Napolitano: Feds lack expertise to deal with deepwater spill

Napolitano: Feds lack expertise to deal with deepwater spill

www.abovetopsecret.com

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged Monday that the federal government doesn't have the resources or expertise to deal with an oil spill 5,000 feet below the sea, and must largely depend on oil companies to deal with an incident of such magnitude.

Read more: www.mcclatchydc.com...

(visit the link for the full news article)

I find it astounding that any government can sign off on something like deep water drilling all the while lacking "expertise and capability" to handle any kind of disaster. Pretty much Napolitano makes an excuse as to why the problem in the Gulf has not been fixed.

This is the best way of putting it:

“It angers me,” Lieberman said that as the country become more dependent on deepwater drilling, MMS didn’t develop better oversight of the potential environmental risks. He said both BP and MMS should have had better plans in place for a deepwater accident.

Still find it sad that the best minds in the world can't fix this problem.

www.abovetopsecret.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 17-5-2010 by Portugoal]

This pretty much redirects blame from the government to BP, yet again. The Feds (the most powerful government in the world), of course, can't fix this problem. BP has all the resources to do so however...

What does this say about our politically-appointed regulators and oversight agencies?

Our infamous FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has spared no expense to postulate the horrors of civil unrest, internal security, and population management' but nary a one seems competent to deal with actual emergency situations that don't call for oppressive lock down scenarios....

I would understand that lack of competency from the Department of Homeland Security... they "took over" FEMA. They must have really gutted it (all in the name of political consistency no doubt.)

This has gone from an issue of concern to a national embarrassment.

At what point has any constituent outside the corporate EVER conceded to their representatives that it's OK to allow these clods to exploit the environment without a care for the consequences. Do they not have a MANDATE to be prepared for these kinds of events?

I am convinced that at the root of this disaster we will find the quintessential political bullcrap that somehow exonerates everyone from the consequences they should face, while the population at large is forced to cope with it on their own.

This IS a major failure on the part of this administration, whose charge it is to defend this country and protect its people. But politics is far too important to politicians to allow something like this to interfere with their gamesmanship.

I'm really pissed off at these people... they expect us to blithely accept that they can just shrug their shoulders and walk away - they can't NEVER seem to make the concession that they screwed up and actually be held accountable.

The plume will swirl through the gulf, depositing itself in ways that scientists are certain they cannot predict. But somehow, either the industry was allowed to 'give it a go' in the name of commerce, or something uglier still is at work.

And don't forget... the damages are capped by legislation at $75 million. Who drafted that baby?

Pathetic. too stupid to be funny in any way.

It's kind of like saying, "we're going to create this fire in the middle of the forest and we'll figure out how to put the fire out afterward."

The whole BP blunder, only tells that in this nation of big profit makings for oil corporations and government subsidies at the expenses of tax payer, no money has gone to ensure the security of the population against oil spills in the coast that this mega corporation gangsters has taken over.

But people still doesn't get it. . . again, who runs government this days?

FEMA being under Homeland Insecurity makes about as much sense as the Federal Protective Service (the glorified security guards at the federal office buildings) being under the control of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Personally I think we should abolish DHS and go back to the pre 2002 organization but with Customs, Immigration, and Border Patrol merged into one agency with ONE uniform, ONE job title, and ONE rank structure. Not 3 uniforms, 3 job titles, 3 rank structures and 1 overall command structure.

we also have the "head in the sand" syndrome, too
our gov assumes that industry has the ability to control them selves, so we don't need to
then the corps cut any excess money in budgets to cover the "what if's" as long as the "what if" hasn't happened
then when TSHTF, the programs have been gutted, the technology is not understood (by our leaders) and the people still pick up the broken chunks left (and somewhere in there people die, none of them the execs or politicians, only the knuckle draggers that put the rubber to the road)
then the lawyer leaches take over, gag everything from the public eye
only to have this start again somewhere else
petrochem drilling, nucleur power, mining, clean water, agro, its all the same
over and over, and worse than the last

no one wants to make the tough calls because no one has any XXXX anymore and is more worried about their public imagethan the actual public

dr

I hate to come to the defense of this administration on anything, but the government, to my knowledge, does not own and operate any deepwater or, for that matter, any other type of offshore rig. And they shouldn't. We don't have a state owned oil company, yet (could happen though the government owns banks, insurance and car companies now). So since the .gov does not own and operate such equipment they must get the knowledge from either the oil industry or academia. Partnering with the industry comes with it's own set of problems like conflicts of interests, self interest, and industry competition. Academia likewise have plenty of theoretical expertise but might have little in the way of practical application. Therefore the .gov must partner with both the industry and the scientists to resolve this.

I'm really not sure how to go forward from here. This has the potential to be a disaster of epic proportions. It's obvious that what little regulation and requirements that existed before were inadequate, and the activities in the MMS (Minerals Management Service) were IMHO criminal. I kinda get the feeling that working in the MMS is like working in the SEC (securities exchange commission)- don't make enemies with the firms that will hire you when you are out of government work.

We have to keep drilling though. There is nothing that can replace petroleum at this moment, and our economy and the worlds in general cannot at this moment handle anything that would increase the price of fuel arbitrarily like a carbon tax. The oil companies could spend more money on certain fail safes like those used in other countries without greatly impacting the price passed on to consumers.

Originally posted by jefwane
I hate to come to the defense of this administration on anything, but the government, to my knowledge, does not own and operate any deepwater or, for that matter, any other type of offshore rig...

Not to be argumentative but government serves functions that are meant to protect us all from the kind of adventurous profiteering for which corporate America is famous.

While no one expects the government to be experts in everything, we do expect them to ensure that those undertaking such enterprises are.

Corporate charters SHOULD contain legal verbiage that affirms the would-be corporate entity is willing AND ABLE to deal with emergencies; and ANYTHING beyond capacity that should fall under the domain of the agency who's members are paid to be ready and responsive in service to the people of this country.

Instead, we have political cronyism and nonsensical sophism writhing within our halls of government... waiting to be hired by the people they regulate.