BP Goes There: “No One Could Have Predicted…”
Yeah, I know. Of course BP is saying, “no one could have predicted.”
Of course, BP had a big incentive not to predict these things: one of the reasons it was able to get an exemption from an individualized Environmental Impact Study is that it estimated the largest possible spill from this well to be 162,000 BBLs, making it less than the 250,000 BBLs estimated in its regional drilling plan. You see, BP had an incentive not to predict this catastrophe.
Update: See ThinkProgress’ compendium of “No one could have predicted” claims from early in this disaster.
But people DID predict it. I sure hope someone brings that up.
Boxturtle (Sternly worded letters for everybody!)
Yay, Steve Cohen! That closing rant — I loved it. There was the BP guy, trying to think positively — “We’re learning a lot” — and Cohen smacked him down for me and teh Arctic. Bless him. (Cohen also came up with the barnacle branch — great talker.)
Great title, EW.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha…
When you fall back on the Condi Defense, you know you have reached the end of the rhetorical line.
Ok, BP, now that you have bottomed out, it is time to make a clean break with your drunken debauched past and try to salvage some self-respect and forgiveness before it is too late.
“Hi, my name is BP…”
Where does BP get its 162,000 BPL estimates, you ask? A doctor with a flashlight will reveal all.
Perhaps. But I’m betting they’re getting the estimates (and most of their “science”) from their lawyers.
It is not an accident that shortly before they were forced to put up the live leak feed that their offical estimates got much higher.
They’re not going to be able to hide the true volume of the leak even until the national news.
Boxturtle (LA’s economy is going to be lawyer driven for the next decade)
dick the darker’s image sure improved, by not being seen since the “spill” and dimmed the spotlight on his personal torture program with this
spilloil blow out.The devil’s got his ass, that’s for sure
Have you ever seen Dick and the devil at the same time?
Boxturtle (The question had to be asked)
I’ve seen pictures of him and Liz. Does that count?
Exhibit I, this from today’s Guardian, about the well-known problem of methyl hydrate pockets routinely found in this area of the Gulf (emphasis added):
As that same article noted, the cofferdam that BP attempted to use was clogged almost immediately with frozen MH. It’s explosive power when heated or when ambient pressure is quickly lowered, as when it is piped to the surface along with crude, is well-known.
I posted the geo study that had the ten year plan of development on a post last week. I’ll try to find it and link to it. Most commented “oye” and “OMG” after reading it.
I was a bit appalled this morning to read about BP’s casing and cementing plan, and their lack of good procedure in running a cement bond log. Coupled with their apparent hurried pressure testing of the cement before the blowout, the company deserves whatever it gets!
It is expensive to drill and explore for oil, but it is even more expensive when the stars align as they did when this thing happened. It was just sheer stupidity…
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (or, more accurately, the Senator from VECO-Aleyska) did the oil industry’s dirty work last week when she sabotaged Sen Bob Menendez’s plan to raise liability for oil spills.
Consider: Murkowski represents a state with fewer than 700,000 Americans.
The state of Alaska has 2 senators, yet it has only .22% of the entire US population. (Yes, you read that correctly — 1/5th of 2% of the entire US population resides in Alaska, yet they have 2 US senators.)
Or, to put it another way, Alaska’s 2 senators each represent about 350,000 voters.
Boxer and Feinstein each represent about 18,000,000 voters.
So we can see why and how Big Oil has managed to keep such a stranglehold on US politics and policies, by having a lot of clout with senators from states with tiny populations, but huge ‘oil and energy’ interests.
For more insight as to why we have no national energy policy, plus a senator from Alaska gutting legislation to insist that oil companies pay for the costs of their own malfeasance, consider the monstrosity that we currently call “Senate rules”. They give someone like Murkowski the same kind of obscene ‘leverage’ that we currently allow the likes of the ‘Fabulous Fabrice’ and other derivatives traders to abuse.
So basically, think of Murkowski as an oil industry representative who got to the US senate via the electoral fluke of a low population state — a state driven by oil and energy interests.
Consider: the Wikipedia entry for Alaska states that the Trans-Alaska pipeline can pump up to 2,100,000 barrels of crude/day ( although I’d want to double-check that figure elsewhere, as Wikipedia isn’t necessarily 100% accurate. ) Nevertheless, using 2,100,000 barrels/day as a reasonable, ballpark figure, it gives some sense of where Murkowski’s true alliances most likely lie. BTW, that figure of 2,100,000 barrels/day is the figure only for the big Trans-Alaska pipe, and does not include the other Alaska energy resources.)
