BP & The Oil Spill

A friend asked what my views were re: the OIL SPILL. Is somebody responsible? What is the government's role in all of this? Can this be considered "an act of God"? Can nobody be held liable? Good questions. Here was my response.

Mother Nature is never "held responsible." She just IS. She just DOES.

On the other hand, MAN (i.e. sentient/volitional beings) must always be held responsible ... even when there is just an accident, or if there is lack of intention ... or a lack of mal-intent. Responsibility means that we do our best to assign effects to causes, and we get those who initiated the causes to pay for the clean up of (or resolution for) the effects. Responsible people, businesses, and nations do their best to put things back the way they SHOULD have been before things went south.

So - OF COURSE British Petroleum is responsible - at least in part - for the big oil spill of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't know what that specific responsibility is, for I'm not an expert. The drilling company who was in charge of pumping BP's reserves from the ocean floor is, OF COURSE, responsible - at least in part. Perhaps there were other responsible parties or agencies: consulting engineers, shippers, platform designers, etc. This is an extremely complicated business, and there will have to be quite an extensive investigation. But, when all the responsible parties' degrees of responsibility are added up, guess what! These will add up to 100%.

That is - in the Libertarian world.

In the Democratic world, responsibility is shoved off and mangled, ... doubled here, tripled there, assigned to some wealthy "bastards," and then forgiven in the next Immigration Amnesty bill.

In the Republican world, responsibility is massively diminished by legal rhetoric, legalistic bullshit, shell corporations who went out of business, Martian foreclosures, credit card small print ... and cigar-smoking sons-of-bitches who run off-shore tax-exempt F-63-V14s!

By the way, the "blame game" that is fostered by all of the major networks and "news" media outlets is different in kind, fundamentally, from the scrutiny that gun makers and airplane manufacturers commonly face from the Demublican Socialists. The anti-gun lobbyists can try to convince Earthlings all day long that Smith & Wesson is at fault for the thugs who robbed the innocent convenience store clerk and then shot him/her. But any Earthling who can still add 2 and 2 can see that this is dimwit crap. Smith & Wesson has sold an excellent, quality, time-tested product for decades. This company is totally innocent of the crimes that are committed using their guns. Generally speaking, pilot error, shoddy maintenance, or terrorist bombings are the reasons for the occasional crashes of Cessna, Boeing, or Airbus airplanes.

In contrast, the BP incident is a case where strict liability needs to be applied. This multi-national corporation is in the business, daily, of taking gigantic risks - in order to find, develop, produce, refine, and deliver to the world oil and gas. This company, and others like it, stand to EARN humongous profits - which they well deserve!!! I don't know how to do what they do, and I'm glad they and other companies find oil that I can put in my car at such an incredibly cheap price, without even getting my hands dirty. Thank you, British Petroleum, Shell, Exxon-Mobile, et al.

However, when things go south (and unfortunately north - into the delicate wetlands of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida), this company and its partners MUST step forward to maintain their integrity, and to repair the integrity of the affected ecosystems and the businesses that are reliant on those ecosystems.

What BP and their off-shore drilling platform specialists and designers are involved in is NOT a perfect and consistent ballistic system, as the Smith & Wesson .45 is. This is deep ocean, sorcerer's apprentice, theoretical, cutting edge stuff! These entrepreneurs, scientists, drillers, shippers, scuba divers, helicopter pilots, geologists, caterers, etc. stand to make COLOSSAL profits - AS THEY SHOULD - for taking gigantic risks!!! But, now we see the down-side of that risk/return curve. Now, they must eat their losses.

There is no way that they and the other complicit parties should be allowed to walk away without paying for their collective responsibility ... with money, thoughts, and deeds. And it all must add up to 100% ... and it must put things aright for 5-10-20 years down the road! Without demonizing anybody, this is the time for the (fair) economists and insurance companies to step in, so that we/they can properly plot the extent of the legitimate damages.

The government's role in all of this can be minimal - but ONLY IF British Petroleum and its partners remain utterly compliant, open, willing, and cooperative on every level. The proper role of the government, as always, is to be an impartial judge and enforcer when disputes get out of hand. So far, frankly, BP seems to be dragging its feet on this one. But I'm not an expert. If the third party experts come to a consensus that BP and its partners are NOT fully disclosing the facts, and that they are not FULLY taking their responsibility in remedying this gigantic toxic mistake, then it will be appropriate for Uncle Sam to step in and enforce some massive fines - to pay for the stupendously laborious and ugly and time-consuming job of cleaning up this mess.