From Think Progress, something that I've been wondering myself as I've watched this disaster go on in the Gulf, why are we letting the criminals run the show with the effort to fix this thing? As I've said before, the only thing it looks like they're doing is as much damage control as possible for future law suits and trying to salvage as much oil as possible from the well as they can before someone stops them. I don't feel any differently as their latest attempt at the "top kill" maneuver failed.
The above video is Doug Brinkley's disgust with the entire situation which I know everyone from that area is feeling and here's some of what Think Progress's Wonk Room had to contribute on why BP should not be running the show on getting this gusher of oil stopped.
The latest attempt by BP to shut down its apocalyptic oil gusher — the “top kill” maneuver — has failed, despite BP CEO Tony Hayward’s assurance yesterday that it had a 70 percent chance of success. There’s no question that the federal government, if the president so decides, can take over the challenge of mitigating the damage of BP’s oil to the shores and waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But can President Obama take charge of stopping the wellhead gusher from the foreign oil giant? The administration argues it’s keeping BP in charge of the attempts to shut down the blown out well because government doesn’t have the equipment or expertise to solve this engineering problem without BP.
...The administration has been keeping an ecological criminal in charge of the crime scene during a national crisis. Seventeen nations have offered assistance — but “the final decision is up to BP” to accept it, according to the State Department — and only Canada, Mexico and Norway have been allowed to help so far. The law — Title 33, Section 1321 — mandates that President Obama “shall direct all Federal, State, and private actions to remove the discharge,” using any means necessary. There are not any resources — people or equipment — that Obama doesn’t have the authority to seize and put into service.
...In fact, the president has the authority to nationalize BP America and seize all of its assets, rendering the question of reliance on BP moot. If Obama does not believe that the Clean Water Act’s “spill of national significance” provisions give him sufficient authority, he can rightly declare a national emergency, or demand that Congress deliver him necessary legislation. Or there’s an easier option: BP is on the hook for all costs of this apocalyptic disaster. Obama can simply buy BP America and send the bill to its foreign parent company.
Go read the whole post. I don't think too many people would disagree with their points, including Doug Brinkley. BP cannot be trusted to clean up the disaster they created and the administration needs to come to grips with that. Yesterday would not be soon enough. They need to be removed from the decisions on how to fix this and criminally prosecuted for how they've handled this disaster, along with Halliburton and Transocean.
As Brinkley noted BP has constantly been in cover up mode and they've had to be called to Washington to get any information released. They should not be trusted to fix this. I hope he's wrong that the country is not paying attention to this disaster.
