it is this:  until the people rise up and put a stop to them, these huge international corporations will grind us all under their heels.  That is the lesson of the Bush administration.  The Bush administration, which consisted of men who made obscene fortunes in the energy industry.  The Bush administration, with front man Junior Bush, CEO of Harken Energy, and Arbusto.  The Bush administration, led by Dick Cheney, CEO of Halliburton, who received a deferred Halliburton salary while he was sitting vice-president!

Terrorists?  Who needs terrorists?  Big Oil will kill us all faster than any hopeless, skinny kids from Pakistan.

BP Spill: Let's have some justice

The BP Oil disaster is still out of control, dumping thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  Day and night.  No one is even sure of the extent of the disaster, but I think it is safe to say that there are a lot of people desperately trying to keep a lid on things.  I predict that when this is all over, we're going to find that things are a lot worse than we are being led to believe.  Watch and see, people!  Watch and see!

Big Oil has a mind-blowing supply of financial resources, and you better believe they will take full advantage of them in the time to come.  Huge public relations campaign!  Political contributions to sympathetic office-holders flowing like rainwater in Portland's springtime West Hills!  British Petroleum, Shell, Exxon, all of them will join forces:  they'll view it as a fight for survival. 

The Honorable Senator Murkowski (R-British Petroleum)

They're already calling in favors from their bought-and-paid-for lapdogs in the US Senate.  Take, for example, Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska.  Murkowski is blocking legislation proposed by Senator Robert Menendez (New Jersey) that would raise the financial liability of oil companies due to oil spills from the current pittance of 75 million dollars to a considerable 10 billion.  Senator Murkowski has received $436,000 in campaign contributions from Big Oil over her 8 years as a senator.  (Read about it here.)  How obvious does it have to be?

The Honorable Senator Landrieu (D-British Petroleum)

And although Murkowski is a Republican, the Democrats are no better.  Take for example, Louisiana's own Senator Mary Landrieu, who has been cautioning that we not "overreact" to this BP disaster.  Even as the BP spill threatens to turn the Mississippi Delta into a lifeless cesspool, she worries that, were the liability cap to be raised, it might put BP out of business.  (BP's profits, the monies above and beyond their operating expenses, were $5.6 billion in the first three months of this year.)  (You can read about it here.)  Mary Landrieu was rated "the top congressional recipient of BP-related campaign cash during the last election cycle" according to OpenSecrets blog.

However, there is some cause to hope that some progress can be made toward loosening the death grip that Big Oil has on the federal government.  Experts in environment law, including David H. Uhlman, who was a top Justice Department official investigating environmental crimes during the Clinton and Bush administrations, believe that criminal charges will be brought against BP and the two other companies involved.  (One of those companies is Dick Cheney's old gang at Halliburton.)   (You can read about it here.)

Of course, it is folly to get too hopeful.  We need only cast a glance at misshapen, hateful Dick Cheney, out on the prairies of Wyoming, to see that there is a certain powerful clique of persons to whom such quaint notions as "justice" do not apply, no matter how obvious its crimes. 

But if we're going to learn anything at all from this man-made disaster, this catastrophe that will be with us for the rest of my natural life, it must start with justice, with enforcement, with consequences for the perpetrators.

So, to US Attorney General Eric Holder, I say, "Get to it, sir."

BP trying to weasel out of Gulf Spill consequences

 Aw, shucks. 

Pay attention, people!  BP is offering a textbook example of how it works with these big corporations:

1. Work behind the scenes to cover up the bribes and shortcuts that led to the disaster;
   
   
2. Dip into the petty cash drawer to buy off the poor schmucks whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed;
   
   
3. Seek penance publicly, to give cover to media hacks like Britt Hume and Bill Kristol when they go to bat for you;
   
   
4. Back to business as usual.

Although the Obama administration and BP itself proclaim that it (BP) will pay entirely for the clean-up, I'll believe it when I see it.  The first indication of BP intentions to limit its own liability came with the news that BP has been offering payments of $5000 to residents on the Alabama coastline in exchange for those residents signing an agreement that waives their rights to sue for damages resulting from the spill.

Cheap cash pay-offs.  Get desperate people to sign away their rights and you're home free, BP.

Keep your ears open.  There will be more such underhanded efforts.

