In his first Katrina, President Bush partied while New Orleans drowned in a hurricane-induced mass of oily, pollution-filled muck:
But he left behind a ticking time-bomb, just waiting for the moment to unleash Bush’s Katrina Mark II – a regulatory structure that allowed companies doing deep drilling off the US coast to skip a critical shut-off valve, leading to an ecological disaster for the history books:
In Bush’s Katrina Mark II, the waters are not as high (though choppy seas are preventing the containment), but an oil slick looms over critical wild life refuges, the nesting areas of endangered birds, and critical fishing industries.
Over the fold for more…
The slick is so large, that currents will carry it to the shores of Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and Florida – and around Florida’s panhandle, up the East Coast of the US. No one knows exactly how far it will go, because no one knows how long the leak will continue.
Shut-off estimates range up to a month from now, but no one knows if shut-off is actually possible within that time. How many millions (or billions) of gallons of oil will sully the coastal US are as yet unknown.
In addition to the regulatory structure that created this mega-catastrophe, are the rules that allow the fox to secure the hen house. Critical early time was lost because, courtesy of Dick Cheney’s illegal secret energy regulation meetings, the rules allow oil producers to self-police. When a disaster happens, they get to try to fix it and report progress with no government oversight unless it’s requested.
So British Petroleum, in the grand tradition of energy companies covering up leaks, decided to claim for the first few days that they could handle the leak, and that is was 1/5 of its actual size.
President Obama dispatched the Coast Guard immediately, and held daily briefings to try to ensure that the leak was contained quickly … but here’s the problem: because the unregulated (thanks Dick Cheney) oil company chose to lie and cover-up, the administration did not have the information needed to properly react.
There are many who claim they want to eliminate government regulation, as some sort of libertarian mantra, as if government regulation’s only purpose is to prevent businesses from making a profit. These people delude themselves that corporations, whose sole goal is profit at all costs, will somehow voluntarily take on added costs out of some innate benevolence toward their fellow man. They won’t. And this oil spill, Vermont Yankee’s tritium leak, and big banskter’s ongoing malfeasance are all glowing examples that prove the rule.
It’s time to release the minutes of the Cheney energy meetings, so we can find out what other time bombs await, and so we can determine where greater regulation and scrutiny are needed. Cleaning up the banks would be nice, too.
For those who would like to see a comprehensive discussion of the current state of the spill and its implications, there’s a fantastic, if sobering, write-up here.
The head of BP is quoted as saying “What the hell did we do to deserve this.”
Obama has been Republican Lite, and Newt Gingrich showed the right how to make moderation look weak and ineffective.
Dick Cheney knows he is evil. He just counts on making it look like evil is the only way that works.
we can’t settle for liberal reformism. Check out the Rising Tide North America network for a radical, internationalist take on eco-politics. We just started at chapter at UVM to counteract the feelgood environmentalism that fits so well with “green capitalism.”
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org
SYSTEM CHANGE — NOT CLIMATE CHANGE
Barack Obama, March 2010
… from Grist
that anyone is really surprised by this. Fossil fuels are dangerous and dirty and thanks to revolving door regulatory regimes we have a culture of reciprocity between the regulators, industry, and corporate politicians. This spill was a predictable consequence of a malign industry that needs to be dismantled immediately starting at the point of production.
Its not a coincidence that Massey Energy had over 1600 safety violations before its mine exploded and kill 20 some odd miners. Or that oil rig safety protocols were relaxed under a certain Haliburton CEO…
Get in the know. Big Greens are tainted by a corporate collusion strategy that guarantees their campaign funding in return for giving the certified seal of “green consumerism.” If any of you GMDers haven’t read The Nation expose on the corporate co-optation of the big “green” NGOs then that is something that you need to do. False solutions are worse than inaction. I don’t need to tell you all how this administration (neoliberalism) operates. Its illusion of progress is just the solidification of new markets and the further entrenchment of global capital at the expense of workers and the ecosystem. Check out The Nation piece if you haven’t:
“The Wrong Kind of Green”
http://www.thenation.com/artic…
This is the analysis that Rising Tide NA begins with and with that in mind we oppose all false solutions, including market mechanisms, clean coal, nuclear, mega-dams, corporate wind and solar, and most importantly: capitalism. Especially the notion that there exists a “green” variation.
This is our new zine analyzing post-copenhagen politics and stressing the importance of a distinctly anticapitalist, decentralized and liberatory critique of ecological degradation.
The Climate Movement is Dead– Long Live the Climate Movement!
http://www.risingtidenorthamer…
Feel free to contact us if you’re intrigued…
The legacy from Bush will take generations to clean up.