Friday, June 18, 2010

The Mess that is Oil

Well the BP gusher just keeps on gushing. I’m not so sure that it was such a good idea of Obama to say in his speech on Tuesday that by the end of the month 90% of the oil would be contained. As to the speech itself, I’m not sure giving it in the Oval Office was the smartest of ideas. I’m not sure the speech was all that good of idea. If Obama hadn’t given the speech, he would have been accused of not caring about what was going on. It was very much and damned if you do damned if you don’t moment.

Lots and lots of complaints across the political spectrum that Obama didn’t say all that much in the speech. Lacking specifics. I have to assume if it had specifics the media would have found fault with that too. It seems to me that the media is in fault mode right now. It is important to blame someone for what happened. No doubt that fault rests squarely on BP’s shoulders. The government has some blame as well. The problem is that the problem is stopping the oil from gushing and right now there doesn’t appear a full proof way to do that.

As to the response to the disaster well there the government can be blamed. Too much red tape. Too long of a time to respond to the crisis and get things in place to help out communities. Many many towns are doing it on their own. From putting up booms to vacuum up the oil. They are not going to sit around and wait for the oil to arrive while waiting for help from the federal government. Arthur and I discuss this in our upcoming Podcast. My main concern is the government really needs to start looking like it is doing something to help these communities. Long term plans are great but the need is right here and right now. Obama and company need to get it in gear.

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