So to put it simply, Murkowski represents:
—- approximately 350,000 citizens (some of whom are functional, but some of whom are stoned out of their minds and won’t notice what kind of legislative venalty Murkowski pulls), plus
—- approximately 2,100,000 barrels/day of crude oil, and
—- additional ‘oil and energy’ resources, and also
—- a lot of federal land (including Elmendorf AFB and other military installations)
Murkowski singlehandedly appears to have gutted Menendez’s proposed bill to raise liability limits for oil spills — which means that the rest of America’s 308,000,000 get to pay for BP’s bullshit, lies, and fuckups.
So the rest of us get to pay for the Senatorial Sabotage wrought by someone who represents 1/5th of 2% of the overall US population, but who also represents a few million barrels of crude oil each day.
Which kind of helps explain why we’re in one hell of a mess.
The Senate rules MUST be changed.
Currently, they have been crafted to enable corporate and oligarchic interests to exploit our national treasures, as well as our national interests.
Not that Murkowski seems to care.
So much for moral courage, eh?
Morals? Courage? Together? That’s scary!
Yeah, I know.
I guess that I’m just a dreamer….
(Although I think that Maria Cantwell showed moral courage yesterday, refusing to cave in to the gutting of the derivatives legislation. And I also think Ron Wyden showed moral courage on that health care legislation. Ergo, I believe ‘moral courage’ is alive in the world, but less frequent than it needs to be.)
Maria caved today. I guess moral courage has a short half-life.
You make a convincing case but it still seems important that the Obama administration is currently letting BP control the situation and using government agencies including the Coast Guard to manage the flow of information is fairly critical. The problem is that Menendez’s proposal lacks clout because the bully pulpit doesn’t seem to be on board. Instead our government defers to corporate types who remind us once again that they only plan for success.
Quoting the late Tanta: Hoocoodanode?
Emphatically agree with you.
What is Obama thinking…?!
This could prove the beginning of his undoing.
He needs to start firing people, and eradicate MMS if for no other reason than to ‘send a message’. Meanwhile, we’re seeing the long range effects of Cheney, Bush, and Secret Energy Task Forces.
Oh, and a SCOTUS Reagan-Bush majority.
Bugger! I need an editor.
Should be 1/5th of 1% of US population.
Alaska has .22% of US population.
Also written .0022
Anyone is free to correct me if this info is wrong.
(I kept thinking TWO Senators, and that ‘2’ snuck into my population stats, especially given that the pop = .22.
Too many ‘twos’ to keep straight… sigh…
This jackass can’t see that there is NO GOD DAMN WAY to safely drill in a mile of water.
If we’ going to learn to live with less oil, in the future,
let’s forgo the deep water oil now and phase out quicker.
Ugh, maddening on both sides. Mr. Cohen should familiarize himself with the phrase “contingency planning,” since his 10 minute point could have been reduced a little and allowed some time to ask whether anybody tried to predict before they started drilling. It sounded like he was edging toward that, and maybe there are some political implications to being direct that he was avoiding, but it was all a bit too wordy to get there.
I love it!!! No one could have predicted. I’m still rolling on the floor laughing.
From Democracy Now: EPA has told BP to do whatever it wants–it won’t be held accountable.
LINK.
BP gives Mississippi $15M to entice beach tourists
LINK.
I read yesterday that (I cannot remember if it was Senate or House) Republicans managed to block an attempt to remove limits on the damages BP could face.
Is this more of too-big-to-fail? What the hell is it about corporations that is so sacrosanct to our politicians that they cannot or will not make companies live up to their follies?
election$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Something tells me that some of our elected officials are going to find out this fall that this is still a country of people — and NOT corporations.
I do hope Something is spot on, too! That would be cause for quite a celebration.
Apologies for the interruption, but this is interesting.
Exclusive: President Obama To Replace Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair
LINK.
Jeebuz. I wonder what’s up.
That’s weird: ‘to replace’ is different phraseology from ‘spending more time with his family’.
ot: looks like Tesla has made a decision about the location of its new CA plant, with a surprise new partner –
An official who’s been negotiating with Tesla Motors to open an auto factory in Downey said the carmaker has chosen to partner with Toyota to build electric cars at the former NUMMI plant in Fremont.
“The latest glimpse of video footage of the oil spill deep under the Gulf of Mexico indicates that around 95,000 barrels, or 4 million gallons, a day of crude oil may be spewing from the leaking wellhead, 19 times the previous estimate, an engineering professor told Congress Wednesday.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/19/94489/gulf-oil-spill-may-be-19-times.html
This is vindication. On a post last week I made a math error for which I was promptly told that my number was impossible.
