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Oil and Vinegar and Water Don’t Mix

Oil and vinegar don’t mix. The sour faces on the Oil executives that appeared before Congress this week told a story.  It is not enough that thousands of barrels of oil are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico but their lack of responsibility for this environmental disaster is the vinegar -the acid that burns.  They sat before Congress much like Tobacco executives before them and two-stepped and danced around the issues.  It is clear that they have no idea about how to stop the flow of oil from that deep-water well in the middle of the Gulf.   One engineer is now stating that he estimates that it is leaking more than 70, 000 barrels a day of oil! Even though BP Executives continue to state that it is 5000 barrels a day or more than 200,000 gallons.  Click here for the LA TIMES article on this.

The latest two ideas that I heard to stem the leak is to place a giant funnel over the leak.  My guess is that will work just as well as the “top hat” they tried the last week.  Another option they came up with is to shoot old rubber tires and golf balls to block up the break in the pipe.   Is this where Tiger Woods gets his redemption?

It is painfully obvious that this environmental disaster will haunt our planet for years to come.  This is even bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. 

I haven’t written much about  it until now because it is so painful to watch and to see what is happening.  I grew up not too far from the Gulf of Mexico.  Everyone went to Pensacola, Florida or the Mississippi coast or even to Galveston, Texas to enjoy the Gulf waters for vacations! And now both the wildlife and beaches will be destroyed by this outrageous corporate greed. Yet again in our country. 

When will we all demand that things are done differently.   The regulations for safety haven’t been updated since the 1970’s when they did not have the technology to do this kind of deep water drilling.  The rules from then are applicable to rigs that are closer into to the shore line.  But nothing was updated with the technological changes that permitted this kind of drilling.  Where is the governmental oversight of the energy companies?  Oh I forgot there is little. The Mineral Management Service, a branch of the Interior Department charged with oversight is according to the GAO  is inadequate to the task. They found in March that the MMS had supressed its own report about Artic drilling safety.   This is the corporate dollar at work as the companies who pay mineral and oil royalties to the government can increasingly control and shape governmental policy and donate to elected officials campaigns –even the Supreme Court said they have the right to donate unlimited money to campaigns. So we can forget anyone ever standing up to them.

It will take our will and our outrage to demand differently.

And with each passing hour-the situation grows in gravity in the Gulf.

Oil and Vinegar–Oil and Water don’t mix.