Obama’s response to the oil spill was anything but slick [Reader Post]

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On April 20 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and began spewing enormous amounts of oil as the blow-out preventer apparently failed. It took eight days before Barack Obama could muster a response of any kind. It was ten days before the One could manage to find a spot in his busy schedule for this minor ecological incident. Obama was pre-occupied with truly important things- like upstaging Jay Leno at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Of course, Leno was told to tone it down. There’s no doubt in my mind Leno was told to cool it so Obama could be the star.

Michael Brown suggested that Obama waited eight days to allow the oil spill to become disastrous so Obama could use the event for political purposes but as appealing as that is, it’s not likely true. Especially since Obama gave that particular oil rig a safety award last year.

The federal agency charged with enforcing safety on deepwater oil rigs has also played a major role in promoting the industry’s claim that it is safe, and in 2009 handed out one of its top prizes for safety to Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon.

That had to be embarrassing to Obama, even for a guy who accepts no responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Barack Obama’s response (when he finally got to it) was entirely predictable; More government.

Michael Ramirez

Obama reflexively proposed to split the Minerals Management Service into two agencies. Sounds great, but government agencies are like green plants. If you split the stem you can wind up with two plants larger than the original. There is no question that is exactly what would happen in this case as well. There would be another ever-expanding federal agency with salaries and pensions to feed forever.

And since no crisis should go to waste, Obama also seized the opportunity to propose a new oil tax.

But the problem isn’t the lack of a new agency. The problem is lack of enforcement of existing law (is it just me or does this sound a lot like other issues?) The AP reported that:

Earlier AP investigations have shown that the doomed rig was allowed to operate without safety documentation required by MMS regulations for the exact disaster scenario that occurred; that the cutoff valve which failed has repeatedly broken down at other wells in the years since regulators weakened testing requirements; and that regulation is so lax that some key safety aspects on rigs are decided almost entirely by the companies doing the work.

and especially damning:

A citation on Sept. 19, 2002, also involved the blowout preventer. The inspector issued a warning because “problems or irregularities observed during the testing of BOP system and actions taken to remedy such problems or irregularities are not recorded in the driller’s report or referenced documents.”

It was asserted by BP’s President that the BOP was modified in 2005 but it’s not clear how much testing and inspecting of this or other BOP’s have occurred since then.

The Obama response to this mess was poor and slow, especially given Obama’s harsh criticism of the Bush response to Katrina. That the press is so content to grant Obama a pass after being so harsh on Bush is grinding, but not unexpected. The last thing we need is another federal agency. The Department of Energy was formed in 1977 under Jimmy Carter. In 1979 40% of our oil was imported. Today 65% of our oil is imported.

The mission of the Department of Energy? To reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Like I said, the LAST thing we need is more government. We just need for what we already have to actually function. Is that a lot to ask?

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Jay Leno did a bit about this in last Friday’s opening monologue: “He [Obama] said he was tired of finger-pointing and then he blamed the Bush administration for the whole thing.”

Obama has become the finger pointer in chief. Note how many photographs there are of him wagging a finger at someone.

Howard Fineman of Newsweek had a good take on this:

Let’s try a political thought experiment. Imagine that a few months after a new president takes office, his administration approves an offshore oil well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico. It is to be run by BP, whose employees were very generous donors to the president’s campaign. The oil company airily dismisses the possibility of a catastrophic leak that might destroy the coastline. Nearly a year later, the president—to the dismay of his environmentalist supporters—says he wants to greatly expand offshore drilling. Soon after that, the BP well explodes, and oil spews into the gulf. It’s clear to everyone that the blowout is a major catastrophe, requiring a federal mobilization. But the president’s initial response is to say, in effect: do not worry, BP will pay for the cleanup. Eleven days pass before he goes to survey the scene.

Of course, this is a sketch of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and the president is Barack Obama. But here is the rest of the experiment. Imagine the reaction of Washington—the media, Congress, the “national conversation”—if the president wasn’t Obama but George W. Bush. “We would be under siege,” says Dan Bartlett, who was communications director in the Bush years. “There’d be calls for special prosecutors, investigations everywhere. The focus wouldn’t be on what was happening out in the gulf—it would be on what happened in the West Wing.”

