By now everyone has realized the tool box for fixing BP's oil leak is more than deficient. It's abysmal. Those of us who have been against off shore oil drilling weren't able to get much more out than we are against off shore drilling.
No one understood why we are against off shore drilling other than, "What if something horrible happens?" For those of us who know why, BP's heinous environmental crimes are a nightmare come true.
The facts are harsh. BP has failed and other big oil companies don't have anything better to offer. The U.S. government has few, if any tools to deal with a blown underwater oil well. The U.S. government employs too few engineers and scientists with both the know how and experience to deal with a blown underwater oil well.
This is counter to every cultural belief of every American. It's inconceivable to us that we might have hit a problem bigger than our technology can solve in a week or two.
Don't believe me?
First off, BP blew it. They caused the problem due to gross negligence and malfeasance and all manner of legal terms you can throw at them that should stick to them like the oil they unleashed is sticking to our wildlife.
That (ranty, run on sentence) said, we move on. BP didn't do the right thing and put our government in the spot light. I'm going to go through the governmental agencies and departments one at a time, so you can see where we stand and more importantly what we can do.
The Minerals Management Service regulators didn't do their job. Now that they failed in their core mission, they can do precious little to help solve the problem. This ironic link to their ethics page probably should be removed from their site. Clearly, if the MMS was functioning properly, prevention would have been more prevalent.
For whatever reason, MMS has linked to the unified Deep Horizon web page and haven't created anything unique. As part of the Dept. of the Interior, MMS does have a good understanding of the 5,000 ft deep water problem. The MMS does employ scientists and marine biologists and they do know they screwed the pooch here, but they got nuthin to fix it.
Here's the U.S. Geological Survey's website. This is the U.S. think tank that deals with things like volcanos and earthquakes. They understand cataclysmic events better than anybody and BP's oil leak is dealing with pressures around 60,000 PSI; the USGS qualifies.
Their take on the oil spill is here and you see that they confine their agency to defining the problem. No help there.
Moving onto the Army Corps of Engineers. This governmental group has engineers and workers with the experience to help with the situation to some degree. They built a lot of damn dams, so we can argue they can work in water. The problem is that most damns don't need to be 5,000 ft deep. The Corps is working on the oil spill and they are focused on a plan that could enhance the capability of some barrier islands.
Here is their Emergency Response web page. Here's their environmental and R&D pages. It says nothing about the Deep Horizon Well. They link to the unified Deep Horizon web page. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are no help at the 5,000 ft deep well 40 miles away from shore.
What about the Environmental Protection Agency? Aren't they supposed to...well, protect the environment? The EPA's Home page prominently shows what's important to them (emphasis added):
Our Priorities
* Taking action on climate change
* Improving air quality
* Assuring the safety of chemicals
* Cleaning up our communities
* Protecting America's waters
* Expanding the conversation on environmentalism and working for environmental
justice
* Building strong state and tribal partnerships
The EPA doesn't do any heavy lifting. The EPA does employ scientists, engineers and technicians that can contribute to solving this problem, but they focus on laws, regulations and directives. They don't fix things. They promote the link to the unified Deep Horizon web page. The sum total of what the EPA can do is tell BP to clean it up.
The Department of the Interior is in the same boat. They supervise the MMS and several other agencies involved with BP's oil spill. They have a good information page concerning what's happening in the Gulf. Again, they have scientists, technicians, foresters, marine biologists, regulators and administrators, but nothing to plug the leak. The DOI can issue a directive to plug the leak, but they'd look like idiots. There's no one business or governmental entity with the all-in-one package of technology, know how and personnel to take on the job other than those working for big oil.
NOAA has the top down view that other agencies can use to ID issues that those on the surface can't see. Their organizational chart shows they answer to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. They have little interaction with the DOI or their spin off ducking agencies. Their primary mission is to observe, monitor, research and report. Anyone living in a hurricane zone is pretty satisfied with the tax dollars spent on NOAA. This agency has access to underwater robots and their scientists can contribute to solving BP's leak, but this group will focus on what they do best and be an advisory resource. They will be very important when a hurricane shows up. In terms of plugging the hole? All NOAA can do is point to the leak and tell you where the crude is flowing.
Which leads me to the Dept. of Homeland Security. DHS is keeping FEMA in their cage. Although FEMA has the most experience with dealing with emergency clean up, they don't usually have to deal with hazardous chemicals like this emergency. It's interesting to watch the parish presidents debate whether FEMA would be a help or hinderence. The general idea is that FEMA would be a PITA, but at least they'd be a fair PITA.
DHS is simply reporting links to what the other agencies are linking to with one major difference; they have a link to HHS's health advisory page. DHS is letting the Coast Guard (part of the DHS) take the lead. Fishgrease and the rest of dkos may find it revolting that Thad Alan is still in charge, but we're stuck with him. DHS is too busy exiling American citizens to Yemen to bother over much with the Gulf.
Now that I've dealt with our agencies it's time to turn to the Department of Defense and the military. The oil leak is on their radar. This qualifies as an invasion. This invader truly has no soul, but the military has precious little to offer us other than people, equipment (most ill fitted to the task) and maybe a bomb or two (the nuclear option is more than anyone around here wants to contemplate). They do have the command structure and can cut through a lot of the hand wringing, concern trolling and purity trolling and can get to the point; but that's about it. The Navy sent 98,000 feet of boom and 9 skimmers, then 21 more skimmers to the region. The various military services are supporting the effort, but is letting the Coast Guard take the lead (probably due to hiding behind Posse Comitatus concerns). Another reason the military hasn't taken over cleaning up the beaches is that the clean up workers comprise people who lost their jobs due to the spill in the first place. If the military takes over the clean up, then unemployment in the Gulf region gets worse.
Does the joint chiefs of staff have another General Russel Honoré they could put to this task? That's what we want. One go to guy or gal who'll get 'er done. The oil spill response may be much more than 1 person can handle. The one guy they chose, Thad Allen, isn't gettin 'er done, is he?
One of the more revolting aspects of this mess is that big oil needs people and has hired them. The people hiring oil engineers are energy companies. Likewise, oil platform workers are hired by big oil and energy companies. The people who can fix this are already working for the very people who unleashed the oil.
Some of us point out (rightly so) that the clean up should be better than it is. We've had nearly 2 months to ramp up our efforts. Fishgrease rightly points out boom does you no good if you don't collect the oil after you've diverted it. Getting the unleashed oil diverted and picked up needs to be or equal priority.
We're stuck. We can complain, point fingers and find fault all we want, but the bottom line is that the people who have to fix this leak are the ones who sprung it. All we can do is grit our teeth, supervise, and clean up (however long it takes).