Director of federal agency blamed for lax drilling oversight calling it quits
http://rawstory.com/...
Chris Oynes, appointed during the Bush administration to oversee offshore energy oversight at the Mineral Management Service (MMS), is calling it quits. "After 35 years of service," an MMS employee told AFP, Oynes plans to announce his retirement soon. His agency is blamed for severely lax safety oversight and neglecting inspections in BP's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Net Net: this fat oil and gas assclown has f*cked up Gulf Of Mexico so exit stage left
Napolitano: Feds lack expertise to deal with deepwater spill
http://www.miamiherald.com/...
perhaps more infuriating.....more on flip
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. Napolitano, the first Cabinet-level official to testify to Congress about the April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, also said there may have been too much reliance by the industry on blowout preventers as a fail-safe in the event of a catastrophe.
DUH !
Still, Napolitano told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs that she was proud of the federal response to the incident despite its limited capability and expertise. “From the point of view of the explosion and spill, there have been extensive plans under the national response framework,” Napolitano said. “Those plans not only exist but are exercised on a regular basis.”
Sickening rationalization
The chairman of the committee, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn, said, however, that those plan were not adequate for deepwater disasters. “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.
It's been years since I agreed with Lieberman
Nothing more to add than these References
60 Minutes: Critical equipment damaged weeks before blowout
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The bottom line: the blowout was caused by gross negligence on the part of BP. There is no other way to spin it.
UPDATE: Gas Leak 3000 Times Worse Than Oil - Updated Math
http://www.dailykos.com/...
There is 3000 times more natural gas coming out of the gusher than oil. All of the gas is currently staying in the water because the ocean has the capacity to hold large quantities of methane in solution. When methane breaks down it depletes oxygen in the water. Then, when it continues to break down it produces hydrogen sulfate.Oxygen levels in some areas have dropped 30 percent, and should continue to drop. "It could take years, possibly decades, for the system to recover from an infusion of this quantity of oil and gas," Joye said.
"We've never seen anything like this before. It's impossible to fathom the impact."
Fishgrease: DKos Booming School II
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I know there's a few other very worthy diaries but this is enough except to say I wonder how the gumbit is going to manipulate GDP stats to try and cover the $500B to 1Trillion hit from the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher ( e.g. Louisiana seafood industry is $260B/yr )