I read in the news today that the government and president Obama specifically have authority to take over operations in the BP Well blowout.
Even though the the president probably does have that authority, THAT action would be a natural disaster in itself.
Apparently no one is arguing that the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 gives the president authority to take over operations
related to the disaster, but I seriously doubt he would want that authority. I believe it was something one of the guys on the Fox & Friends morning show said that hit my hot button on this one.
They discussed having the military step in and take over operations. I bet the Navy or Coast Guard doesn’t want anything to do with the disaster.
I have witnessed well blowouts from minor to serious and have run for my life when pipe came hurtling out of the well into the air and arcing over and stabbing forcefully into the ground several hundred feet away. It usually came in spurts like that….burps if you will.
Having anyone other than an old rough talking old graybearded oil service company man on location directing operations would be a big mistake. Even then, operating some 5,000 feet below water just about makes this a task against all odds. That old graybeard will actually need some hotshot submarine boys for this one.
I’ve seen the blowout fires burn for weeks with transports hauling water to the water cannons day and night while the engineers and graybeards tried one thing, then another.
Here’s what will happen at some point in this saga.
Some service company (probably based in Texas) working for BP will stab a pipe into the hole and start pumping a special mud into it. The mud is extremely heavy and when enough of it is pumped in at a high enough pressure, it will ‘kill’ the well. Then a crew will pump a specialized concrete into the well, sealing it and the formations that produce oil. That will effectively ‘kill’ the well once and for all. That scenario is played out almost every day somewhere in Texas, but they are not operating 5,000 feet below water. I can’t imagine how difficult it all must be.
Those that ask for the government or the military to step in and direct operations are very misguided. It is just ludicrous to suggest something like that. As if the government knows its A** from a hole in the ground.
The government will step in after the well is ‘killed’ and will be directing cleanup operations in the hard hit areas of Louisiana and Florida. Then they will fine the heck out of BP and hopefully help some of those fishermen and those wildlife caretakers.
So far, prevailing winds and currents have been kind to Texas.
I would imagine BP is bringing every available resource to bear. I’ve seen that happen out here in Real Texas where contractors actually sent in men and equipment with no expectation of being compensated. They just knew it would take a concerted effort to do the job.
Just keep the government out of the way on this one until it’s all over. Then let the regulators and lawyers move in and fight it out with BP.
I’m David in Real Texas
Seen this sort of thing before…
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Watching the talking heads on TV deliver their abyssmal ignorance is something else these days. Like you, I believe the only way to stop the flow is to get in some old head that has never found anything he could not do. I use the statement, “we were too stupid to know we couldn’t do it” after we got it done.
I can’t help but believe that Red Adair could have handled this problem by now.
I must have heard the same guy on Fox and Friends as you did because when I heard it, my jaw dropped a bit. Our military is great at what they do – this is not what they do. And as far as the government getting it plugged, there’s some “blow-holes” in Washington DC that needs plugging and maybe they need to work on that. It will take every bit of “oilfield” expertise to fix this, not the government beauracracy!
agreed…I doubt they got very many oil field classes at law school. This really needs to be handled by the experts and some of those experts are loosing money very quickly right now.
I watch FOX Cable News pretty closely and they are pretty conservative overall but have guests that are pretty liberal. Liberals generally believe that the government can do anything better. Personally I don’t think the government can do anything well at all, except wage war. And I have no complaint with a well trained military. I heard someone repeat a suggested government plan that we use a nuclear device on the well. That sounds like a really bad idea. BP and oil patch guys are our only hope.
I am fixing to throw my tv away. I get so tired of some “suit reporter” asking why they can’t fix the leak. It’s a mile down there you idgit!
I really don’t think that BP or anyone else actively involved is just sitting around playing dominoes until something comes to mind to fix it. There are people working around the clock and I can nearly assure you that if someone had a good idea at this point, BP would listen.
Government, like taxes, is a necessary evil. They do few, if any, things effeciently. All businesses are made up of human beings who are fallible; so mistakes unfortunately will happen. Whether it be accidents on the job, misuse of
product or service, shop-lifting or receiving hot checks–companies want to keep these things to a minimum. It is in their own best interest (& that of their consumers), but free-enterprise can & does do a far better job than government!!
Where the government has to be involved is with the cleanup. The “killing” of the well is something that BP and others in the industry know how to do. The cleanup is another problem all together. The effort needs to be coordinated and action needs to be quick.
Unfortunately, the government is showing its inability to react quickly. Very little has been done and it has been over 35 days since the blowout.
It is the governments job to coordinate this cleanup effort and they needed to start doing it some time ago and there is little being done. Not surprissed!
I am not an oil patch person, but I am retired from the military. Believe me the military wants no part of this goat rope. They are, I believe, the most organized and effective unit of our government. We train to break things and enemy personnel. They not trained for nor equipped for oilfield operations or clean up for that matter.
The Army Corps of Engineers, other than the combat unit folks (like old retired me), is a contract management organization. Most all work is done by civilian contractors as should be the case here. BP pays and civilians get jobs.