Barack Hussein Obama. Mulato.

mu·lat·to (mŏŏ-lāt’ō, -lä’tō, myŏŏ-)
n. pl. mu·lat·tos or mu·lat·toes

1. A person having one white and one Black parent. See Usage Note at octoroon.

2. A person of mixed white and Black ancestry.

[Spanish mulato, small mule, person of mixed race, mulatto, from mulo, mule, from Old Spanish, from Latin mūlus.]

Mule. Stubborn. Liar. Fraud. Cheat. Disgusting. Low-life.

DrJohn, just a minor correction… and understandable when using a source such as AP. The rig was *not* operating out of compliance with MMS regulations. AP is trying to make reference to yet another failsafe BOP remote accoustic switch that is not mandated by the MMS. I mentioned this fact in a follow up comment on my original post on the Deepwater Horizon.

I would also like to point out that the AP so-called reporter was citing violations that were not necessarily mechanically or technically related INRE the BOP, but operational violations. i.e.:

The most serious occurred July 16, 2002, when the rig was shut down because required pressure tests had not been conducted on parts of the rig’s blowout preventer — the device that was supposed to stop oil from gushing out if drilling operations experienced problems.

That citation was “major,” said Arnold, who characterized the overall safety record related by MMS as strong.

A citation on Sept. 19, 2002, also involved the blowout preventer. The inspector issued a warning because “problems or irregularities observed during the testing of BOP system and actions taken to remedy such problems or irregularities are not recorded in the driller’s report or referenced documents.”

Neither of the above citations are related to the BOP’s operational status. They are related to the human reaction to tests.. or not conducting the tests at all.

Therefore… again playing devil’s advocate on your authored posts 😉 … I agree that the O’admin demonstrated they are far more derelict in emergency response than the prior admin, state and local officials were during Katrina. But I couldn’t disagree more that this is a result of lack of enforcement. In fact, that cannot be determined until we find the cause of the BOP’s failure to *fully* operate (it did, in fact, operate partially, which is why the oil is/was gushing out thru a partially closed BOP).

What we are most likely to find out is that this tragic accident is a result of one of two things…. human error, or Mother Nature getting the best of all the fail safe measures built in. All the enforcement in the world couldn’t cure either one of those. Humans tend to make errors, and mankind is no match for Mother Nature.

@AdrianS… what the heck has that comment go to do with the price of gas today? Venting a bit of frustration, are we? 😆

Surprise, Surprise, Obama managed to blame the oil spill on Bush! What a concept!
Madalyn

Obama’s poll numbers remain unchanged or up since 4/20 DEILL BABY DRILL ! will be the loser from this one. As well as having the MMMS top Gulf Driller (a Bush appointee) resign in disgrace. and now the Dems are ahead on the generic Congressional ballot ar RealClearPolitics AND are up by 10_ at Intrade to keep control of the House in 2010. Oh and Rand Paul will win and show the USA that the Tea Party + PaulBots

@John ryan: You keep bringing up Obama’s abysmal poll numbers?

You’re only making the case stronger for Obama as a one term president.

ah yes, @the partisan and gullible John ryan returns with half truths meant to misinform.

Chris Oynes was appointed to the current position, Associate Director of the Offshore Energy and Minerals Management division in 2007. However prior to that he was Regional Director of the MMS in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s been with the interior department for 35 years.

And oh, BTW… Bush did not “appoint” him. The agency’s then-director appointed him. Even Huffpo can figure that out.

He previously received a 1998 Presidential Rank Award as a Meritorious Executive for his work in the SES. He has received the two highest honor awards that the U.S. Department of the Interior bestows–the Distinguished Service Award and the Meritorious Service Award.

Hardly a man that can be considered unqualified.

His involvement with the MMS has covered a wide range of issues. He has been actively involved in how MMS conducts its resource projections and its environmental reviews, and the operational safeguards it imposes. During his tenure in the GOM, he conducted 30 lease sales and oversaw a 50 percent rise in oil production.

The drill ship had it’s Interior Dept/MMS safety inspection in April, not long before the rig blowout. Was it OEMM/Oynes who is responsible for the inspections for the Interior? Afterall, his background and work is in leases and royalies. Or was it TA&R?

