It’s great that an anonymous oil industry insider writes to TalkingPointsMemo to say he thinks BP is doing a swell job, but should the rest of us care? Yes, having someone who understands it beyond reporters for the Times or CNN provide perspective is useful. But we are at a point where industry experts have noticeably failed from top to bottom. They failed to due their due diligence about how to safely drill in this location, at this depth. They failed to use proper techniques to make sure the well was properly dug. They failed to handle changes in pressure. They failed to stop the rig from exploding and killing eleven people. They failed to build a kill valve that worked. They failed to initially contain the leak. They failed to accurately measure how much oil was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. They failed to deploy oil booms correctly. To this point, a month after the initial disaster, the experts in the oil industry have not stopped the leak, though things are finally looking better.
Most of the expertise in offshore oil drilling lies with the oil industry. I get that. But I don’t really give a damn about how public criticism, scrutiny and outrage offends these experts, who really, honestly, they swear are doing all they can to fix this crisis. They fucked up and they have to be accountable for that. Some of that accountability is going to come while the disaster is ongoing and there damned well better be more accountability once the leak is stopped and mere millions and millions of gallons of oil are poisoning the Gulf.
In the mean time, I don’t care about anonymous oil industry insiders’ perspectives, when that perspective is that the criticism of them is wrong and they are really good people.
Hold Fast 