"Houston, We've had a Problem" - BP Gets Help - America responds as Well

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When the BP headquarters in Houston got word from the Deepwater Horizon oil platform there was an accident on April 20, 2010, it was almost 40 years to the day since the worst accident in the Apollo space program history took place on April 13, 1970.

That fateful message came from Apollo 13 as it streaked toward the moon under the command of James Lovell and an equipment malfunction never before encountered faced the scientists, engineers and computer jocks working to conquer space. It took the greatest mobilization of minds and the greatest American outpouring of prayer but by April 17 the crippled spacecraft had miraculously been safely landed back on earth.

Today, 40 years later, we face a similar impending catastrophe and once again it will take the greatest minds of scientists, engineers and computer jocks, along with the greatest outpouring of public support and prayer to avoid an even greater disaster.



The BP oil rig was pioneering deep water drilling reaching depths never before achieved, with the well going 35,000 feet below the ocean surface. If successful the technology would help make a giant leap forward toward American oil independence from foreign oil opening the way for billions of barrels of new, American offshore oil reserves for commercial production.

Far below the surface in pressures never before experienced, some 1,000 times more powerful than pressure on the water's surface, something went wrong and tragically, 11 experienced, dedicated oil veterans were killed as the rig exploded. Yet a more daunting task lie ahead, trying to cap a spewing well 5,000 feet deep and covered with 32,000 tons of debris from the rig that sank to the Gulf floor.

Washington politicians, as usual, immediately started finger pointing and issuing threats. Even White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs jumped into the bitter political environment with his reiteration of the threat by Obama's Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that Obama would "keep the boot on the neck of BP," a divisive and counterproductive ill-timed comment.



When faced with a technological crisis playing the blame game will never be a successful strategy. Some parts of the government responded, like the Coast Guard, but mostly it was more of the same from Washington. Politicians should keep their political shenanigans in our nation's capitol, we have work to do to help heal our nation on the Gulf.

Quietly, like Americans have always done when faced with a national crisis, the people set about the task of preparing for the worst and unselfishly offering to help. BP asked for the best minds from competitors like Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Conoco and Anadarko among others to help them devised a solution to the seemingly impossible task of stopping the 210,000 gallons a day of crude oil.

They came up with a plan never before attempted at such a depth to build and drop a 100 ton cone on the well 5,000 feet down. The first of three cones has been finished and it currently on the way to the site. By this weekend we will know if a major environmental disaster can be avoided.

But this doesn't just have national implications. There are over 8,300 offshore drilling rigs in operation around the world. All nations of the world will benefit from a successful response to this accident.

Offers of help have poured into the State Department from around the world as 13 nations and the United Nations have offered their people, equipment and resources to help stop the leak. U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico are among those offering equipment and experts in containing and cleaning up the leak from the BP oil rig that exploded April 20.



State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday that the Coast Guard is evaluating the needs of the cleanup operation and will decide what, if any, aid to accept in the coming days. Also offering aid are Britain, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the U.N. Environmental Program.

The response has also come from the people of America in ways the government, so caught up in political bickering, would never even consider. Hair salons from across the country have been collecting hair and sending it to the Gulf coast to be rolled into absorbent cloth and used to absorb oil that may reach the shore. Hair is a powerful absorbent and thousands of people are responding to this call for help.

Many others are flocking to the Gulf coast to help with the clean up of any oil that reaches the beaches and marshlands, to help with wildlife recovery and care, and to help in any way possible. These offers of help from the little people of America, people I refer to in my book The Joshua Chronicles as the "Raggedy People", the silent multitudes upon whom a new civilization will be built, reflect more of the spirit of America than politicians could ever hope to be.



They know the game of politics no longer works. They know now is not the time for blame but for hope, inspiration, dedication and innovation to overcome this potential disaster. Obama and Congress should be encouraging these efforts to help by the citizens, corporate community and other nations and save the blame game for later.



Today is the National Day of Prayer. Prayer works. It did for Apollo 13 and it can for the Deepwater Horizon crisis. If only our politicians would join together in prayer for the success of this massive international effort and this dramatic mobilization of the people we could all stand united in our purpose and maybe the prayers will be heard.

No one wanted this disaster to happen. BP has over 80,000 employees whose jobs are dependent on the oil being delivered safely. Millions of people are employed directly in the oil and gas industry and many millions more have jobs dependent on the oil industry. We all benefit from their efforts and our quality of life is much improved because of them.



