The Thomas Paine Project strives for reasoned debate. We have avoided the BP oil well and the 24/7 disaster coverage eating up the airwaves since then because we felt that we had little that we could offer in the way of informed comment. That has not stopped anyone else though. The magnitude of the idiocy flowing out of all of the involved parties dwarfs the flow of oil fouling the gulf waters. The mainstream media has been joined by new media in the hysteria. There is little coverage of value. The vast majority is oversold hype trucked out to move copies and subscription links. This may be the first rant to appear on TPP.

The spectacle of BP, Haliburton and Transocean (the three major corporate entities responsible) tripping over each other to pass blame to the next guy was unseemly. The fact that this game of Hot Potato took place in front of a panel of pontificating blowhards who have all accepted campaign donations from the object of their collected wrath, makes it even harder to accept that there are any grown-ups in charge. Rumors of a BP having a spotty safety record and a spill in Alaska in 2007 put Tony Hayward in charge of the cap and cleanup . His performance before Congress not only betrayed the buffoonery of the questioners, but was tone deaf to the point of costing him his job 24 hours later.

The Obama Administration has added no dignity to this farce. We all need to know that our government "has it's boot on the neck" of BP, and that our President is looking to "kick ass". Nothing like using terminology common to oppression and thuggery to reassure the American public that all will be well. Teddy Kennedy must be spinning in his grave. What a shame we don't have access to that kind of renewable energy. DC could be a limitless generator.

Everyone needs to take a breath and to GROW UP! BP is responsible because they were drilling in 5000 feet of water and through another few thousand of rock to try to get oil up to a platform that blew up in the process. They had theoretical safeties in place, but since nothing like this has ever happened at this depth, a lot of assumptions were made. You know what happens when you assume. Transocean and Haliburton are equally guilty as they respectively manufactured, installed and tested the safety shuttoff that failed.

Congress is complicit because the reason that BP has to drill in 5000 feet of water is that no Senator or Congressperson wants to see an oil rig off of their coast. It would be far safer to drill in the shallower waters of the inner continental shelf, or on dry land. The safety record of exisiting oil rigs within sight of land is excellent, as it was with the deep water rigs until now. Additionally, drilling in shallower water has the well head above the surface of the water for easy repair.

The Administration shares in this blame by trying to score political points on a tragic occurrence. We give proper regard to the fact that Deepwater Horizon was built prior to President Obama taking office. Permits were approved and construction began in 1998, and the rig was completed in 2001. It had since been used in several exploratory projects with an excellent safety record. It was moved into the Macondo Prospect in Feb of 2010 to begin the BP project. Permitting and exceptions for this project occurred under the watch of the Obama Administration.

Once we all take a breath and stop pointing fingers like a bunch of children we can gain some perspective. BP and the corporate powers involved want this well capped more than anyone. As the oil flows, so does their profitability. That streaming plume of oil is the worst sort of publicity. Their stock has lost value. Their customer base is eroding. Their image has suffered. Yet they are taking lead in finding a solution - they have no choice. They,and the rest of the oil industry have engineers specializing in just this type of technology and are working around the clock. They have also stepped forward to address the financial damage to businesses and individuals affected by the spill. They are, whether under pressure or not, doing the right thing. As for plugging the hole, it's easier said than done when you are guiding robots from a mile away from the hole, and dealing with pressures that would crush a submarine or burst a tanker truck.

Congress should stick to what it does best - make the trivial important and the important trivial. Unless a Congressman has specialized knowledge in engineering or fluid dynamics, he should do what Governor Bobby Jindall of Louisiana has suggested - provide help in the form of equipment and manpower, and minimize the red tape.

The Federal government does not react well or quickly in the face of large scale disasters. This is especially true when none of the principals has any understanding of what is required to fix this situation, or what has caused it. This would be a good time to pick up the contracts of some of those NASA engineers who are now out of a job, and put them on the case. They have an actual understanding of what is going on in extreme environments. They are used to working remotely. They can offer a fresh set of eyes and some out of the box thinking.

Federal law dictates that BP is financially responsible for the costs associated with this accident. BP has indicated it's willingness to comply with the law, and has paid out roughly $90 million in claims so far. We are not sure how replacing a system already in place and paying claims with yet another Czar is helpful. This is especially so as the structures and procedures will not be in place to review claims for at least a month, according to the named Czar Kenneth Feinberg. That is just to start reviewing claims, no word on when the money is coming out.

The media needs to give this story some perspective as well. This is not the worst spill ever. It is not even the worst spill in the gulf. That dubious honor goes to the IXTOC rig owned by Pemex (the Mexican national oil company) which exploded in the gulf in 1979. It put 140 million gallons of oil into the gulf in the ten months it took to cap it.

When Saddam Hussein trashed Kuwait on his way back to Baghdad in the first Gulf War, he caused 10 times that amount to spill into the Persian gulf. Ongoing studies report little long term damage.

In the short term this is a horrifying story. Tarballs, dead birds, turtles, and oil-soaked marine mammals all paint a sad picture. The nightly graphic showing how far the oil is spreading is telling two stories. One shows the spread of the oil. The other shows the gulf healing itself. The form of analysis used to "see" the oil uses the spectrum of methane to indicate where oil is near the surface of the water. The methane is generated by bacteria and other single cell organisms that are breaking down the oil by "eating" it. The methane then just evaporates off into the atmosphere in much the same was that one passes gas in a more personal way.  Rather than getting the information out that the bad smell indicates a good thing, mainstream and new media are reporting on a killer methane cloud heading towards the coast. That is not helpful.

The economic effects being felt by the fishing, tourism, and related industries is very real in this bad economy. It took three years for the gulf fishing industry to recover to normal levels following the Pemex spill. This will be a huge hit to the livelihood of the area and it's effects will ripple out to the rest of the country. Yet the very people most affected by this accident are shouting the loudest to NOT shut down drilling operations. They are a key component to the gulf economy, and the platforms support many other jobs supplying them. A rig worker needs to eat - that provides jobs for the cook who prepares the food, the supplier who provides the food and the fisherman who gathers the food.

Common Sense Dictates

We need cooler heads to prevail, and we need to let the professionals do their jobs. The first priority need to be to stop the flow. That will only be done when the pressure of the oil escaping into the gulf can be reduced. A colleague at Caltech has reported that the only way that will happen is when the relief wells are completed. Best estimates of that happening are August. All of this activity buzzing around the well-head is window dressing and pretty pointless. The reported 20.000 barrels a day being harvested represents about 20% of the flow. It's a help, as are Kevin Costner's centrifuges, but until the well is capped, we will be playing catch up.

A useful thing for President Obama to do would be issue an executive order waiving the Jones Act. This is a law requiring that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents. This is what is keeping help from other nations from being accepted here. President Bush issued a waiver of this law immediately following Katrina. President Obama should do likewise. He should also gratefully and gracefully accept that help. The Netherlands and the countries comprising Scandinavia have unique experience in working deep water wells. They have equipment (skimmers, booms, tankers) at the ready and have offered their assistance.

Congress should probe for wrong-doing or carelessness on the part of BP. Now is not the time. Congressional hearings are a distraction to the work of capping and cleaning this mess. It is akin to the house being on fire and stopping each fireman arriving to find out what they think the cause of the fire is. There will be plenty of time for investigation once the problem is fixed.

This accident is a bad thing. It shouldn't have happened. What we need to do is cap the well. We need to clean up the mess. We need to make sure that those who are affected by it are helped, not hindered in getting on with their lives. That is what common sense dictates. Once those priorities are met, we can go back to our media circuses and political blame throwing.

RLB