Recently, NBC reporter Tom Costello interviewed BP Exploration and Production Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles on the “Today” show concerning the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Specifically, he asked Suttles for his response to the rapidly circulating info that oil spill cleanup technology is woefully behind the times, making the oil spill cleanup painfully inefficient. The response was that few oil spills makes technology hard to come by. ”There have been so few big spills,” he explained Costello, “and events have not driven the technology change.”
The right cleanup technology is only made by BP with an oil spill?
The lack of foresight by BP on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – or lack of the right kind of motivation to invest in preventative oil spill cleanup technology measures – is obvious. What is also obvious is the financial effect that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has had on BP and also the economies of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. As reported by NBC New York, BP has already spent $1.6 billion on the spill response and related claims. Projections for future costs and liabilities extend into the $60 to $70 billion range, although the final figure will depend upon knowing the full extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill damage. This doesn’t consider BP’s loss in share price. Their market capitalization has fallen around 50 percent. It’s easy to imagine BP CEO Tony Hayward barking “I need money now” at the moon, but local economies need it even a lot more. The cost to local economies damaged by the oil spill will probably end up reaching into the billions of dollars, experts predict.
I really am the Gulf of Mexico walrus
Clearly, dealing with an oil spill is not high on BP’s list of priorities. They would are prepared for this spill otherwise. The Associated Press reports the 582-page regional oil spill cleanup plan for the Gulf of Mexico region and a shorter document addressing the specific Deepwater Horizon incident are littered with “mistakes and erroneous assumptions.” Among these are incorrect contact info for consulted marine life specialists (one of whom actually died in 2005, four years before the larger document was filed). But not being able to contact sources regarding the specific needs of marine life within the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico is perhaps for the best, as BP is claiming that the walrus is found there. Walruses tend to live in cold-water areas like Alaska, not in the Gulf of Mexico. In a weak defense, Doug Suttles claimed that the document specifically labeled for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill addressed “all impacted species,” rather than ones that actually inhabit the region. This is illogical on BP’s part.
Need to have oil spills to advance technology? Do the math, BP
As outlined by Wikipedia there have been 49 recorded oil spills worldwide since the year 2000. About 24 happened within the US. If that amounts to “too few oil spills,” then BP probably needs to go back to school for a healthy dose of perspective and basic reasoning skills. Check out the Rachel Maddow video below if you need help, BP – she points out some of the major U.S. spills on a map.
More information on this topic
NBC New York
nbcnewyork.com/news/breaking/BP_has_plenty_of_money_to_pay_spill_damages-96366344.html
NOLA.com
nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/as_bp_promised_the_walruses_ar.html
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_spills