America and Americans will help get us through this crisis, even if the politicians continue to stammer and sputter in Washington. It would be nice if our leadership would focus on the problem and help to mobilize and encourage those who are dedicated to solving problems, not compounding them. It would also help if they would attend their own Prayer Day activities and really listen to the message of the priests, ministers and rabbis. We are all in this together.

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The Gulf Crisis - Maybe it's Time for Prayer? We are One Nation under God.

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For a country that claims to be "one nation, under God", we seem to have forgotten the God factor in just about everything we do. Way back 234 years ago when a ragtag group of colonists decided to take on the most powerful empire in the history of the world, the British empire, God and prayer were invoked first in
our expressions of hope and our reaffirmation of faith.

Now we seem to have forgotten the power of prayer. Back during the revolution our Founding Fathers did not hope for miracles, they relied on them to guide us through a war in which we had no business fighting, were it not for faith and hope.



But in these trying times we seem to have forgotten the power of prayer.

What could be more proper for a nation founded under God than to pray to the Holy Mother Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, and the patron saint of America, to help protect the environment and the people who might be affected by the Gulf oil crisis?



Even the Native Americans and Mexican Americans hold the Holy Mother sacred with the Indians honoring Mother Earth and the Mexicans Our Lady of Guadalupe. These variations of the Holy Mother are among the most revered of spiritual figures. Of course to the Christian she is honored above all others for giving birth to the Messiah.



Believers understand the power of the Holy Mother through Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima and other visitations and even thousands of non-believers at Fatima witnessed the dancing and falling sun that fateful morning of October 13, 1917.

Her prophecies foretold of the loss of nations, the tragic rise of Hitler and Nazism, the emergence and dangers of Communism, World War I, World War II, the destruction of cultures and the challenges to the church which have all unfolded over the past century.

Her pleas for people to have faith in God and Jesus and pray, especially the rosary, went largely ignored as an astonishing string of complex, powerful and destructive prophecies came true because we did not heed the call to prayer.

Mother Mary, or Mother Earth, cries for the human condition and the way humans treat Mother Earth as she has consistently asked us to take a few moments for prayer if we really have faith, and good things would come to us.



In the Americas, five centuries ago, cruel human sacrificing rituals were performed on a scale never approached, even remotely, by another peoples. Never before or after in human history a more open, long running, ritualized and institutionalized public showcase of the Culture of Death has been manifested.

No one will ever know how many were killed this way. Estimates start from 20,000 to 50,000 a year in several sources. Recently, Woodrow Borah, possibly the leading authority on the demography of Mexico at the time of the conquest, has revised the estimated number of persons sacrificed in central Mexico in the fifteenth century to 250,000 per year.

The climax of these ritual killings came in 1487 for the dedication of the new and richly decorated with serpents temple of Huitzilopochtli, in Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), when in a single ceremony that lasted four days and four nights, with the constant beating of giant drums made of snakeskin, the Aztec ruler and demon worshiper Tlacaellel presided over the sacrifice of more than 80,000 men.
Children were said to be frequent victims, in part because they were considered pure and unspoiled. The early Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated that one out of every five children in Mexico were sacrificed.

After her appearance at Guadalupe in 1531 in Mexico 6 million Mexicans converted to Christianity and the killings by the Aztecs in the form of thousands of human sacrifices in the pagan empires of Mexico ended, as well as the corrupted civilizations that spawned them.



In Russia, after she foretold of the rise of Communism, the Godless Soviet empire and their extermination of 60 million of their own people through state induced murder was also brought to an end though her warnings were largely ignored and the hardship and suffering continued long after it could have been stopped.

Her prophecies of the 19th century foretelling the rise of Germany engulfing Europe in flames under Hitler's Swastika came true just as she foretold that Portugal would be protected from harm during the Spanish Civil War and World War II and the rise of Nazism and Communism if they prayed the rosary. They did and the small nation of Portugal survived intact.



I think a prayer vigil to the Holy Mother Mary for the protection of the people, animals, birds, fishes and environment threatened by the Gulf oil crisis might just be heard in the heavens because she told us to pray, and how to pray, if we want to reach out to God and be heard.

Tell everyone you can to pray the rosary once a day for this worthy cause and see if it makes a difference. It will bring people together in a way politicians and bankers never could. Let the engineers and scientists do their work and pray they be guided by Mother Earth in healing the land.



We have all been given gifts beyond the imagination of most people of the world. Perhaps it is time we take stock of what we have and thank God for allowing us to share in his gifts and miracles, and to help us protect those gifts and miracles.

