The Blame Game

Gentle readers,

I don't know about yourselves (both of you know who you are) but I, for one, am about up to my eyeballs with the round-the-clock "news" coverage (including the finger pointing) of the crude oil being deposited into the Gulf of Mexico. Is there nothing else of note occurring in the world?

 It's as if a committee of political hacks meeting under Roberts Rules of Order could end the 53 day long crisis by issuing press releases blaming all the hapless producers of a product that fuels our global society instead of the actual authors of the tragedy.

Full disclosure time: This humble scribbler is the spawn of a family who earned its bread in what is known as the "oil patch". Indeed he entered employment in the "patch" at age 14 until being driven out by government regulations 20 years later. That first career included two major oil companies, (Texaco and Conoco) as well as drilling and oil well service companies in southern California both off shore and land side. During that interesting experience he witnessed two "blowouts" which are uncontrolled escapes of pressurized natural gas and crude oil as well as sand and other objectionable material. Make no mistake gentle reader, this event in the Gulf of Mexico is NOT a "spill". A spill is the escape of a previously contained material from a storage or transportation facility such as a pipe line or tank.

Interestingly enough, blowouts are usually controlled in a matter of hours or at most days, often by the application of heavy mud and/or cement deployed by the equipment of that EEEvil corporation, Halliburton.

As any sentient voter with two or more functioning brain cells is aware, the federal government as well as various state governments have placed off limits virtually all of the not inconsiderable proven petroleum reserves on government land as well as decreeing oppressive regulations discouraging production from private leases. These restrictions are the result of a decades long vilification program by well funded "environmentalist" groups such as the Tides Foundation, the Sierra Club and others.

Consequently, the enormous demand for sources of petroleum has driven the industry further and further off shore. We now have oil companies forced to drill in 5000+ feet of water. Although the technology for such drilling exists, no one has been able to figure out how to economically deliver a functioning Halliburton cement wagon to the ocean floor at those depths.

As this disaster unfolds, few if any in the media are pointing a finger at the two chief culprits: the government and the environazis. On the up side, the bumbling incompetence of the huge bureaucracies of the government and the grandstanding politicians are being revealed for what they are: a black hole sucking away our wealth and liberties.

Update: 6/12/10 2147 EDT