Boom and the Leak Stops: An Open Letter to the President
Posted: Saturday, May 01, 2010
by Walter Rhett
Charleston Perlo
But it's not just jobs and fish for purchase that leave me disheartened, angry, outraged, and devastated. It is the loss, by human hands, of some more precious, almost unspeakable. Something we breathe in and cherish, something we believe in, that shapes life's course by grandly giving evidence of nature's indomitable cycle: birth, beauty, independent will, timeless strength and charm.
Soon this will be all gone. Because of our own worst practices.
BP, the corporate owners of the offshore well, did not see fit (and nor did the government require) to install a $500K acoustic shut-off switch-required in Europe-that automatically triggers the shut down of a blown well.
Right now, our only option is a drastic dose of socialism: use the military to blow the well and cap the flow. Surely, if we can drop laser-guided missile's on Saddam's palace, and use drones to blow terrorists out of Afghan caves, we can use the US Navy's Arleigh Burke class of Aegis destroyers to drop torpedoes or missiles with non-nuclear warheads on a dime, underwater, at a depth of 5,000 feet.
In two days, Navy experts can figure out how to set off an explosion that will close the well. In two days, all of the fears of a nation can be quelled.
In two days, the coastlines of three states can be saved.
In two days, by overriding the posse comitas act of 1878, for which George W. Bush had already established the precedents for Presidential authority in times of eminent national danger, (as well as a Congressional 2007 act authorizing US military intervention in domestic affairs when "constituted authorities are incapable of maintaining public order") our nation's worst disaster can be ended. Public order, which includes billion dollar industries and thousands of jobs, the protection of beaches, fish, and wildlife, the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf and its bays, can be restored.
With a strong dose of socialism, through the government's mace of power, the lambs and lions can sit together in peace on this one. Bill O'Reilly and Keith Oberman can smile as they throw barbs at each other.
Save the Gulf Coast. We have the means.
"Socialism" gives us the moral authority and legal precedent.
Boom and the leak stops.
(Photos: Tampa Bay.com, Accu-Weather.com; google images, used under fair use; for educational purposes.)
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)drilling at 5000', BP should have at least provided the crew chief and safety supervisor on that rig with the phone numbers for Wild Well Control, Inc. in Houston. They specialize in well disasters, and have the capability to shut down a wellhead at up to 6000'. They could have been on the scene in hours.
According to an article in the Mississippi Press, dated May 3, 2010 it US officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land.The problem: The federal government did not ave a single fire boom on hand.The "In-Situ Burn"plan produced by federal agencies in 1994 calls for responding to a major oil spill in the gulf with the immediate use of fire booms. But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.In other words the government fell as far short of its responsibility in this situation as it did with the Hurricane Katrina situation. Check out the governments full responsibility in this situation and I am sure you will be amazed.
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