JMO - Lest we forget

For all the talk from British Petroleum (BP) about their cleanup effort, which is more a public relations effort about an environmental disaster, both the spill and cleanup, than anything, just follow the news stories to see the truth and reality behind their statements, we shouldn't forget that the investigation of the blowout which created this mess has discovered it was initiated by a BP manager on the drilling rig at the time Transocean was finishing the drilling.

Remember this well wasn't a production well, but was in the last stage of drilling the well before the well was sealed and the drilling rig was replaced with a production rig and oil was extracted from the well. The last stage was to out a temporary seal in the well to keep gas and oil from accidently blowing out the wellhead. Transocean was following protocols to insert cement and drillng mud into the well when a BP manager asserted control of the work and discontinued the work to insert the last plug.

The last plug was the last line of defense against a blowout. We know now Haliburton installed a bad cement case and liner will allowed gas to leak into the well. We know that the blow out preventer (BOP) was not the standard one and had been extensive modified, none of which were in the plans with the engineers on the rig at the time of the blowup to know the BOP wasn't standard and as we learned not fully funcitioning. A critical part just didn't work due to dead battery in the BOP. These were decisions and actions by BP people.

All of the last minute mistakes were by BP people which caused the blowout. Even with the bad cement case and liner, the required plugs and BOP would have worked to stop the gas leak from rising to the surface and igniting the rig, cause the well to snap and the rig to sink. It was BP. No one else and nothing else.

And for all their talk of helping solve the problem and fix the damage, it's not enough they squandered safety proceedures for profit. That's the truth and reality here. And when faced with the consequences, they're denying it and arguing they're doing good. Except it's too little too late. We should't stop reminding them of that. Our water and now our land destroyed by their arrogance and greed.

And all the money they spend on the cleanup and restoration won't undo that, the truth behind what happened. Personally I think Congress should ban them from working in the US and ban them from selling any petroleum products in the US. We need to send the message and give the energy companies the reality we won't stand this kind of conduct against our country and people.

But with all the money BP has given to Congressional officials, that won't happen, because our Congressional representatives are gutless people with no backbone. Even our President is backstepping with talk against BP, which makes me wonder how much his campaign money received from BP and how many ties he and his administration has to BP. What's he afraid of? BP or the American people?

Obviously the former more than the latter. And while BP spreads its money more and farther than its oil, elected officials shouldn't forget it's the American people who vote. We may not win but we have a personal say and a collective voice.