Global corporations, which comprise the ruling class of these United States, just like the feudal overlords of yesteryear, never suffer consequences for their murderous, destructive behavior.  No, sir.  They do as they please. 

BP executives are undoubtedly rueful at the mishap in the Gulf of Mexico.  But not because eleven worker drones died in the explosion.  Nor indeed because it will destroy the fragile ecosystem of the Mississippi Delta, nor because it will poison some of the world's most productive shellfish beds, nor because it will destroy a multitude of small businesses that rely on Gulf Coast tourism.  The real pity, from a BP perspective, is that this colossal f*ck-up will dampen public appetite for off-shore oil drilling in the future.

Alas, for them!  All that bullying and market manipulation and public misinformation that Big Dick and his gang did back in the day gets thwarted by damnable accident!  And things looked so good, just a year ago.  They actually had moronic tea-baggers shouting "Drill, baby, drill" at the GOP convention in 2008.  They even had Obama singing their tune.

And now, this! 

Well, sad as it is, we can imagine that Tony Hayward, Group Chief Executive for BP, is probably not going to get his accustomed place with the opening foursome at Myrtle Beach for a few Sundays.  You know that's got to hurt.

Poor guy.

Big Oil's last big grab

One thing you can say about Big Oil (Exxon-Mobile, British Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, et alia): it stays true to itself unto the bitter end.

By now, anyone with even a facile awareness of the changing state of the world realizes that the days of a civilization driven by petroleum are numbered. Climate change and peak oil are the inoperable cancers that spell doom for the Old Way, and maybe for civilization itself. Oil company executives, being highly educated and presumably intelligent people, surely know this... although they would have reason not to admit it publicly.

So, how have they chosen to respond? Well, how else? With a deceptive public relations campaign and by arm-twisting their lap-dog congress critters into removing the barriers that prevent oil companies from grabbing that last little bit of profit before the whole house of cards falls down.

According to the Washington Post:

The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's main lobby, has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign, which includes advertising in the nation's largest newspapers, news conferences in many state capitals and trips for bloggers out to drilling platforms at sea.
The intended audience is elected officials and the public, with an emphasis on the latter. The industry is trying to convince voters -- who, in turn, will make the case to their members of Congress -- that rising energy prices are not the producers' fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse. --Washington Post, May 9, 2008. Read the entire article here.

The money quote from the article is this: "We decided that if we didn't do something to help people understand the basics of our industry, we'd be on the losing end as far as the eye could see," said Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute.

Gee, Red...ya think? But maybe the problem is that people do understand the basics of your industry. According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll, 62% of respondents blamed the price of gas on "unethical behavior" by players in the gasoline supply chain. Knock me over with a feather!

Of course, market manipulation is only one aspect of the thoroughly corrupt modus operandi of Big Oil. It has instigated wars, oppressed and robbed local populations, destroyed and poisoned fragile ecosystems, and corrupted too many public officials to even tally. But, apparently, oil company executives believe that if they just spend a few millions of the billions that they've been raking in over the last few years (Exxon made 40.61 billion in profits in 2007) they can smooth everything out with the public.

These new ads are aimed at putting a human face on these corporate monstrosities. I've seen a few of the ads, and they feature attractive oil company employees talking about research for alternative energy and Big Oil's commitment to finding clean, safe, sources, blah, blah, blah.

But the ads are just one part of the campaign. The other element is the "lobbying" (read: bribing) of public officials.

"It's for the best....honest."

On Monday, John McCain, previously a supporter of the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, changed his position and called for the moratorium to be lifted. McCain sited rising gas prices as justification. I suppose his campaign figures that gas prices provide an opportunity for him to finally connect with middle class America. In the past, such demagogic appeals have worked spectacularly. Junior Bush's campaign was masterful at it.

But this time things might be different. As I stated at the top of this post, the public is quite aware that an economy based on petroleum will soon be a thing of the past. Although drilling for oil off the coast of Florida or California or (God forbid!) Oregon might prolong the life of this heinous, blood-soaked industry, the end is still nigh.

Big Oil, however, must remain true to its avaricious self, must reach for the last of those profits that are hidden under the waters that make our coasts beautiful. It cannot do otherwise. Big Oil is the monstrous invention of a system that values only profit and growth.

I have hope that people will avoid the chimera of potentially lower gas prices and reject this last bid by Big Oil. We have an amazing capacity to see the truth, and maybe this time we'll use it.