Sat 3 Jul 2010
BP Disaster: A nation’s summer rollercoaster?
Posted by USA / Allison under Balkers
[7] Comments
If you reached this Balkingpoints.com article by direct external link, stop by the front page for an incredible satellite view of the earth in rotation!
San Francisco, CA-
Is it foolish to rely on corporations at all? One economist, Robert Reich, says “Yes”.
The scope of the Horizon Deepwater disaster continues to unfold exponentially. Today we offer a round up of the more compelling angles. The daily meetings held by Admiral Thad Allen and others often focus, at this point, on minutiae of operational successes and glitches that the primary vessels involved with the Lower Marine Riser experience in hourly work. As of late yesterday and early today, one of the ROVs (underwater vehicles) had accidently “bumped” into the riser tube thereby causing yet another effluence of oil directly into the deep gulf waters.
Without engaging in the neck-bending volleys of finger-pointing between the administration, the BP gang, and the public, the latest news from the White House is a kind of updated “access dashboard” for those who seek to volunteer or locate a job working on the frontline of the recovery and repair process, wherever that kind of position might send a person.
As the clean up is now an industry unto itself, many citizens and other observers continue to express a posse-like mentality in the public sphere, calling for the location and punishment of a variety of culpable figures. Those figures span the range from Tony Hayward, former chief executive for BP, to the still-unnamed figures in management at the moment the oil rig itself collapsed, to the Chairman of BP Carl-Henric Svanberg aka “Mr. Small People” and beyond.
Driven by a financial industry report, The Flip Side contacted Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor and Professor of Economics at University of California, Berkeley. We shared with him recent data that JP Morgan Chase held 28.34% of BP (controlling shares) and that JP Morgan Chase had received federal funds in 2007 (even though they reputedly paid those funds back in 2009.) Then we asked if one could point to that information and deduce that BP, if held primarily by JPMC, and if JPMC was bailed out with taxpayers funds, if one go so far as to suggest that BP is, to a certain extent, “us.”
We further explained that this was not an attempt to be “flip” or inexact, but simply to crack open the vagaries of corporate control and taxpayer funding. His response: “Good point about JP Morgan Chase. The real problem [with BP] is that BP, like any large corporation, exists to maximize shareholder value, whoever those shareholders happen to be. It does not exist to protect the health or safety of a nation. That’s why it’s foolish to rely on a corporation to fix what it negligently or recklessly created.” The simple facts about corporations are that they are, indeed, kind of a spider’s web of contractual agreements, taking advantage of our laws that allow an entity such as a corporation many “rights” and privileges given to a private individual, while a corporation is the farthest thing from an individual citizen than one can imagine.
Moving on to the real pain here: the wildlife recovery process marked a milestone last Sunday with the release of over 40 brown pelicans. View a video here on the Unified Response website.
Thus, this disaster continues to wreak havoc with the temperament and emotional life of the average American. Yesterday, two workers involved in the clean-up died. Admiral Thad Allen could not comment on the deaths during the press conference yesterday, as he had “just been notified” prior to the conference itself. Rather than experience a kind of “Mad Max” post-petroleum apocalyptic end, will we, instead, drown in our own brown, tarry greed, and pull innocent wildlife down with us? The recent worker deaths seem ominous. And we have yet to witness what happens to this operation when hurricanes do arrive. It looks to be a bumpy summer, indeed.
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Allison Addicott is a professional writer who is also an award winning public speaker. She writes at The Washington Times Communities as author of ”The Flip Side“. and is the editor for the entire “Public Good” section at The Washinton Times Communities. To learn more about her visit www.allisonaddicott.com. Her work has also appeared at The Daily Kos, and other sites. She has lived in Washington DC, San Diego, Paris, Tokyo, Honolulu, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where she now lives.
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Welcome Allison, and great Balk. (Those just now finding her work can see more at her link above)
I think Chase paid all that TARP money back. So we used to own them,
but now they can bite into any oil giant they wish… ;^)
Which only adds more layers to your premise of course. With the simpleton’s Reagan-era mantra of “deregulation” now categorically invalidated, and with the U.S. Supreme Court cutting them ever-broader latitudes, we need a very prominent national & international discussion
now on what exactly we expect from and will require of mega-corporations.
Whom do all kinds of things to the fortunes of the average citizen. From crashing their 401k’s and house values, locking them out of health insurance when they get ill, to this current prime example of the Gulf disaster.
Some may see it otherwise, of course. But the time is now if ever, to put this question front and center & deal with it in a holistic and pragmatic manner.
My whole problem is my lips move when I think.
R6 lady, lol. Corporations have the opposite problem, they don’t say anything that’s not crafted for public consumption!
BP showed a bad case of that with this spill. Always understating facts and withholding information. Even before the rig blew up, it looks like they knew of possible problems and didn’t address them.
The big corporations always have the means read money (power & politics) to escape after every disaster – man made of course. We all recall the Bhopal Gas Disaster, even after 20 long years the culprits are not booked for the crime towards humanity. So many innocent lives were lost & they have nobody to complain since Union Carbide is no longer held responsible.
Oil flow has stopped!
So thank the god of your choice! Now we get into the next question about trusting corporations. They are supposedly testing now to see if there are other leaks in the well. Or pipe caseing, whatever they installed when they drilled the well.
BP will want to delcare victory ASAP naturally. So while everyone is looking at the camera showing no more oil, I hope there is some kind of independent way to verify it’s not still coming out somewhere else.
Pat, good point. I think the pressure checks are being supervised by Obama people, for the purpose of detecting problems associated if it’s too low.
Which brings up the point Madeleine made about just how many other oil leaks are ongoing at any time in the world’s oceans. US government officials made an economic policy choice over the last 30 years that we really needed the oil – or, the extracting firms really needed the profits – so badly as to risk this kind of catastrophe over thousands of offshore rigs now in the Gulf.
Fallout from which, becomes yet another essential argument for Progressive political change that says goodbye to the failure of laissez-faire capitalism.
Another helpful post. It’s about time somebody like you told the truth. Way to go.