Back in April, the Deepwater Horizon rig had a blowout that killed 11 workers before sinking to the ocean floor. The rig was owned and operated by a company called Transocean, and leased by British Petroleum. Apparently all safety mechanisms that would have stopped the flow of oil out of the well in the event of such an explosion failed shortly before or during the accident. Now oil is spewing out of the ocean floor at a rate of several thousand barrels a day, ultimately culminating in an epic environmental disaster, with oil washing ashore in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, affecting some of the world's most delicate ecosystems.
BP leads all oil companies in terms of investment dollars for such deep water drilling. More shallow drilling is much more common, but this rig was tapping a well some 5,000 feet below sea level. Apparently all the kinks haven't been worked out on how to operate machinery in such treacherous conditions. Several attempts to stop the leak have failed, with no one really seeming to have a clue as to what to do. BP first tried to cover the leak with two separate domes, in order to funnel it into a pipe, only to have the funnel plugged by a freak crystallization of methane gas. In another attempt, they tried to attach a tube to the broken pipe, only to have one of their robots collide with it and break it, forcing them to start all over again. Recently, after 7 million barrels had already leaked, a "top-kill" was attempted, in which cement and mud is forced down the well in an attempt to clog it. Four days, three tries, and 30,000 barrels of mud later, they gave up, saying the oil pressure was too great.
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As Colbert points out, no one really has a clue. And that's not just BP--that's everyone. BP is now drilling a relief well, which will stop the flow, but that will not be completed until August at the earliest. In the meantime, BP has announced that it is successfully collecting up to about 15,000 barrels a day on tankers--very nearly the same rate it is being leaked.
While it will likely take years before everything is sorted out, the blame game has begun. BP is accepting full financial responsibility, already spending about $1.25 billion on cleanup, with billions more in governmental fines to come. They also say they will accept any legitimate claim against them, which are sure to be extremely costly. They assure us that no tax money will be necessary, though many groups fear that the costs will bankrupt the company, leaving costs on taxpayers.
So who is to blame?
Most people are putting the blame on BP, as evidenced by a Gallup poll showing 76% disapproval for the company. It is easy to blame them, as the company has a track record of preventable accidents (a Texas refinery explosion and an Alaskan pipe leak), and, as leaseholder of the well, they are ultimately in charge of what happens there.
I, personally, am reluctant to place all the blame on the London-based oil giant. Let's try to put this in a separate context. Suppose your name is BP, and you are renting an apartment, called the Deepwater Horizon Rig. The landlord's name is Transocean Ltd., and Transocean will do basically whatever you say, because you are one of the richest people on earth, and Transocean stands to make some good money off of your patronage. You decide that you want a new furnace in your apartment, but you want to save a few bucks, so you settle on a cheap, kinda crappy furnace. You stay within the law, of course, and get the project approved by a governmental inspection group. Let's call them the US Minerals Management Service. Now, the MMS is kind of a corrupt joke, and okays the project without even checking it out first. Furnace installation is kind of tricky business, so your landlord hires an expert to do it for you. His name is Halliburton Corporation. Halliburton installs this cheap furnace just as you requested, but for some reason, the furnace just blew right up and pissed off all your neighbors. Why did the furnace blow up? Was it installed wrong? Was the furnace itself bad? Was it a freak accident of everything going wrong? Unfortunately, that will take years of investigation to figure out, and in the mean time, you agree to pay for absolutely everything, including all your neighbors' numerous lawsuits.
Should BP be to blame for ultimately being in charge and possibly skimping? In any case, they share some responsibility. Should Transocean be to blame? They are responsible for the operation of and maintenance of equipment on the well. If there was an equipment malfunction, that will be on them. Did Halliburton do something wrong in the construction process? They claim they were simply following BP's specs. Should the Minerals Management Service be to blame? They are notoriously corrupt and poor at their job, so much to the extent that President Obama has already announced plans to dissolve the whole thing. Should the Obama Administration answer? Many say they have responded poorly. Should the Bush Administration take some blame? Many left-wing politicians have been criticizing their lack of discretion in appointing the MMS. Should Congress be to blame? Many are pointing to lax drilling laws and breaks for oil companies as a major problem.
I think it's a mixture of everything. Like a perfect storm where everything went perfectly wrong. BP is certainly partially to blame, but I think we are misguided in our disgust towards them. What more can we ask than what they are doing? They promise to cover every cost; they are living up to their responsibility to keep us informed with regular announcements and video feeds of underwater operations. What incentive does that leave for them to not do everything they can to fix this? Not only are they losing a ton of money with every barrel leaked (both through cleanup costs and lost potential sales), they are wilfully accepting terrible PR with this whole thing. I honestly can't figure out what more people want from them. Accidents happen.
I think one of the worst responses is the current BP boycott. BP's revenue is generated primarily through drilling and refining oil for sale to other companies. Any loss of sales at the pump is hardly going to affect their bottom line. Here in Iowa, we have a lot of Casey's gas stations. Do you think that Casey's drills and refines their own oil? No. They buy it from companies like BP, Shell, and Exxon Mobil. BP sells a lot more oil through other companies like that than through stations under their own banner. All boycotting BP stations will hurt is the local owners who bought into the franchise. That's not the right response. To hurt BP's revenue, you would basically have to stop buying all gasoline, plastic...anything that comes from oil. But how would bankrupting BP help the situation? If they go under, who's left to foot the cleanup bill that they are wilfully accepting now? Taxpayers. And that will only bring about a whole new wave of complaining. At least let them live long enough to clean up their mess.
I don't mean to sound insensitive. This is a major environmental crisis. Not buying gasoline certainly won't hurt the environment. But it also won't help with the oil spill.
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