And why are you placing of this on Oynes? It’s S. Elizabeth Birnbaum who heads up the entire MMS, not Oynes. She was appointed in July 2009 – likely by Interior Sec’y Salazar… Obama appointee. Want to skip that fact?

Let’s take it to the extreme of the BDS lib/progs. If Bush can be blamed for your neighbor passing gas, why ignore the reality that any of these MMS departments heads answer to Interior Deprtment Ken Salazar? Remember him? Obama appointee? He’s also the same guy whose chief of staff decided, post explosion, to go white water rafting in the Grand Canyon? I might add that Strickland is *also* a direct appointee of the annointed one.

Here’s the point… this resignation is being spun big time as a “blame Bush” moment so that this current admin can try to save face. Why did Oynes resign? Culpability? I’m not guessing that’s the case because of his OEMM position, subordinate to Birnbaum and his involvment more in the lease and royalty aspect over safety inspections.

Could be with Obama threatening any Bush remaining (and Clinton, and Bush one, and …. ) members with the “too cozy for too long” remark, he knew he was a likely scapegoat. My hopes is that he resigned so he can testify against his bosses in hearings and investigations without worrying about pressure.

Let me add that even last year, Oynes was complaining that the MMS needed more authority to require leaseholders to submit status reports.

The IG’s written testimony also notes that a mix of considerations factor into company decisions about whether leases are brought into production, such as prices and work force issues, and says millions of dollars can be spent exploring wells that never produce. It adds that litigation and public opposition can affect development.

Nonetheless, the report says current federal practices are also a problem, noting that Interior has provided little guidance to leaseholders on existing performance requirements. The testimony says that for 99 percent of leases, Interior does not check to see if “due diligence” is exercised, and thus none of them are terminated for failing to produce.

Chris Oynes, MMS’s associate director for offshore energy and minerals management, said the agency does not require leaseholders to submit status reports on their activity before they formally come to MMS with exploration plans and seeking permits. Oynes said more legislative authority may be needed to require such reports.

But Tom Fry, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said there are many reasons why a lease may or may not be producing. For instance, he noted that many leases are less than five years old. Leases in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico can take seven or more years to develop, he said, while the process is generally much faster for onshore leases. He said rental fees create incentive for developing leases or returning them.

“There is no incentive for a company not to develop leases,” he said.

In written testimony, Oynes said roughly a quarter of the leased acreage on the federal outer continental shelf are currently producing. The OCS accounts for 14 percent of the nation’s natural gas production and 27 percent of its oil production in 2007, he said. MMS currently administers 8,124 leases, covering more than 43 million acres, and also oversees 3,795 production facilities.

You’ll also note his March 2009 Congressional hearing testimony goes thru what his OEMM department does in both managing leases, TA&R for funding research on safety etal, and that it’s “MMS” inspectors on the rigs. Not OEMM, not TA&R, but MMS.

Doesn’t sound like the dude is the top dog responsible for rig inspections, does it? But watch the media and O’faithful spin away….

Check this out:

Coast Guard: Tar balls aren’t from oil spill
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By KeysNet Stsff
Posted – Wednesday, May 19, 2010 08:44 AM EDT

The U.S. Coast Guard says the dozens of tar balls found in the Keys Monday and Tuesday didn’t come from the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig spill.

The tar balls were found at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, Smathers Beach, on Big Pine Key and at Loggerhead Key in Dry Tortugas National Park.

Samples were flown to a New London, Conn., Coast Guard lab for testing on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard said in a prepared statement that “the results of those tests conclusively show that the tar balls collected from Florida Keys beaches do not match the type of oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The source of the tar balls remains unknown at this time.”

“The conclusion that these tar balls are not from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident in no way diminishes the need to continue to aggressively identify and clean up tar ball-contaminated areas in the Florida Keys,” Coast Guard Sector Key West Cmdr. Pat DeQuattro said. “We will continue to operate as a unified command and utilize funding through the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund until we have successfully identified any additional tar balls on the shoreline and completed cleanup efforts.”

The tar balls ranged in size from about three to eight inches in diameter.