Food, shelter, clothing, education and medical care are available to us in ways no other people of the world will ever have these things. Yet we still want more. We have been given the miracle of life and then had all these wonderful things made available to us.



Add to that the freedoms unique to America, the one nation under God, and you start to realize just how fortunate we really are. Is it asking too much for a rosary a day to be said of thanks to God and the Holy Mother Mary for watching over us?



With the potential for a very serious Gulf catastrophe in the making it is even more reason to pray for the intervention of God to help save the people, the environment, the economy and the earth that could be damaged or destroyed by this crisis.

Maybe, just maybe, if we welcome God and the Holy Mother back into our hearts our prayers will be answered and some kind of miraculous work will bring the crisis to an end.



If you are not above praying for others here is a short explanation of how to say the rosary as the Holy Mother Mary has requested.

1. Make the Sign of the Cross and say the Apostles Creed.
2. Say the Our Father.
3. Say three Hail Marys.
4. Say the Glory be to the Father.
5. Say the Our Father.
6. Say ten Hail Marys.
7. Say the Glory be to the Father.
8. Repeat 5-7 four more times.

These are the prayers that make up the rosary in English, Spanish and French.

ENGLISH

Sign of the Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners, Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory Be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

SPANISH

Sign of the Cross

En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. Amen.

Apostles Creed

Creo en Dios, Padre todopoderoso, creador del Cielo y de la Tierra. Creo en Jesucristo su único Hijo, Nuestro Señor, que fue concebido por obra y gracia del Espíritu Santo; nació de Santa María Virgen; padeció bajo el poder de Poncio Pilato; fue crucificado, muerto y sepultado; descendió a los infiernos; al tercer día resucitó de entre los muertos; subió a los cielos y está a la diestra de Dios Padre; desde allí ha de venir a juzgar a los vivos y a los muertos. Creo en el Espíritu Santo, en la Santa Iglesia Católica, la comumión de los Santos en el perdon de los pecados la resurrección de los muertos y la vida eterna. Amen.

Our Father

Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo. Santificado sea tu nombre. Venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad en la tierra como en el cielo. Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día. Perdona nuestras ofensas, como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden. No nos dejes caer en tentación y líbranos del mal. Amen.

Hail Mary

Dios te salve, María. Llena eres de gracia: El Señor es contigo. Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres. Y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre: Jesús. Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte. Amen.

Glory Be

Gloria al Padre, al Hijo y al Espíritu Santo. Como era en el principio, ahora y siempre, por los siglos de los siglos. Amen.

FRENCH

Sign of the Cross

Au nom du Père et du Fils et du Saint-Esprit. Amen.

Apostles Creed

Je crois en Dieu, le Père tout-puissant, créateur du ciel et de la terre. Et en Jésus Christ, son Fils unique, notre Seigneur qui a été conçu du Saint-Esprit, est né de la Vierge Marie, a souffert sous Ponce Pilate, a été crucifié, est mort et a été enseveli, est descendu aux enfers, le troisième jour est ressuscité des morts, est monté aux cieux, est assis à la droite de Dieu le Père tout-puissant d'où Il viendra juger les vivants et les morts. Je crois en l'Esprit-Saint, á la sainte Eglise catholique, à la communion des saints, à la rémission des péchés, à la résurrection de la chair, à la vie éternelle. Amen.

Our Father

Notre Père qui es aux cieux, que ton Nom soit sanctifié, que ton règne vienne, que ta volonté sit soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel. Donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain quotidien. Pardonne-nous nos offenses comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés. Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation, mais délivre-nous du mal. Amen.

Hail Mary

Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâces, le Seigneur est avec vous; vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes, et Jésus le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant, et à l'heure de notre mort. Amen.

Glory Be

Gloire au Pére, au Fils et au Saint-Esprit. Comme Il état au commencement, maintenant et toujours pour les siècles des siècles. Amen.

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The Oil Crisis in the Gulf - For Once Can't the White House Stop Acting Like the Junkyard Bully?

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Last night White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told the press that the White House would "keep the boot on BP's neck," in yet another shallow and disparaging remark to corporate America. He was echoing the earlier reference by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar when in two separate Sunday TV appearances he used the imagery of a Wild West bar fight to describe how the administration was dealing with the company.



"Our job is basically to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum," Salazar said, who often sports a Stetson and who four months ago stirred the ire of the oil business by saying unlike his predecessors in the George W. Bush administration, oil companies would no longer be treated like "kings of the world."



