I've been thinking about the outrage shifting, the blame game going on right now and just want to give you my thoughts on what is happening with respect to spin and the Gulf Gusher disaster.
In July 2009, at a lecture to the Stanford Business School, the CEO of British Petroleum Tony Hayward explained to attendees that BP was going in the wrong direction before he took over as CEO because, "we had too many people that were working to save the world."
This is the Youtube Video : BP's CEO Tony Hayward
Timeline of Gusher events :
4/22 - Deepwater Horizon rig sinks; Coast Guard estimates "up to" 8,000 barrels per day (bpd) is leaking - source
4/23 - Coast Guard reports no leaking at all from the damaged well - source
4/24 - Coast Guard reports well is leaking, estimates 1,000 bpd - source
4/25 - BP repeats 1,000 bpd estimate - source
4/27 - 1,000 bpd still the official Coast Guard and BP estimate - source
4/27 - SkyTruth and Dr. Ian MacDonald publish first estimate that spill rate is 20,000 bpd - source
4/28 - NOAA weighs in and raises the official estimate to 5,000 bpd based on aerial surveys "and other factors"; BP disputes this higher estimate - source
4/29 - Coast Guard and NOAA repeat their estimate of 5,000 bpd - source
4/29 - BP's Chief Operating Officer admits new estimate of 5,000 bpd may be correct; "He said there was no way to measure the flow at the seabed and estimates have to come from how much oil makes it to the surface" - source
5/1 - SkyTruth and Dr. Ian MacDonald publish revised estimate of at least 26,500 bpd - source
5/1 - Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen "acknowledged there was no way really to know the extent of the leak" - source - and stated that "Any exact estimate is probably impossible at this time" - source
5/1 - Coast Guard and NOAA cease estimating the rate of the spill.
Following this, belatedly due to public and government pressure, BP released :
5/7 Coffer Dam fails - Source
5/12 BP releases photo of the leak, no video. Source
5/17 Riser Bendy Straw inserted - Source
5/18 BP releases new underwater video of oil spewing from damaged well
5/20 BP admits oil flow estimates were underestimates - Source
5/21 Video: Live Feed of Oil Leak Released, BP Raises Siphoning Estimate Source
NOTABLE OMISSION - NO live feed of the BOP. Why?
5/25 Video : Tony Hayward takes a walk on the beach "Get them out of there" - Source
(If I missed any, got dates wrong or you want me to add more to this timeline, leave a comment and I'll add to the above)
OK there is something missing from the ongoing PR campaign being waged by BP above, something they need to know, watch this video as it will make a little more sense.
Imagine a garden hose connected up at each end to faucets. If you turn on both faucets at the same time at the same rate of flow, the water will meet in the middle of the garden hose and the water will stay still.
If however you add a pump to one faucet which will increase the pressure you can force the water from one faucet down the other faucet. That is what BP are about to attempt in that video of the 'Top Kill' above. Connect up two faucets and force one to overcome the pressure of the other with a pump.
Think also what happens however if the pressure gets too high, too quick in your garden hose. It would bulge in the middle and split. So pressure will need to be increased gradually at the BOP to avoid this.
How can BP do any of these things without knowing
a) flow?
b) pressure?
So what is missing from the timeline of events above?
BP have not made a definitive statement of flow rates from any of the leaks or the BOP.
All we have is conjecture and estimates from third parties which BP kind of sort of agree might be in the ball park.
The American public, media and politicians being treated like mushrooms, kept in the dark about the flow, is the primary cause of what I'm going to show you next.
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The Urgency of Doing something
Below is a video from Anderson Cooper 360 CNN, where he interviews Billy Nungesser, Plaquemines Parish President.
Original CNN Source
AC : Billy you've described the response, the oil spill clean up so far as criminal. First of all what's your view of BP and how they've handled it so far?
Well they haven't handled anything. You know here we are 35 days later he said the first line of defence broke down, I heard your report, there was no first line of defence.
When they put the booms out in the open water, we told them from day one they would not work in 1 foot seas. They were overtopped, they were ripped apart, and the oil came ashore.
That's when we put our berm plan together which would have kept the oil out.
We'd have about 20 miles of that berm built if we would of started the day we asked for the permit.
It's absolutely ridiculous that they keep pointing the finger between BP and the Coast Guard. I don't understand it.
Today y'all asked Admiral Allen is he doing everything possible?
And instead of saying Yes or No, he said the word BP.
That's unacceptable.
AC : Is the Federal Government just, you know we keep hearing from Salazar they're going to put the foot on the neck of BP, hold them accountable, you think that's just talk?
Well, you know, I don't know. We spray in one dispersant and it's the only thing we're spraying, and there's a thousand products out there that we could be using that would get this oil out the marsh. And we're not using them.
We're doing nothing right. We're not taking care of the fishermen, we're not cleaning up the oil, and we're not keeping it out.
AC : The Federal Government, you think they've been criminal as well?
Well absolutely, the US Coast Guard you know has given me every reason why we can't do this dredge project. I said well give me a better plan. You know they keep talking about the resources the defence department, and everything they have at their disposal, we've got a few elected officials, the governer, some engineers and some passionate fisherman, and we put a better plan together.
Work with us, lets come up with a better plan, don't just tell us no, or we can't do it in six months.
I don't think Admiral Allen has ever done a dredge project, we've done em. The people working with em, the experts, say we can do this in six months.
