BP Oil Spill – A Tale of Corruption, Lies and Deception

BP Oil Spill continues to make headlines for the horrific environmental effects it is having on US coastal states .The whole story has been one riddled with collusion between regulators and oil companies,procrastation and lies by British Petroleum and ineptitude of the Obama administration.There has been constant passing of the buck between the main companies involved  –  BP and Tranocean on who was to blame for the oil spill.There has been also a blame game with the “oil drilling” regulator being found guilty of lax regulations and its top official resigning.The Obama administration has proven to be as inept  as the Bush administration during the Katrina disaster not doing enough quickly enough to contain the Oil Spill.After the “dome” , “pipe” and now the “top kill” approaches,  there seems to be still no solution to the Oil Spill.The Government has finally put the whole blame on BP and the Oil Industry  washing its hand of its complicity in the Disaster.Here is the whole tragic saga of the entire BP Oil Spill .

After sleeping for a week both BP and President Obama were pressured to act on the Oil Spill

President Obama will pay a visit on Sunday to the scene of the one of biggest oil spills to strike US coastal waters. This visit  will come more than a week after the BP oil well exploded and is gushing oil in the waters .I can’t think what the President will do after  a week since I can’t see his oratory stopping the thousands of barrels of oil from coming out of the well .The only reason I can see for his going is that he trying to  damage control after his administration was criticized for doing too little to control damage from this horrific environmental disaster.

BP becomes “desperate” after state pressure mounts to stop the Gulf Oil spill;Flocks of lawyers descend;Human costs Mount

BP is finally waking up from its stupor and looking for help on stopping the oil spilling for its rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While it was doing precious little for the past week , Obama’s visit and state and federal criticism has made it sit up . BP CEO says its an industry problem and asked for help from its rivals in the business.

BP Oil Spill Gives another Excuse for the US to delay the climate Bill

The US has been a laggard on the climate change mitigation compared to the progressive stances taken by Europe and Japan.Despite strong hopes raised by the election of Obama, the clean energy and climate change have remained on the backburner for the President and his team . While no one doubts that the economic  issues need more attention , climate change is equally important.Perhaps more than the health care legislation.With the US being the largest emitter of greenhouse emissions , no one is going to take concrete steps without US participation

BP oil spill faces Presidential Commission as “Cozy Relationship” between Companies and the Regulator gets highlighted ; BP claims “partial success”

The Presidential Commission is a welcome development as it might help prevent future disasters which have been a regular occurrence . The Commission will also probe the role of the MMS regulator which has come under fire for not implementing best practices in the industry and led to the retirement of a top official.However I don’t think it won’t lead to much changes in the energy policy where  a climate bill contains provisions for “offshore drilling” and “nuclear energy” . BP after  several unsuccessful attempts has claimed “success” through a “quick fix” solution through a mile long suction pipe. Note this just leads to a 20% of  the oil spill being sanitized despite 2 weeks of massive public pressure.

BP Oil Spill Finally Hits American Coast;Massive Impact on Economy and Environment Expected

Despite “numerous efforts” by BP which took a week to wake up to the scale of the disaster, the Oil Spill has finally  hit the American coast.The oil spill will have a devastating impact on the wildlife , fishing and tourism of the area.It underscores the damage that our world suffers from its dependence on dirty energy.Most of the suffering will be felt by the common people while the politicians , corporates and lawyers continue to play their games.

BP Oil Leak May Soar 12-Fold If Dome-Cap Plan Fails – Bloomberg

BP expects to have the dome in place on the seafloor and trapping oil within five days, Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of exploration and production for London-based BP, said at a press conference.

The 125-ton, 40-foot-tall steel box designed to capture 85 percent of the oil will be shipped today at noon, and it will take an additional 60 hours to put it on the seafloor, Suttles said. A drill ship would collect the oil from a 5,000-foot riser and separate it from water and gas.

BP Persists on ‘Top Kill,’ Prepares Backup Plan to Stop Spill – Bloomberg

BP Plc planned to continue working through the weekend to plug a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico that has produced the largest spill in U.S. history.

Since Wednesday, BP has been starting and stopping high- horsepower pumps that ram mixtures of mud-like drilling fluid and rubber scrap into the oil and gas that’s been gushing from the well for more than five weeks.

“We’ll continue this operation as long as necessary until we’re either successful with it or are convinced it won’t succeed,” Doug Suttles, the BP executive in charge of the spill response, said at an afternoon press conference in Robert, Louisiana.

Yesterday, engineers suspended work on a “relief” well intended as a long-term back-up solution so that equipment it’s using can be available should the so-called “top kill” fail.

Obama Calls BP Oil Spill an ‘Assault’ on Gulf Coast Region

President Barack Obama called the oil spill from a damaged BP Plc well in the Gulf of Mexico an “assault” on the region and its residents and vowed to keep it a top priority until the damage is cleaned up.

“This isn’t just a mess that we’ve got to mop up; people are watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach,” Obama said yesterday at a U.S. Coast Guard station in Grand Isle, Louisiana, a barrier island south of New Orleans where he was briefed on efforts to plug the leak. “This is our highest priority.”

The president said his administration is exploring “any and all reasonable contingency plans” should BP fail in its latest attempt to stop the spill, which may be the largest on record and more than twice as big as the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.