Of course this is the same Ken Salazar who, when he was a senator, had to apologize after calling Christian conservative leader James Dobson "the antichrist of the world." Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made clear yesterday that the step-on-the-neck image had the White House seal of approval.



The White House thugs keep trying to distance themselves from big business and Wall Street as they secretly continue shaking down the corporate PACs and executives for campaign contributions to try and save the Democrats who supported their legislative program, a program in sharp contrast to the will of the people of America.



The Chairman of BP previously stated the company was going to pay for the cost of the clean up. BP is also the only oil company on television promoting energy independence through a combination of alternative and conventional energy techniques, the only logical way for America to break our dependence on foreign oil.

So what is to be gained by the strident language and threats from the bully boys? No matter how tough the White House gang tries to be, they were the darling of Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies, big banks the housing and health companies and even Goldman Sachs. Calling corporate America on the carpet while stuffing their pockets with campaign contributions from them is demeaning.



If they were really sincere in beating up corporate America they would give back the hundreds of millions of corporate dollars they spent and the tens of millions they are raising this election cycle to keep the Democrats from becoming an endangered species in Congress. Fat chance the White House will give back to the fat cats the even fatter campaign bankrolls they collected from them.

Goldman was of course Obama's largest contributor. Obama was also the recipient of the most BP money getting three times as much as McKean. But then Obama was recipient of the most money from the most corporations of any Democrat in history so what do you expect?

So back off on the hypocritical criticism of corporate America White House people. Your campaign bank accounts were filled with money from those bad guys. We know how toothless your criticism of the big boys has been based on what you did to the crooks in housing, on Wall Street and in health care. Making idle threats while doing nothing behind the scenes is a bit ludicrous in this age of transparency.



Right now BP is trying to do the right thing. Stop slamming them for it. If they successfully cap the oil leaks it will be a historic technological event as never before have leaks 5,000 feet underwater that are covered with over 32,000 tons of debris been capped.

BP was pioneering deep water drilling and production four times deeper than ever done in history. If they can successfully stop the leak and isolate the cause of the engineering failure, most likely resulting from pressure 1000 times stronger than surface pressure, then they will make a giant leap forward in our desire for energy independence. Our energy freedom lies on the ocean bottom, not in alternative or conventional energy techniques.



You want to bully, go to New Jersey where they will put you in your place. Long ago Jersey people learned the difference between working up a steam and operating in a fog, where you seem to be lost. As our White House reps, you owe all Americans a little respect and common decency. Even big oil companies like BP can be doing good by pioneering deep water drilling and production.



We should use this critical time to encourage their engineering to resolve this potentially dangerous problem, to acknowledge their efforts to successfully drill at 35,000 feet which would move America a giant step forward technologically toward energy independence, and to thank them for taking responsibility for the accident.

Come to think of it, maybe the White House should try taking responsibility for something sometime. They can't go through all four years blaming everyone else for their trouble and making excuses for their mistakes. The people of America know we are all in this together. If we are going to overcome this potential disaster and save the coastal areas it will take the efforts of everyone, including BP, to get the job done right.

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The BP Gulf Offshore Drilling Disaster - What Aren't They Telling Us?

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What are the real environmental and ecological consequences?

Why is there so little known about the situation in the gulf with the BP drilling platform owned by the Transocean drilling company that is called the Deepwater Horizon rig? Because just six months ago it shattered the world record for deep water drilling when it drilled through 5,000 feet of water and 35,000 feet of ocean floor to reach a depth of 40,000 feet, or 12,192 meters deep. At the time it was the equivalent of Apollo reaching the moon in terms of scientific achievement as the deepest well before reached just 9,596 feet or 2,925 meters, in 2008. And that well, by Shell's Perdido rig, which was as tall as the Eiffel Tower reaching downward, was almost 25% deeper than the previous record.



Deep water drilling began in earnest in 2005 when the Kerr McGee Constitution rig first reached 4,921 feet or 1,500 meters. In 2007 the BP rig Atlantis reached 7,053 feet or 2,150 meters, a new record, until Shell reached 9,596 feet or 2,925 meters with Perdido in 2008. By September, 2009 BP shattered the record again with Deepwater Horizon reaching the 40,000 foot level, 12,192 meters.