I believe I said something like 3 trillion gallons of oil spilled. Although it was incorrect at the time – and I admitted that readily – it seems that if this just keeps going for another week or so with the actual flow rate instead of the liars rate – it just might wind up to be that much.
I’m so sorry I may be right after all. :(
It’s impossible to do the math correctly without reliable information to begin with. Regardless of your errors, it’s a 21″ pipe under pressure. The flow has to be in multiple millions of gallons per day. 3? 4? 5? More than 5???
We need believable independent scientific analysis.
Yes this wonderful but please take away the any Tax breaks they might receive for the clean up.
The last gasp of the venal scoundrel: why, who could’ve guessed?
If BP couldn’t see this coming, then they shouldn’t be in the business they’re in. But the real story is the US allowing this bull hockey to continue.
Thanks for the story.
The federal government is as effective in regulating business as is the US Chamber of Commerce.
New flow estimate, in case you’ve missed it. I stand corrected. Instead of an EXXON Valdez every 2 days, perhaps it’s just one every 3. Yippee! We’re saved!
Can’t predict what the Cognitive Dissonance won’t let you think about.
That implies they did not want to think about it. Accidents happen not trying to study how to avoid them means you accept they will happen.
That implies you are prepared for the consequences or as BP’s Presidents new friends in the cell block will say don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
During the next 24-48 hours, the MSM may explode with outrage over how ungodly huge the BP oil volcano is and why did BP keep the hugeness of it a secret for an entire month? Bobby Jindal is already getting solid air time demanding instant action to protect his wetlands.
BoxTurtle said at lunch time today (@6 above), referring to BP: “they [BP] were forced to put up the live leak feed.”
But it turns out that a lot of us missed an FDL post last week, disclosing that the White House (WH) Situation Room had live streaming video of the oil volcano for weeks before releasing tiny clips.
It is still not clear to me whether BP was “withholding” the live feed or whether the WH had classified it and ordered BP not to share it. But the bottom line would probably be the same: WH conspired with BP to conceal extent of environmental crime of the century for nearly a month.
Earlier this week, I was blaming BP for being criminals, and accusing Interior Secretary Salazar and the Coast Guard of conspiring with BP to obstruct criminal prosecution, when all along the WH has known all these details since the volcano erupted.
Bullshit. And don’t you dare call it an ‘Act of God’. God didn’t sink a pipe a mile beneath the Gulf, try to get by on the cheap on safety and testing measures, then after the Shit hit the Fan, stonewall everyone about what’s really going. You Mother-F***ers did.
. . . everything old is new again
Fred L. Hartley, president of Union Oil Co.:
“I don’t like to call it a disaster,” because there has been no loss of human life.
“I am amazed at the publicity for the loss of a few birds”
i guess the 11 roustabouts were not human?
Just an opinion but it does seem to me BP is meeting the US media and losing.
Another opinion. I think it is already too late for Obama to retrieve any credibility he had. I cannot conceive his political survival as the mind boggling information continues to “flow” I thought Carville was right on target on AC 360 tonite. Obama has been trusting big business again this time. BP will be his undoing.
Trusting my ass! He’s in bed with them all.
Obama’s nothing but a calculating predator who thinks he can outsmart and smooth talk anybody. Nothing can save him now.
In bed with them or not. I won’t disagree with your characterization. However I am dumbfounded at his ignorance of the vastness of the environmental impact. Surely such a clever calculating politician would understand the implications to himself politically. He must be ignorant and has chosen to believe BP.
He could be cut some slack as thanks to Cheney Bush there are few if any credible non-political scientific agencies reporting to the executive branch of the government.
I know this sounds a bit crazy…but how about people get together and cut their hair in big parties so that it can be used as absorbent mats to clean up the oil.
It would be a big publicity thing, especially if one could get politicians and celebrities involved.
http://www.matteroftrust.org
As always, Emptywheel, I thank you for my many years of reading this blog…
But, since the BP/ GOM disaster, I’ve found much technical/ professional information on “The Oil Drum” blog.. And they are very curious about what happened on the rig.
There is a wealth of info from engineers, geologists and even a lawyer!
Thanks again, Emptywheel. Sorry, can’t link..
But I was reading this am, and thinking of an Emptywheel timeline..
Gee, if that’s the case then I guess no one could predict what the heck it is they’re pumping into their cars at the pumps.