Science

Yesterday another attempt to raise the liability limit on big oil for spills was blocked by the GOP. Now the GOP is trying their own bill:

After a third Republican block of a Democratic bill to raise the liability on oil spills, the GOP put forward its own bill on Tuesday afternoon. This one would eliminate the cap only for the current spill, but not change the cap set under the Oil Pollution Act for future spills, which stands at $75 million.

The new bill comes from Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and David Vitter (R-La.), and also contains provisions that would expedite the claims process for Gulf residents. Vitter said on the floor that their measure would hold BP to its pledge to cover all costs related to the current spill. "That's a contract offer," he said on the floor Tuesday. "We're saying we'll take it."

So Murkowski and Vitter want to pass a bill going after only BP for the current spill? And these people call them self Senator?

To show the problem with what Murkowski and Vitter is trying, I’ll go back to that pesky little document called “The Constitution”, particularly Article 1; Section 9:

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

And that is exactly what this measure is. Now either these two Senators are down right stupid, or they are being very sneaky. I tend to go with the second one. They know that if this passes, BP could take it to court and it would instantly get struck down as a constitutional violation.

This one from Reuters really got my blood pressure boiling:

US will "push" out BP if spill response falls short

The U.S. government will move aside BP (BP.L) from the operation to try to halt the Gulf of Mexico oil spill if it decides the company is not performing as required in its response to the well leak, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Sunday.

"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading," Salazar told reporters after visiting BP's U.S. headquarters in Houston.

"We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed," Salazar added, referring to the failure of containment efforts attempted so far by London-based BP to control the gushing undersea well one mile (1.6 km) down on the ocean floor.

And we are now 35 days into it and BP still looks like the boy trying to stick his finger in the hole of the dam.

BP leases this land from the U.S. They have been given more than their fair chance at fixing the leak, but the Obama administration keeps thinking that BP has all this “good faith” to stop the leak. David Axelrod even echoed that sentiment this morning on Chuck Todd’s show, when he said “BP is losing money on this leak, so they have all the best interests to stop it”. Really? Well then why haven’t they tried blowing the thing up? That’s the usual remedy and is met with much success, but the problem is that they can’t drill there anymore.

From the article I posted early about oil entering the marshes comes this very troublesome tidbit:

When CBS News tried to reach the beach, covered in oil, a boat of BP contractors with two Coast Guard officers on board told us to turn around under threat of arrest. Coast Guard officials said they are looking into the incident.

So BP makes the rules now and the Coast Guard acts as their little security service? I wonder who owns the land that CBS was trying to get on. Is it federal land, or state? If it’s state land, then Bobby Jindhal needs to get out there and start screaming about the feds overstepping their bound. If there was ever an argument about violating the 10th amendment, this is it.

We also need all the media to start screaming, and I mean screaming loud, about this. We have BP and the Coast Guard trying to silence the press now? The White House needs to be asked about this and we deserve a clarification on the position of the Coast Guard. Like the military, the coast guard is sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of this land, not the wishes of British Petroleum.

Here’s CBS’ video report on the spill:

From CBS:

It may be the most disturbing site yet: the first heavy sludge now oozing into the marshes of Louisiana as the slick continues to grow in size out in the gulf.

CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports it's an ominous sight. The oil is thick and black and stretches about a quarter mile down a beach. It goes beyond the booms into the sensitive marsh lands which are home to migratory birds.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal flew over it Tuesday.

"This wasn't just sheen, we were seeing heavy oil out there," Jindal said. "This wasn't just tar balls. It shows you how quick the oil showed up."

These are the same marshes that provide a barrier of protection against hurricanes.

Then there is this little tidbit:

Also on Tuesday, nearly two dozen tar balls were found off Key West, Fla., the U.S. Coast Guard said, but the agency stopped short of saying whether they came from the massive oil spill.

Isn’t BP just the greatest?

As many of you probably have heard, BP is now attempting a new way to stop the leak a mile below the Gulf of Mexico’s surface:

BP continues its work Saturday to try and stop the thousands of gallons of oil that have been spilling into the water for weeks.

The company is using deep sea robots to thread a six mile long, six inch tube with a rubber stopper into the 21 inch pipe gushing oil from the ocean floor.

I have obtained an exclusive video reenactment of how this procedure is expected to go

From Politico:

Alaska’s senior senator blocked legislation Thursday that would have dramatically increased liability caps on oil companies, in the wake of one of the industry’s biggest disasters.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected to a voice vote request by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on the bill, which would have spiked the maximum liability for oil companies after an oil spill from $75 million to $10 billion. The legislation has significant support from Democrats, and the White House has indicated it backs an increase in liability caps.

But Murkowski said the legislation is “not where we need to be right now” and would unfairly advantage large oil companies by pricing the small companies out of the market. Murkowski did signal that she would be open to "look at the liability cap and consider raising it.” Just not at this moment.

Murkowski isn’t worried about smaller oil companies, she’s worried about the big ones – the ones that do things like offshore drilling.

First off, these liabilities are never levied in full. The fact that the maximum liability would only amount to two quarters of profits from BP should also say enough. Imagine some company in another industry causing some disaster on such a scale as the oil spill in the Gulf. It would spell a most likely doom to that company. Instead, this oil spill will cost BP, but not to the point that their future is in question.

The Republicans have been working hard to try and blame Obama for the oil spill. As I pointed out yesterday, Obama does deserve a little blame for not having booms on hand, but that blame also needs to be shared with Bush and Clinton, since none of them prepared to follow a 1994 plan on dealing with spills put out by the government.

But now we are getting more evidence that points directly to Dr. Evil himself, Dick Cheney. First the investigation into the cause of the fire is starting to zero in on Halliburton and the cementing process they had just completed. Interesting enough this same process caused a fire and spill last year in Australia and was also completed by Halliburton. That investigation is too zeroing in on the cementing process by Halliburton.

Even more interesting is the safety requirements that Cheney fought to get rid of. The problem with the oil spill has been the inability to shut the leak off. The blowout preventer has failed and there was no secondary device. Here’s an explanation by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.;

As many know I am a Twitter freak. What’s really interesting is the insight you can gain into a person in 140 characters or less. Take Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA):

Interesting how he has these concerns today. He claims they have been on MMS for “years”, but I wonder if he tried this push 4 years ago when he voted no against extending the moratorium on new offshore drilling? Just a quick look into Issa’s voting record shows that he has been a great friend to the oil and coal industry: