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Obama's "Oilgate" : The Buck Stops Here : Deepwater Horizon Oil Gusher Fiasco similar to 1979 Oil Spill Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico where Similar Topping Methods were used and failed : BP's Legal Liability

By Andis Kaulins

The Buck Stops here:




It is high time for President Obama to put all available relevant government resources to work to stop the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill Disaster.

Stephen C. Webster at Raw Story in 1979 news reports on Mexican oil gusher may as well be from 2010 informs us that the current oil spill is similar to a gusher in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979 in which all of the same methods thus far used to halt the Deepwater Horizon deepsea oil gusher were also tried - and failed.

What made the engineers think that what failed in much shallower water would work in much deeper water? One wonders who is in charge of decision-making at BP as regards this new environmental disaster.

BP engineers have failed to stop the massive oil leak and U.S. President Obama has not cut a very good figure in not attacking the problem governmentally -- and immediately -- with resources (ships if need be), manpower and new ideas as needed. The necessary brains are at e.g. the Pentagon and the Army Corps of Engineers, most certainly not at the profit-oriented BP headquarters. Time is short -- the hurricane season is approaching.

Obama's poor handling of this situation will probably do more to cut his Presidential standing than any other event of his Presidency, especially since the oil spill directly impacts America's coastlines and food chain, or more, if the oil spill is not stopped. When crises have to be handled the Chief Executive can not just sit around on his duff or be out attending fund-raisers: he has to act, and he has to act swiftly and wisely. That is his job and he has to take it seriously.

CHANGE is urgent.

As for BP, the extent of their potential liability for this disaster is immense, especially if it proves that they were drilling beyond the permitted depth. See e.g. Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Legal recourse for BP oil-covered animals.

Deepwater Horizon has all the earmarks of an American Chernobyl. See Life After the Oil Crash, An American Chernobyl, by Dmitry Orlov.

Full post as published by LawPundit on May 30, 2010 (boomark / email).