Tonight, Sixty Minutes confirms rumors that have been swirling for weeks regarding the cause of Oilpocalypse. One survivor:
"These are three inch thick, steel, fire-rated doors with six stainless steel hinges supporting 'em on the frame. As I reach for the handle, I heard this awful hissing noise, this whoosh. And at the height of the hiss, a huge explosion. The explosion literally rips the door from the hinges, hits, impacts me and takes me to the other side of the shop. And I'm up against a wall, when I finally come around, with a door on top of me. And I remember thinking to myself, 'You know, this, this is it. I'm gonna die right here,'" Williams remembered.
Eleven people are dead.
I don't do outrage well. I don't scream, rant, or type in ALL CAPS. Instead, I listen to the cold language of the law and the nervous tics of executives before Congress and spokespeople at press conferences, and do a slow burn.
Eleven people are dead, probably incinerated instantly. Yet this disaster is neither an anomaly nor a freak accident. Instead, it'll likely be repeated, with some variations, time and again until the last drop is sucked from the marrow of the planet.
The Oil Pollution Act, 33 U.S.C. section 2701 et seq., places a $75 million cap on damages with certain exceptions:
* (1)(A) "gross negligence or willful misconduct" of the responsible party, its agents or subcontractors.
Sixty Minutes, again: "In finishing the well, the plan was to have a subcontractor, Halliburton, place three concrete plugs, like corks, in the column. The Transocean manager wanted to do this with the column full of heavy drilling fluid - what drillers call "mud" - to keep the pressure down below contained. But the BP manager wanted to begin to remove the "mud" before the last plug was set. That would reduce the pressure controlling the well before the plugs were finished." BP overrode the objections of Transocean so that the drilling could proceed faster.
Sixty Minutes confirms accounts in the Wall Street Journal and NOLA regarding removal of safety fluid shortly before the explosion, among other sources.
* (1)(B) "the violation of an applicable Federal safety, construction, or operating regulation" by the responsible party, its agents, or subcontractors.
A whistleblower claims that the oil industry cheated on blowout prevention tests up to 50% of the time. Although MMS inspected Deepwater Horizon much less than MMS' own policies required, it appears that BP's and its agents' safety record was far below what was claimed. It's not yet clear if Federal regulations cover the minutiae of blowout preventers, but they probably do contain some generic "be safe above all else" regulations.
* (2)(A) The responsible party fails or refuses to report the incident after first learning about it.
Today I listened to BP spokespeople tell a number of sharp reporters from respected mainstream media that they "have no confirmation of oil hanging around in the middle of the ocean," when asked about giant miles-wide plumes of oil deep in the ocean.
BP still insists that the "Coast Guard estimate" of 5,000 barrels/day is accurate.
Meanwhile, a sister rig to Deepwater Horizon, the Atlantis, operates with such incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents that the deficiency can lead to catastrophic operator errors -- yet it took a whistleblower's lawsuit to bring the deficiencies to light.
* (2)(B) The "responsible party fails or refuses to provide all reasonable cooperation and assistance requested by a responsible official in connection with removal activities."
BP has released less than ten minutes' worth of video showing oil and natural gas spewing from the well and showing the failed cofferdam effort. So far it's stonewalled a request to commit to paying more than $75 million in damages. And it's engaged in a "ridiculous spectacle" of blaming Transocean and/or Halliburton for rupturing the Earth's crust.
Eleven people are dead, yet BP can't even admit that it did wrong at one small location for fear of admitting liability under the Oil Pollution Act. Will this be a wake-up call? Or will we keep sucking the marrow of the planet dry until it's nothing more than an overheated shell incapable of supporting an abundance of life?