You’d think that as many drilling rigs as BP and others have that they would have planned for something like we are experiencing right now. It’s insane to put something like that out into the ocean and not have a plan for when, not if, something goes wrong. Not only does it do possibly irreparable damage to the environment, it forever tarnishes your reputation as a corporate citizen. Just look at Exxon and how people still think of the Valdez spill when you mention their name.
I hope that this will at least lead to some common sense in offshore drilling. Best case, this should lead to some kind of new technology or advancement in existing technology to prevent similar accidents and set up contingencies for containing gushing spills like this. I can’t imagine how they’ve been doing all of this drilling without any contingency in place. I don’t have a clue as to what the problem is at the moment that’s preventing BP from capping the well, but it must be a huge hurdle. Every day that it goes on, it further damages their credibility.
I also hope that BP will be held responsible for cleanup and damage to livelihoods. I know that it will be tough to gauge, but it shouldn’t be that difficult to at least know who has been damaged by it. Look at their income tax filings from last year and determine if they have indeed been making a living from a related business that has been damaged or destroyed. As for the tourism industry, that’s a different matter altogether. It will be extremely difficult to gauge who has been damaged and by how much right now. The past 2 years have been so shaky economically, that you can’t necessarily go back to last year or even the year before and have an accurate measurement of loss.
Now President Obama (I still get nauseous when I say that) has decided that he needs to smack someone around about all of this. It’s taken him 50 days to determine this? He’s showing his inexperience again. He’s relying too much on political hacks because he doesn’t have the executive experience that he needed to be able to handle such a huge job as president. Don’t get me wrong, I know that it’s not his fault that this happened, but I also don’t blame President Bush. There are agencies out there that should be monitoring such things and making sure that contingency plans are in place before they allow drilling. The problem is in his response, or lack thereof. His only responses so far have been political ones and not of any substance. What a mess. So now the question becomes, how do we get him out of office 2 years from now?