Drilling a hole that deep does not mean producing oil, however. The first deep water well was drilled by BP in 1999 and called Thunder Horse but took ten years to resolve the new engineering problems the great depths brought about before it could produce oil in 2009. When Deepwater Horizon shattered the previous records just 7 months ago it achieved a depth four and one half times deeper than anything previously recorded.



What does it mean to be first? In terms of deep water drilling the biggest concern is whether the materials used underground can withstand the tremendous change in earth pressure at the new depths. Consider this, at 10,000 meters, less than the depth of Deepwater Horizon, the pressure is 1,000 times greater than sea level. Pressure analysis is an imperfect science at best as the different rock and salt layers below the water impact on pressure differently.

Until a well is drilled the real pressure cannot be known and massive computers monitor the pressure changes while the well is being drilled. Each time a record was set the firms made known that there was a tremendous engineering challenge to make certain the materials being used at those depths could withstand the pressure.



Once drilled the real work begins in testing and determining if the oil producing equipment from the pipelines to the safety valves will work at the increased pressure loads. Not clear in press reports is the fact the Deepwater Horizon platform was not even producing oil when it exploded as equipment was just being installed for the production task.

The Shell Perdido platform, that completed drilling in 2008, did not commence producing oil until one month ago, March 31, 2010. Two years between drilling and production was a new deep water record. The BP rig that exploded completed drilling just seven months ago. What had to be taking place was the installation and testing of the production equipment, by unmanned submersible vessels, far below the surface.

Could the massive new pressure requirements on the production equipment have been the failure that caused the well to explode and destroy the massive rig up on the surface? Most likely. The problem is further compounded by the fact the drilling platform then sank and collapsed on the wellhead more than 5,000 feet below the surface. That means the unmanned subs must somehow work through more than 32 thousand tons of debris to reach the wellhead. Simply stated, it has never been done and seems unlikely the current submersibles could achieve such a task.



If they fail to stop the flow of crude oil an alternate well must be dug which could take 7-9 months or longer. The worst blowout of an offshore rig was in 1979 in Mexico and it took 9 months to seal the well, with over 3,500,000 barrels of oil discharged.

Ironically, offshore drilling has been quite safe. There are over 8,300 offshore rigs in use around the world with nearly 2,500 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Offshore drilling has been underway since 1947. Other than the Mexican blowout in 1979 and the loss of 3.5 million barrels, no other accident resulted in more than 202,381 barrels lost. It is a dangerous business but the environmental damage has been minimum.

Short of an engineering miracle like dropping a concrete cap over the wreckage and hoping to seal off the multiple leaks, millions of barrels of oil could be lost and the environmental impact could be devastating to the economy and ecosystem of the gulf states. No doubt a stronger government policy toward deep water drilling is needed, especially when wells reach record depths. But in the business of science there is no better way of learning than through experience. Often times it is the only way.

Once I was involved in an environmental disaster in which no prior scientific data existed to evaluate the consequences. Before this event nothing had ever been experienced to establish a benchmark or method to calculate the potential damages. The event was called Three Mile Island, the worst and only nuclear plant disaster in America.



The loss of cooling water allowed the rods powering the reactor to become exposed and brought about a condition never experienced in public records in the world. Did the reactor core meltdown? Did it sink through the containment walls and would it send out a burst of radioactive gas? Would it continue melting down until it reached the core of the earth? What type of damage could such an unknown catastrophe cause?

It didn't help that just 12 days before the TMI disaster Hollywood released the haunting film China Syndrome about just such a nuclear meltdown taking place. The public was on edge when TMI suddenly made Hollywood fiction into reality. That was in 1979. By 1982 I was chief of staff of the New Jersey Department of Energy and TMI was owned by a Jersey firm. The aftermath and clean up of TMI, which took from 1979 until 1993, was partly the responsibility of our Department.

When I arrived in 1982 the reactor core had remained sealed since the accident. No one knew what happened inside the reactor core. It was not until 1985 that the first camera was dropped into the core and the partial meltdown became obvious based on the incredible damage to the reactor rods from the super-heating. Thank God the containment held. A billion dollars and 14 years later TMI 2 was sealed, there was still radiation contamination of the concrete, but it was no longer a threat to the public. It was sealed until both reactors could be decommissioned which is expected in 2034.

The BP accident in the Gulf has many similarities as it was also a new technology being used where it had never been used before under conditions that had never been experienced. We can only hope they do not suffer similar problems overcoming the disaster. In the meantime, it would be nice if our government would come clean on the problems and potential for long term economic and environmental consequences
as honesty in regulatory affairs has been absent from the government for quite some time.

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