As a routine strategy, "managing expectations" is the best way to deal with disaster. Up to this moment, that has been Plan A in the Gulf of Mexico. It is easy to grasp why BP tried to keep the video feed of the catastrophe from flowing to the public. That didn't work, although NBC Nightly News last night reported that BP is trying to limit access of reporters from viewing damaged wildlife. Those oiled birds and sea turtles are toxic to corporate power. They also contribute substantially to the pressures rising on the Obama administration, as the Gulf of Mexico turns into a horror over a long and hot summer. Yesterday's admission by the federal government that oil spill rates have been vastly under-reported signals a shift: abandonment of Plan A. There is only one Plan B.
What to do when efforts to "manage expectations" turn out to be as poorly anchored as the cement cap that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean failed to plug in Deepwater Horizon's Macondo well? Do the unprecedented: as unprecedented as the Gulf Oil catastrophe. Take-over the US assets of BP and freeze the assets of Halliburton and Transocean. Temporarily taking over these corporations would lock up corporate profits until a process is undertaken to establish a trust to payout for damages.
Consider the Exxon Valdez in Alaska where, more than 20 years after the damage, fisheries have still not recovered and restitution still not settled. Mike Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, illustrated how hobbled the government is, in respect to "fixing" the Gulf Oil catastrophe. On Thursday, he said oil patches -- in an area just west of the Florida tourist haven of Pensacola -- should continue over the next several days. "We're going to continue to see this type of impact for the next 72 hours... We really need to keep our attention on this." 72 hours, until the next 72 hours for years if not decades.
President Obama should have made his top goal putting muscle back into enforcement capacity of environmental regulatory agencies; but he didn't, and he didn't for the same reasons that Bill Clinton didn't: other priorities were more important. Today, there is no shortage of US Senators, President Obama, or local elected officials (who mostly oppose environmental regulations until they need them, and then it's too late) covering the scene. Enough of the tenor voice of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal on TV, holding the end of a suction hose sucking up ten gallons an hour as the BP well spills tens thousand gallons an hour.
The political risks in a federal government takeover are unquantifiable. But they are not unlimited like the damage inflicted on the Gulf of Mexico, on fisheries, wildlife, and economies. (Already, the Florida legislature is agitated about the possible ramifications to tax revenues during a time of the worst budget crises since the Great Depression.) At the end of the day, the principle accomplishment of a take-over would not be to make impacted citizens, businesses and the environment whole again. It would provide an opportunity that no American president has ever grasped, and could not grasp without a catastrophe like this: put the case before the US Supreme Court to answer the question: who is more powerful, people or corporations? That is Plan B.
8 comments:
put the case before the US Supreme Court to answer the question: who is more powerful, people or corporations?
I'm not sure that's a question I want the current Supreme Court answering.
BP makes about $16B per year. You do the math. The weight of this clean up means problems for the company. The stock is tanking slowly. If the clean up could take $40B, something has got to happen. There is a Chinese company that might benefit from taking them over. There is also another division of BP that mines who might swarm in. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Heard something interesting today. They are testing the oil blobs that are washing up on shores here. The coastguard does forensic testing and can tell where they come from. The ones we are finding here are not from the BP thing. There is a question that tankers are taking advantage of the situation and are dumping. This ads to the concerns.
One rig is headed for Africa. They are floating it down there because it costs $500,000 per day to operate and with the six month hold on operations, others might leave as well. This goes back to that shared ocean thing. We really need to get all the brains in one room and talk about the hard realities.
Such a problem...so sad.
Bravo!! Gimspierre Lets freeze
the assets of the "perpetrators" and send a chill through the entire industry. We will pay $12 a gallon but on the bright side we will see diabetes rates drop percipitously (with the exception of of medicare and medicaid patients at Hialeah clinincs) and the neighborhood bike shops business will undoubtedly BOOM.
Those who can afford the $12 a gallon or can get "aid" from Obama administration because they are "energetically" Challenged will enjoy brisk commutes on I-95 and the Palmetto. OH NO! The State will loose sunpass revenues! Have to raise the sales and property taxes. Ahhh but don't you just love the clean air, never mind you can't afford to eat at least your last breath will be a clean one.
Gimspierre you are a genius (not Genius just a genius)! I have seen the light I am running to buy stock in a chinese bicycle manufacturer( I hear they are a hit in Cuba and North korea) and a domestic crematorium right now. How can I ever repay you? (maybe in BP futures but most definetely not my Chinese Bike Investment).
Thanks for the note, Cato. Honestly, though, when gasoline goes to $12, don't you think that there will be a few more US manufacturers of bicycles? Another question: do you believe there are any "perpetrators" or are you in the Rand Paul camp, that what happened in the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe was just "an accident"? I mean, even if it were an accident, shouldn't someone be held accountable? How do you figure the math on the accounting part of it? That we just have to suck it up and keep pretending gas only costs $4 and there is no cost to the communities, the economies, or the wildlife of the Gulf? Just tough luck, right. But my main point was about the power of corporations relative to people. Give the spill another two months at the current rate, and a lot more people will be raising that point.
Gimspierre of course BP should be held liable and for that there is a legal process and even public pressure like boycots if they don't hold up their end of the deal. But giving the state power to freeze anyone's assets without due process (at your whim) as you suggest would have catostrophic effects on our economy.
But there are also other factors to take into account like our need for oil, yes we should be looking for alternatives but they must also be cost effective and viable.
Everything we do is potentially dangerous you can be in an accident in your car, the plane you are traveling in can crash you can have a heart attack while jogging. If your pumping oil 5000ft under sea level shit can happen (and it just did). So yes BP has some splaining to do and some $$$ to pay how much is for the courts to determine.
So the word "perpetrator" really doesn't belong in this conversation unless you have real evidence to the contrary (or are a disciple of Robspierre). It probably was an accident perhaps due to negligence perhaps not.
Bikes will probably be imported from China especially when you factor in high cost of the coming obamacare, cap and trade, local licensing rules, OSHA, EEOC, sunsetting of low capital gains tax rates and the rest of that crap little chance someone will want to manufacture anything here.
All the Loan Mod shysters are probably ambulance chasing on the Gulf Coast now. Now there's an industry that is flourishing? Maybe its not to late to go to Law School? What do you say Gimspierre?
Cato And Gimspierre Attorneys at Law "No Slick too Quick" "If you're hit by Oil we'll make BP boil"
We can register now and hang up our shingle by 2013. Anxiously awaiting your reply.
Cato
What the hell happened to the news about swine flu? Whats up with that?
Cato,
I think the US government should screw, chew and move on. Let the stock tank. Bleed the bastards and make them pay up front to the extent that they can. I have read the history of the Exxon Valdez and extended payouts ain't gonna help those people. Let BP's Board worry about the shareholders. Someone will swoop in and buy up their shares. Isn't that a free market? If we can't regulate them, let the buggers feel the sting of bad business practices so that the other companies will have the crap scared out of them. I am thinking that is a very right wing approach to dealing with onerous oil companies.
YEAH!
Who needs due process anyway???? That pesky court system always gets in the way, besides who needs it now that we have an all knowing and fearless leader.
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