Who's In Charge

While the Gulf oil spill is the topic du jour the closest thing to news is the occasional BP attempt to cap the well routinely going awry. I’ve ranted at some length about the original sin of even having such a facility. For the moment I’d like to put that part aside and say a few words about the “cleanup,”   

“Where was the government on day one on day one when it was needed in the Gulf?” How many times have we heard this or similar sentiments? It seems that among the things expected of the United States Government is maintaining a fleet of ships with the capacity, and a crew sufficiently knowledgeable to respond to the consequences of a malfunctioning oil rig 13,000 feet deep in ground 5000 feet below the water surface. Vessels from this fleet would have to be accessible to rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and the Pacific, from California to Alaska.

This would be a reasonable expectation from a government in the oil business, a reasonable impossibility in our case.  If the perception of government as financially incompetent is correct, its presence would be a breath of fresh air in a field where the damage was done by culprits who cut corners to make even more money than they were already making. But then if we don’t want government beaurocrats messing with our health insurers or the folks who handle our 401Ks, we wouldn’t want them involved in selling us `gasoline?

So who is responsible for the business of controlling this sort of damage? On the surface it seems that it should be those who profit from the production and sale of the product. That happens to be the way the law reads. But In this case the responsible entity has just proved its irresponsibility by having allowed the catastrophe to take place without polishing its image in its response.  A strong case can be made for having another party supervise the rescue.

The situation cries out for incisive legislation which has been lacking since well before this president took office. I’m not equipped to suggest how it should read. But among options are increased federal involvement and the conscription of the facilities of worldwide producers of oil. I refuse to dismiss the possibility that other oil companies have been as remiss with the rules and cozy with the regulators as BP. In any case they all have a vested interest in the PR aspects of this and possible future cases.  

To close I’d like to put the matter in its proper perspective. As important as the cleanup is, it is small potatoes compared to the reason for there being one.