The Gulf Oil Disaster: Politics Over People

On day one of the BP Gulf oil spill, everyone was horrified and waited for BP and the White House to step up and fix it.
By day 7, it seemed that leadership was not taking the reins. By day 15, it became apparent that the President preferred playing golf to dealing with this disaster, and that BP was not getting the best minds in the world to fix the problem.

As a spectator, it is easy to back-seat drive; however even someone with NO experience in the oil/gas industry can come up with better solutions than have been tried by BP. People all over the country sent in solutions by the thousands; both to cap the leak and to clean up the mess left behind. None have been tried thus far with the exception of the centrifuge marketed by actor Kevin Costner.

Here it is, day 64 and we are all still sitting here watching animals dying, industries closing, people without jobs or food to feed their children and oil still gushing from the leak. One military veteran commented "give us two Navy divers and robotics and we could cap this leak in two days". But both BP and the White House are using bureaucrats to solve a problem they are not qualified to solve. They are talking about lawsuits and moratoriums and bans on drilling instead of fixing the problem. They are putting politics over people.

Solution: get the top oil and gas execs from Shell and Exxon, include Red Adair in the meetings (his company is already helping battle the spill) and formulate a plan to cap the leak. Then have that group review the top 100 cleanup solutions from the thousands submitted to the BP Alternative Response Technology Team and select the top 10. Put those people to work immediately in different areas and use some of the escrowed fund from BP to pay for it. Keep the sticky-fingered bureaucrats away from the money and leave it for those who know how to spend it properly on cleaning up this disaster. Repeal the drilling ban and put the people of the Gulf back to work.

It will take many years to repair the damage done to the Gulf, both environmentally and financially. The starting point is to cap the leak and clean up the spillage. But when that is done, there will need to be a massive effort to provide the opportunity for work for those who have lost their livelihoods.