Muzings From The Edge: That Great Sucking Sound

Like many of you the Lazer has been sitting around mourning what is surely the crippling, if not the death, of our beloved Gulf of Mexico with its crystal clear water and beautiful sugar white sandy beaches. I, an ardent lover of seafood, will feel lost when those beautiful shrimp are not available for grilling when the notion strikes me. And to be quite honest the entire mess really pisses me off. But the more I think about it the more confused I am at who pisses me off more. I mean, let us take a somewhat logical look at this whole process and the blame game without taking any sides.

OK, the easy bad guy here of course is British Petroleum, aka BP and its various subcontractors. It was their well, their rig, their oil, thus, logically, their fault. A simple minded man, like gubernatorial candidate Tim James of Alabama, might say, “makes sense to me, does it to you?” Well, if it does you just have thought the situation through yet. The next best candidate in this mess is a governmental regulatory agency called Mineral Management Service which I have recently learned is supposed to ride herd on the oil industry. Until now I would have guessed that MMS would have had something to do with Mickey Mouse.

Listening to lot of the media chatter these days I might still be right seeing as how there was a lot of fooling around with Minnie Mouse going on. At least those were the charges, and the director of this agency that I had never heard of before either jumped or was pushed, not literally of course, off the ledge of the agency’s top floor. So we obviously got the culprit, right?

Not so fast there quick draw, there may be other players in this dooms day drama. This particular boondoggle reminds me of the Bill Buckner error in the 1986 world series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. Never mind the fact that going into the tenth inning the Red Sox were ahead by two runs and the relief pitchers could not get an out. Never mind the fact that even after that game was lost the Red Sox had another game to win the series. All anyone really remembers is the ground ball that went between Buckner’s legs in game 6 that allowed the game winning run to score. It was if no one else on the team even played that entire series, or if they did, they play perfectly. Now I know that the consequences of the current Gulf crisis are not even on the same planet as a world series, but the analogy still works. This BP well has been working well for about eight years apparently with no major problems. Consider that there are more than 2200 other oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico in Federal waters cranking out 32% of the United States off shore production of oil. As disastrous as this is it is the first major accident of its kind which is why they are having problems stopping it. I know folks, this is not a popular discussion and there are a lot of people hurting who do not want to hear it, but reality is reality. Now, back to the blame game.

So far we have dis’d on BP and MMS but let us go a bit further shall we. Why was BP out there in the first place and why do we need this agency? BP is out there to make money you might say, and I would respond, “give that man, woman, or child a cigar.” And how do they make money? They sell oil to those want it, not need it, but want it. People tend to forget that this country is like a casino to a gambling addict when it comes to oil. It does not matter how much we get we will use it. In fact this applies to any energy resource we have available, there is no cost too great in order for us continue consuming every particle of natural resource we can get. Where energy is concerned there is giant, extremely loud sucking sound that emanates from America. With this demand we must have suppliers, and with suppliers which, granted are in a risky business, we have government regulators. I think everyone but the lamest Tea-Baggers in the country recognize the need for some oversight of these industries.

Is there going to be corruption between the regulators and the industries, gee, ya think? Congressmen and Senators are receiving millions every year in legal campaign contributions and some in illegal transactions and we think that civil servants will not take a dip at the trough of the good life. If you think otherwise you need reality therapy. So now we have people everywhere screaming, blaming, pointing fingers, holding hearings, and probably stomping their feet wanting to hang somebody, anybody, just a body to make them feel better. There is the old saying, “When you point your finger at someone there are four pointing back at you.”

It is now time to take a brief moment to discuss the problem of dealing with the problem. Trust me here, I do not intend to suggest a remedy. Unlike many pundits I do believe the line by Clint Eastwood, “Every man should know his limitations.” I am not real good a stopping a leak in a garden hose, well actually, I am. Throw the damn thing away and go get a new one. Anyway, there are people in this world who are closer to being experts at handling the oil leak problem than I and from what I hear most of them are already on the job. It seems that since this is a first of it’s kind and all of the solutions are theoretical in nature and may or may not work. I have been watching folks on the Louisiana coast shouting out in desperation for a solution. I can only imagine their pain as they watch their livelihood slowly slipping away and the futility of not being able to do anything. It is akin only to trying to empathize with the families of the West Virginia miners who were waiting in desperation to learn of the fate of their husbands, fathers, or brothers. I guess I can even understand James Carville being so angry with President Obama for not showing up on the coast and, as he put it, “showing some leadership.” I do not remember oil well engineering being on Obama’s resume’ when he was running for president but hey, I could be wrong. And there was also this little problem going on between North and South Korea. But, I am sure that if I were in their shoes I too would be as bad or perhaps even worse about demanding that my problem be handled first and foremost.

Folks, this problem is one that falls squarely on the back of practically everyone in this country in one way or another. We are the blame for the problem whether we want to admit it or not. Until we as a people, and as a nation, truly step up and commit ourselves and resources to getting free of carbon based fuels we will continue to have such disasters. There will be more miners die, more oil well leaks, more oil tanker spills, just more of all of this. While I am not a die hard , card carrying, ultra liberal, tree hugging, bicycle riding naturalist I can look at the logical side of things. So just think; the next time you crank you car to go on vacation; fishermen, the motor you use to go out for your catch; when you turn the thermostat down this summer; of the great sucking sound…

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• Just Fix It!!! – The Politics of Impotent Rage (themoderatevoice.com)
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• Oil spill damage spreads through Gulf economies (money.cnn.com)
• Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill (nytimes.com)

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