Gulf Disaster: Criminal or Incompetence?
The official (USGS) estimate of how much oil is surging from the breached exploratory well one-mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico is now 12,000-19,
Gulf Disaster: Criminal or Incompetence?
The official (USGS) estimate of how much oil is surging from the breached exploratory well one-mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico is now 12,000-19,000 barrels a day. That’s the equivalent of a million gallons every 30-48 hours. By this measure, we passed the Exxon Valdez disaster before 10 May.
On CBS Face the Nation today, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) said he believes that BP was “either lying” or “incompetent” when they initially insisted that there was only 1,000 barrels a day surging into the Gulf. He believes that the company was trying to protect itself from EPA fines:
[T]he fine which can be imposed upon them is dependent upon how many barrels per day is going out into the Gulf. If it’s 1,000 barrels per day, it’s a relatively low fine, but if it’s 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 barrels per day, it could wind up billions of dollars in fines…
Internal documents released last week suggest that from the get-go BP had data showing that the flow rate could be as much as 14,000 barrels a day.
In the meantime, it’s looking like this well will continue polluting the Gulf until August, which is the earliest that “relief” wells might be able to staunch the flow.
That’s a long-term strategy that requires engineers to hit a 7-inch target, the bottom of the leaking well, 3 1/2 miles below the surface of the Gulf. The first of the two wells to hit the target will send a massive dose of cement to seal the leaking well.
Why might BP’s actions be considered criminal instead of simply incompetent?
Last June, BP’s own engineers worried (in writing) that the metal casing might collapse under pressure. And in order for this design to move forward, it needed an exception because “it violated the company’s safety policies and design standards.”
Let’s parse that sentence again.
This flawed design — taking place a mile below the surface of the ocean — violated BP’s own internal safety and design standards. I emphasize the “mile deep” nature of this well because that’s one of BP’s current counter-arguments: it’s so deep (imagine hand-wringing), we can’t send people down there, we have to work with robots (so please feel sorry for us, we’re really doing all we can!).
There might be room for criminal charges against the Minerals Management Service, too. I’m surprised that there has been little rehashing of the Bush Administration MMS scandal (OIG Report) from late 2008:
In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.
“A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo. [...]
In one of the new reports, investigators concluded that Ms. Denett worked with two aides to steer a lucrative consulting contract to one of the aides after he retired, violating competitive pro