Gulf Oil Spill and "managed expectations" for Top Kill ... by gimleteye

From the very first, the Gulf Oil Spill has been about "managing expectations". Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry used exactly that term in an early televised press conference about "Top Hat", the first failed intervention. "Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry cautioned about high expections for the containment system. "So, please, I have to manage your expectations and just understand that our job is not done until this well is sealed, until this well is cemented, our job is not done 'til then." (Crews prepare to take contraption to Gulf oil leak, AP, May 5, 2010)

But the way she said "manage your expectations" was inadvertently, as though reading stage notes from a scripted dialogue. It turns out stage notes are driving public perceptions about the cost and consequences of the worst environmental catastrophe in US history.

The managing of expectations continues with the appointment of a new presidential inquiry, from understated oil spill volumes published by BP to BP's CEO telling the media that next week's attempt to infuse the runaway well with heavy fluids, "Top Kill", also may not work. "Mr. Hayward said that an effort by BP to cap the well using heavy drilling fluids, a process known as "top kill" that's due to be implemented early next week, "would be another first for this technology at these water depths and so, we cannot take its success for granted." (WSJ, May 22, 2010)

What else could he say, or, the federal government do? When deep shore exploration technology was put into practice, why weren't preventive measures also put in place in case that success, failed? Like many of you, I wonder: how could deep offshore oil exploration be permitted by the federal government without any protocols or technologies or systems management for killing a blowout on the ocean floor. I hope, really hope, that "Top Kill" works. I cannot abide more months passing before the next "first": a reliever well to a blow-out a mile below the surface of the Gulf. I can't stand the thought of watching hurricanes materialize in Africa and listen to TV weather forecasters ginning up ratings as the storms track into the Gulf of Mexico. This haywire experiment will outlast our lifetimes in terms of long-term environmental impact to coastal wetlands, estuaries and bays, and economies that depend on tourism and fisheries.

Louisiana is vanishing; its coastal zones are marine deserts in the making. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said this week. "If a foreign country tried to take this land away from us, we'd fight them," he said. (Wash Post, May 24, 2010) Well, Gov. Jindal: we don't even know who to fight. How about starting with the guys who wanted to shrink the regulatory capacity of government so that it could fit in the size of a bathtub? You could start with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, her assistant secretary J. Steven Griles, or Karl Rove. That was YOUR team, Gov. Jindal.

I'll tell you how I feel about the BP CEO saying this is the FIRST time heavy drilling fluids will be applied to a blowout at these depths. And I'll tell you how I feel about President Obama saying, in his weekly radio address, "... "we will continue to hold the relevant companies accountable."

Back in Mayan times, the kings sacrificed victims to appease angry gods by throwing them down deep wells. There's a volcano in Iceland that fits the bill: I wonder what BP executives and federal regulators from the Minerals Management Service will volunteer first to be helicopter dropped into that abyss if none of these technologies work and our Christian God won't put an end to this nightmare?