Jenson Daily Green Piece

"Tar Balls and a Government We Should Tar and Feather"

Date: 6/07/2010

BP Disaster Effectively Ends US Govt. Backed Oil Monopoly

Obama’s approval rating dropped to 48% in the polls due to the federal government’s slow response to what has become the greatest environmental disaster in the history of our country - and perhaps even in the history of the world.  It is as if you merged the Exxon Valdez disaster with The Three Mile Island Nuclear meltdown and multiplied by an unknown amount.  The fraudulent actions of our elected officials in their awarding of contracts to Halliburton after the Gulf War and the Senate/House Energy Committee’s favorable treatment of Transocean and BP for kickbacks slowed the response as I discuss below.

I’ve provided a bit of a roadmap to the corrupt practices of our lobbyist-influenced elected officials, but we are more interested in what will happen not why it happened.  Experts and news from Capitol Hill have confirmed that Obama, the Senate and House are all preparing significant legislation forever changing the oil industry.  There have been reports that new laws limiting deep water drilling and freezing many drilling projects will soon be introduced.  Additionally, the Swiss insurers of oil rigs doubled all insurance premiums, creating another barrier to entry.  Taxes on all oil from offshore production have been suggested to create funds for future disasters in addition to the oil companies having created disaster reserves in the billions of dollars.

Obama has to save face and we see him creating additional tax incentives for green companies that are involved in biodiesel or battery powered cars/trucks.  Additionally, experts have reported that he will create billions of dollars in grants for the aforementioned companies so that they can effectively compete with entrenched, gas-powered vehicles.  This ends the kickback monopoly enjoyed by oil companies and the Detroit dinosaurs of auto/truck production.  Evidence of this corruption, as we back all our opinions with factual data, is the EU (despite its economic challenges) has mandated that approximately 14% of all fuel be biodiesel.  The majority of cars in Europe now are diesel and the EU is moving towards higher requirements and a decrease in emissions from cars.  Our, government has a 0% requirement and refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol signed by 37 plus countries - and in fact the U.S. is virtually the only large country in the entire world not to sign the protocol calling for a 42% reduction in Carbon Emissions by 2010.  Good old Ronnie Reagan did sign the Montreal protocol which has been hailed as the “Hair Spray” Protocol.  The United States proudly led the charge as one of the first Countries to sign the agreement ending the fantastic hair styles of the 80’s and accomplishing nothing else.  Hmmm…I smell a rat.

That is as ridiculous as the fact that we are one of a few countries including China, Russia, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea and a host of other fanatical nation states to not sign the Land Mine ban.  Children are losing limbs and dying every day and our elected officials are so paid off by the munitions companies that they refuse to sign a treaty possibly saving the lives of innocent children.  That is an act of war on helpless children and it makes me ashamed of our Country.  The BP disaster reminds us that we all are partly responsible for this disaster every time we drive -- so invest in an electric car or truck company and/or buy a bike.  If we all take action, we remove the power from the corrupt and greedy corporations with their pawns who parade as our elected officials.  What an absolute travesty.
Factors that influence politicians have taken the U.S. by storm as the model our forefather’s championed in choosing Jeffersonian Democracy over Hamiltonian Federalism have been lost in the rise of corporate feudalism championed by lobbyists.  Though it is a not so well kept secret, lobbyists more or less control a great deal of our current congressional legislation.  Without going into a great conspiracy theory, basically the current and future financial position of our Congressional members lays in the hands of lobbyists through the companies or industries that they represent.  A convenient way to explore this theory is through the current oil rig explosion, subsequent environmental disaster and current debacle in the clean up.  We held off from writing any articles for a couple weeks as our prose is chock full of satire, metaphors and irony, and frankly there is nothing humorous about dozens of oil rig workers losing their lives in a preventable disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing humorous about the environmental disaster striking Louisiana, Mississippi and the sugar white sands of Florida’s East Coast.  Dolphins, whales, birds, turtles and host of other threatened species are dying in record numbers.  We poked some humor at President Obama not surfing, as he never has had a tar ball on his foot or he clearly would not have passed legislature allowing drilling off the coast of Virginia.

Additionally, we joked that he may not even go to the beach at all which now is not so funny as he finally visited the disaster zone as a presidential token of actually giving a F#@! about the environment.  Now the irony in this disaster comes in the form of Halliburton having built the rig, Transocean owning the rig, and BP leasing the rig to drill the well.  This has to be the mother of all congressional debacles, as we dare say not a palm on Capitol Hill has not been greased at one time or another by at least one of these suspect oil behemoths.  We speculated that BP, upon advice from corporate counsel, did not immediately undertake stopping the leak in the hopes that blame might fall with Transocean or Halliburton.  As if to add insult to injury, upon initial failure to put the great dome of well plugging over the seeping hole, BP actually released a great new theory of plugging the hole with garbage.

Was this a proverbial middle finger raised in the face of the U.S. as surely polluting the ocean with trash in an attempt to stop another environmental disaster had to be a joke?  Is BP really that far above the law or any conscience to have twisted the knife plunged in the hearts of those who lost loved ones in the blast?  Of course, we greatly respect the wisdom of corporate counsel, as if BP had taken immediate action clearly it could have created legal responsibility for the spill either actual or implied, thus action was not taken until mandated by Congress.

We foresee some lumps of coal in the stockings this year instead of stock certificates, though this is not a time for humor, and sadly the pun bears elements of truth.  This is where the story gets very interesting as civil cases are often driven by factors other than truth, as truth is often based upon what can be proven through the hundreds of pages written by brilliant contract attorneys.  There already have been murmurings of contract issues in the lease signed by BP and Transocean where the latter has claimed the former neglected to add certain provisions related to a post drilling capping of the well which would have raised the price but prevented the explosion.  We find this preposterous, as the investigation, which will be particularly long, disjointed and possibly inconclusive as anything our government touches seems to consistently be characterized by such, has just commenced.

Even more ridiculous is the way in which Halliburton, which clearly has the greatest number of palms greased on Capitol Hill, as evidenced by the contracts awarded post Desert Storm, has managed to remain suspiciously in the background in the “blame game”, as a reasonable person would deem that the manufacturer of any “defective” product would bear at least a portion of the responsibility for environmental devastation and most certainly culpability for catastrophic product failure resulting in death.  Sadly it seems that stock certificates in Halliburton are worth far more than BP stock certificates because Capitol Hill has decided that “gross mismanagement” at BP caused the oil rig to explode.  Again, we find this assessment by our ever so enlightened congressional leaders to be outrageous, preposterous, outlandish, perplexing, and irresponsible.  For me this whole tragedy was summed up on a bike ride down the Venice boardwalk after a particularly exhilarating morning of surfing in surprisingly powerful waves in the dangerously polluted waters adjacent to the Venice Fishing Pier.  A German tourist sat on the grass with an agonized look on his face scrapping helplessly at a huge tar ball seeping into the flesh on his foot.  Attempting a bit of diplomacy, I stopped and attempted to let him know that the only solution was to apply a volatile degreaser or skull and cross-bones cleaning agent to his foot.  I’m not sure how this translated but seemingly not well as a string of strong German words came from his lips and a great deal of gesturing.  Eventually, through some form of pointing and word association, he caught my drift and understood that I too was often the victim of said tar balls, and he accepted the sad solution to the problem.  Perhaps there is another solution that rests in our hands?  Do you own a bike?  Do you take the bus, ride a subway or commute by ferry?  Just try it once and you will be surprised by the peace found in avoiding road rage and being able to text without risking lives.