Go ahead, flame me.
So. A big oil drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico more than a month ago and nobody seems to be able to figure out how to contain the resulting oil spill. The liberals are blaming the oil company and the conservatives are blaming Obama and the conspiracy theorists are blaming, hmmm, I forget who they are blaming. And everybody is angry and sad and wringing their hands. I see it all. I have friends and relatives on every side of the political spectrum. And the religious spectrum. And the environmental spectrum. And a bunch of other spectrums. And sometimes the political spectrum and the religious spectrum and the environmental spectrum and all those other spectrums intersect in some rather strange ways that I can’t even figger.
Okay. When I see oil-drenched birds, I am horrified. When I think about oil washing up on beaches, I am horrified. When I see the maps of what the oil spill would look like if it were mapped over Fin Family Moominbeach, I am horrified. Am I angry? Well, not exactly. There is plenty of blame to throw around. Why didn’t the oil company (and contractors and whoever) adhere more closely to the safety rules that a big deepwater oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico should follow. Why weren’t federal regulators overseeing all of this more closely? Why didn’t the Obama administration act more quickly?
Angry? Well. Mostly I am horrified. But I am not surprised by any of this. It’s just business as usual when a large bureaucratic oil company makes a lot of stupid mistakes that turn into a huge mistake and a gargantuan bureaucratic government takes its time to respond. Sighhhhh.
What is missing in the whole equation as far as I’m concerned is the question of why we have these big oil drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in the first place. I think it is because weeeeee are dependent upon oil. I certainly am. I drive all over hell and gone almost every day and occasionally I drag myself onto a jet plane and head out to the left coast. And you know what? I LOVE to drive. It is one of my favorite things to do in life. I loooove the 6-speed manual tranny in our little Ninja. Rrrrrr-shift-rrrrrr-shift… Drive? Yes!
This oil spill is a horrific event and there are a lot of people who have made mistakes in handling it. But stuff happens and, as long as we are all as dependent upon oil as we are, stuff like this is going to happen. I don’t know exactly what to do but somehow we have to become less dependent upon oil. But there is absolutely no other way for me to get to work without driving there. And like I say, I like to drive…
Flame me if you want. I have my flame-proof clothing on (-: But I’m just sayin’…
June 7th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
No flames from me–it makes sense. I don’t love to drive, but I need to at times. Taking a bus just isn’t convenient. (nor is bicycling)
June 7th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should, “No Comment.”
June 8th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Marquis, are you referring to driving, drilling deep water oil wells, or both when you say, “just b/c you can, doesn’t mean you should”?
June 8th, 2010 at 8:40 am
Haha, I was kind of scratching my head at that comment too. But I think I was not totally clear in my post either. I was chastising *myself* for being such a “mad highway driver”. My point was that, instead of throwing blame at everybody else under the sun, we should start in our own backyards, so to speak, and try to modify whatever gas-guzzling behaviors *we* are guilty of.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Big companies, like the oil companies, have always said they should be able to police themselves, because they will be one to suffer if they fail. But then they allow themselves to cut corners. Government’s ability to follow through? Where are the experts – in the oil business or in the government? I think it is false blame to just go after the government when they do not have the expertise, or the past history of making the drillers do what they should before they drill, and that is plan for the worst. If you can imagine it, it can probably happen. Mitigation for this seems unthinkable. And after 20 years their fine will be reduced or thrown out. Who loses – those with property that is destroyed, and the wildlife, and those that depend on the wildlife for their living. Maybe they can stretch this clean-up and mitigation as a way of life until life returns.