Congressional review on the oil leak (that is still happening) began today.

The oil leak was called a “cascade of failures”.  That may be true, but there was basic science at work here involving temperature of the ocean water, gas expands when released at that temperature to a warmer temperature, and at what force, a mile below the ocean’s surface — basic science that should have been studied by BP and the owners of the oil rig.  What happened should not have been the big surprise they are claiming it was.  The only way to prevent this from happening again is to stop offshore oil drilling. Onshore oil drilling should also end, but offshore drilling is a no-brainer. One good point recently made by a writer, Dan Froomkin, is that this is what fossil fuels do to the planet every single day. If this oil hadn’t spilled into the ocean, it would have been processed, moved, sold and burned, pumping tons of CO2 into our skies, instead of into the Gulf of Mexico. Anyway you look at this oil, where ever it ended up it would have done, and is doing, enormous damage to our world and the people who live in it.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to spill.  For more information, here is the official government  website of the US government’s response to this catastrophe.   My main question: Why hasn’t the U.S. government pulled out all the stops to do everything possible to stop this leak?  The latest action seems to have been to call for more ideas and to approve of BP’s plans for the smaller cap.  Yes it’s BP’s, and Transocean’s  and Halliburton’s fault and they will pay for it, but they don’t seem to really know how best to plug the leak.  They had no real plan and no backup plan for this type of disaster.  (What does that indicate about the other Big Oil companies and their drilling operations?)   If President Obama doesn’t want this to be his “Katrina” he better stop whatever it is he’s doing and stop this leak, which should be his main priority at this point.

This is paraphrased from Legal Planet: – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held hearings today on economic and environmental impacts of the oil spill .   Witnesses included representatives of the three companies, and representatives of fishing, tourism, and state interests. An environmental law perspective will be provided by Meg Caldwell of Stanford’s Law School and Center for Ocean Solutions.

These hearings are only the first of what will be several Congressional hearings on the Deepwater Horizon disaster. They opened today in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this morning.   Witnesses included Elmer Danenberger, described on the Committee’s web site as “Former Chief, Offshore Regulatory Program, Minerals Management Service.” Based on MMS’s web site, Mr. Danenberger was in charge of the agency’s [...]