Who is he to say it'll take at least a year? Or you can't do it. And then they said $300,000 is too much. That's a third of our budget.
But today BP's going to spend $500 Million to study the effects, well save your $500 Million, because you wont be able to study anything because it'll be gone.
What you've seen in those pictures is minimal compared to the damage that is coming ahead. It is just starting to get into the breeding grounds and you will see much more death and devastation amongst the wild life in South Louisiana in weeks to come. And today we're doing absolutely nothing but redeploying the same boom and doing some minimal skimming.
There is no plan. There is no master plan. There's nobody taking charge.
The President of the United States has to step up to the plate, we're begging him.
I looked him in the eye for two hours, he cares about us.
I could tell because he made the coast guard implement our dredge our jack up boats, we have them out there on the front line.
He needs to step up to the plate, put somebody in charge, that will protect the wetlands and we'll keep this oil out.
We've given them several plans that'll work, either do our plan or come up with one better. But quit trading back and forth between the Coast Guard and BP, it's like a bunch of kids pointing the finger at each other. Step up to the plate. We need leadership right now, we don't need a blame game.
Do BP appear to have been playing a game all along with their media counterparts? Consider the following comments :
Tony Hayward
BP Says Oil Spill Is 'Drop In The Ocean'
"The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."
Rush Limbaugh
April 30, 2010
"The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there," Limbaugh said. "It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is."
From Treehugger
T. Boone Pickens
"All of that will get cleaned up and we'll be back"
Brit Hume
Shrugs Off Oil Spill: ‘Where Is The Oil?
The above appears to be one part of a strategy to conceal the urgency of the event. This limits the ability of the public to realize they need to respond, and the government to apply the right pressure where it is needed to achieve outcomes to address this terrible event. Perception matters if you need to mobilize people.
The first part of course is concealing the size of the leak by never releasing detail of flow rates and also the widespread use of dispersants.
Gulf Oil Spill: BP Trying To Hide Millions of Gallons of Toxic Oil?
So PR containment program involves :
a) Not advising on how much oil there will be
b) Minimize public perception in the media
c) Sweep the mess under the ocean's rug
d) let's not forget the boom ineffectiveness (but it looked nice from the air)
Below is a video of what the dispersants have done.
Underwater nightmare: ‘What BP does not want you to see.’
Where do BP's concerns lie?
Tony Hayward, CEO of BP
"What the hell did we do to deserve this?"
Oil spill 'major reputational issue' for BP, admits CEO
This video below however, shows precisely where the BP CEO's concerns actually appear to be when, during a tour of a oil soaked beach quickly walks away from a clean up sending the media back to a planned press conference.
BP CEO walks on oil covered beach, barks orders to media
Original video Firedoglake which for some reason wont embed
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It is naieve to think that BP have not launched an all out PR campaign where first point of order is reputation damage minimization. It is also naieve to believe that they will not try to blame shift as much of the public outrage onto other parties as they can. But they have to do so in ways that are not that obvious. They would have known that these accidents are possible as one occurred only last August in Australian waters, took almost 3 months and 5 relief well tries to stop it. It was in waters of 254 feet, where the Deepwater Horizon is in 5,000 feet of water. And BP are only drilling 2 relief wells which will take until at least Mid-August to complete.
BP knew what they were up against.
But they sure seem like they don't want to be the only 'bad guy' blamed for this.
Does their behavior to date point to a problem inherent in many modern day CEO belief structures? That is :"If it is going to be bad and hurt a lot of people, let's make sure we control who gets blamed or at least share it around."
Bob Herbert
I asked the sheriff of St. Bernard Parish, Jack Stephens, if he was at all optimistic about BP stopping the gusher of oil that is fouling the Gulf of Mexico in time to prevent a long-term environmental catastrophe in the southern Louisiana wetlands.
“I’ll tell you the truth,” said Mr. Stephens. “It may already be too late.”
Incredibly, until The Times blew the whistle in an article on Monday, environmental waivers were still being offered for oil drilling in the gulf. What will it take for sanity to prevail? How many people have to die or face ruin, and how much of nature has to be despoiled before we rein in the cowboys of these runaway corporations?
President Obama has an obligation to make it unmistakably clear that BP’s interests are not the same as America’s interests.
I've got to say that watching what has transpired with BP's reaction to the spill, perception carefully managed, that I have to agree with Mr Herbert.
As we saw from the CNN video with Billy Nungesser when he talked about the President :
"I looked him in the eye for two hours, he cares about us."
This is a telling comment from Billy as he was not prompted to say this. There is no doubt in his mind, despite all the angst and outrage that Billy is conveying, that the President wants to fix this problem not of his making.
But how does the President fix a catastrophe which is beyond comprehension and still ongoing? When the company responsible has not been as forthright as it needed to be with the information needed to create that 'Urgency of Now'? When the company who caused it really is the only one with the expertise to fix it? When the very best spin doctors money can buy are working the media for BP?
When the media has downplayed what was coming and then failed until the disaster hit the shoreline to do it's job of bringing enough truth to the American people? That if responses had not been somewhat neutered by this in terms of recognizing the urgency, would more resources have been demanded?
From what I'm seeing, if it was their intent, BP look like they have succeeded in creating an accomplice enough that the media have something to run with. Blame the Obama administration for not reacting with enough urgency when a lot of effort was made to conceal and minimize what was coming.
And we still do not know how much flow there is leaking from the well.
BP’s interests are not the same as America’s interests.
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