BP, again

[nancylebov]

I've heard both that BP is the only organization which can deal with the spill, and that it's unusually negligent as oil companies go.

Anyone have information about the latter?

Even if no government knows as much about oil spills as oil companies do, BP is possibly the wrong company for the job.

I can see financial and political reasons for making BP do the clean-up. It's the only way to make sure BP will be stuck with the bill, and it has a certain aesthetic simplicity.

However, everything I've heard about BP is that it tried to do everything on the cheap. This presumably includes hiring, training, and paying its experts.

I believe Americans have a naive faith in the efficacy of punishment.

Just because someone fucked up and you're angry at them, it doesn't mean they will suddenly become competent. Oh right, it's that damned anti-intellectual, "just do it" feature of the American character. The only reason people aren't doing the right thing is lack of motivation.

Motivation is important, and one of the things can do is motivate people to get the information and skills they need-- but in the case of the oil hemorrhage, I'd rather start with people who know what they're doing if such are available.

Comments

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

BP does have the worst safety record of the major oil companies, and multiple witnesses have come forward detailing the safety steps that were skipped in the days leading up to the explosion, and no whistle blowers have come forward for the other four biggest oil companies accusing them of skipping the same steps. BP was a uniquely bad actor here.

But they're in charge of drilling the relief wells because the US government doesn't have any drilling platforms on lease, and we're not going to wait while that contract gets negotiated and signed, nor would we get a good deal having to sign such a contract in the middle of a disaster. Nor does the government have anybody on staff who has experience working on or running a drilling rig, and we're surely not going to wait while they hire and train a crew.

(Interesting hypothetical: we could rewrite the law so that one of your rivals drills the relief well if you blow up a well, and you have to pay them for it. Might create some more interesting incentives.)

That being said, there's a reason why the regional Coast Guard commander is the incident commander for cleanups like this: he and his people are on duty specifically to make sure that corners aren't getting cut. Notice that even the USCG doesn't have enough people to make sure that all of the boom is being installed correctly and then maintained, but I would be deeply surprised if Commander Allen doesn't have people on duty on those relief well drilling platforms 24x7 breathing down BP supervisors' necks.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Is it likely that the contract would be so bad as to cost nearly as much as the damage being done by the oil?

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

Are you so sure that if we did spend all that money that we'd get better results?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Not absolutely sure, but it seems like a reasonable bet if what I've heard about BP being much less competent than the average oil company is true.

[inquisitiveravn.livejournal.com]

And apparently there isn't enough boom available to correctly install it anyway (Warning NSFW language):


Also for more information about BP's safety record: The Pump Handle. At least one of the authors of this blog shares Nancy's opinion that someone else should be in charge of the response.