BP needs a break, Obama needs a czar, governors need a friend, and TV news needs a long vacation!

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If the news shows were required to use fact checkers before the talking heads went on the air and made their latest wild claim as to why the "other" guys are incompetent, in other words if they were required to tell the truth with no exaggerated distortion, then would they have anything left to say?

Imagine that, all the hosts and reporters for Fox and MSNBC, along with their guests, had to tell the truth? Just the thought would leave them speechless and I happen to think the "Sounds of Silence" would be much better for the American psyche than news shows on TV.



How in the world did America ever survive World War II or the Korean war without those news talk shows? Back then we actually trusted the news media, believed the anchors told the truth, and felt the news people were being as objective as possible.

When you turned on Walter Cronkite, John Cameron Swayze, Huntley and Brinkley, Lowell Thomas or even Edward R. Morrow on radio, you got the news. Not filtered, not slanted toward a social issue or political philosophy, not intended to help a sponsor sell product or propaganda, just the plain old unbiased truth.



Those were the good old days. Way back when integrity meant something. When story content, not speculative spin, really was fair and balanced. But alas, those days are gone.

Just today the MSNBC shows demonstrated yet again, and at MSNBC program content is a collective and shared experience, how the chain reaction lie can work. Once a speculative fact is told on the air regardless of the truth in it, every subsequent show on MSNBC repeats the original story, even if the claim is not true.



When TV programs have to tell lies and undertake character assassination for the purpose of getting ratings, then they should not be allowed to claim special privilege under the Bill of Rights, freedom of the press.

The Morning Joe Show, with their large cast of liberal elitists and one conservative apologist, were raising the roof because the Obama administration was letting BP take the lead on the disaster. Are they really that insane?



When Apollo 13 went haywire on the way to the moon and it looked as if the craft and crew were goners, the White House turned to the people responsible for the mistake in the first place, NASA and their contractors, to solve the unprecedented problems.

BP has already called in the top scientists and engineers in the world, from their competitors and from universities and public and private laboratories.

There are two distinct and separate aspects to this disaster. One is capping the spewing well, which may be done today. This problem is much like Apollo 13, it had never been experienced before because of the depth of the well, one mile below the sea. They have to take care of that problem and the oil industry experts are best qualified to do it.

The second aspect of the problem is the containment and clean up of the oil that has leaked into the Gulf. This program should be managed by the federal government, particularly the Federal Emergency Management Program, good old FEMA.



One can only hope that all the improvements made to FEMA since Katrina by Bush and by Obama the last year and a half will make it capable of managing the task at hand. A massive and highly sensitive environmental clean up and restoration of the wetlands, the marshes, the beaches, the Gulf waters and all the environmental and ecological aspects of the Gulf Coast states is required.

The White House needs a Gulf Environmental and Ecological Czar to oversee this effort. How can that be so hard for an Administration that already has more Czars than banks have vice presidents? For once they should take the unusual step of ignoring the left leaning requirement for new appointments and name someone actually qualified to manage such a disaster response.

There is much that can be done right now to set in place actions to clean up the environment or protect certain critical areas from becoming polluted. The Corp of Engineers, Defense Department, Homeland Security, especially the revived FEMA units, and other federal agencies can be doing things right now to help. Permits can be expedited, emergency waivers granted, agencies forced to break bureaucratic logjams and other actions that a czar could take.

Thousands of volunteers need to be recruited to help save the environment and protect the ecology and Obama could get it done. Emergency approval of government permits for attacking the oil must be granted from a variety of agencies and a Czar should be empowered in the event of a national emergency, to grant the waivers and permits needed to be solving problems.

National disasters are not the time for partisan politics, which makes the political fundraisers being done by Obama this week seem rather shallow and self-serving. Maybe his sudden awakening to the fact the only thing missing from the disaster was leadership, confidence, determination and responsibility, had something to do with the fact he is suddenly going to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast this Friday, and not just for a photo op.



The last bizarre story propagated on MSNBC on the oil spill is that Congress is inept because they cannot raise the liability limit for oil companies from the current $75 million to $10 billion and this is a disasterous situation. What is MSNBC talking about? BP has already said over and over they will pay all legitimate claims for the oil spill. They have already agreed to pay over $350 million for claims and they are just beginning to assess the cost.

If they already committed to and expect to pay out $350 million plus a whole lot more, does anyone really think they expect to pay only $75 million in total damages as specified by law. Of course not, they committed to far more than their legal and pitiful liability. Our inept Congress can fix that law any time, both parties already know it is nonsense and that BP has already agreed to pay the costs. Whatever happens it has nothing to do with the current oil spill. BP said they will pay!

BP needs a break, Obama needs a czar, the state governors need a friend, and television news needs a long vacation, so the nation can pull together and help fix what congress cannot do. No country on earth responds to a disaster like Americans if government and the press would get out of the way and let us work together to get the job done to the best of our ability.

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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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You Can Make A Difference in the Environment - Help Restore the Bay

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Once upon a time, about 375 years ago, the first colonists to arrive in Maryland sailed up the Potomac River and came to St. Clements Island and Huron Island right beside it and there they watched in amazement as hundreds of magnificent Blue Huron arose in flight at the intrusion of the settlers.

The islands were covered with marsh grass and surrounded by pristine beaches with wildlife as far as the eye could see. At this point in the Potomac the River is over 7 miles wide, just before reaching the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.





Today much of St. Clements Island has disappeared while Huron Island remains underwater except in extremely low tide. The Blue Huron still remain but in greatly reduced numbers. Civilization still is limited in this magnificent wetlands but upriver the ravages of civilization floating downstream have nearly wiped out the marshes, the oyster beds, the crabs and clams.

The government, state and federal, have realized the danger of this environment disaster and have spent nearly $6 billion trying to restore the watershed to the Chesapeake Bay but so far little has been achieved. Still it is not too late to atone for our prior environmental mistakes.





Some citizens of Coltons Point have enrolled in the Maryland Bay Restoration program to begin the long process of cleaning up the Bay and restoring the incredible environmental and ecological balance that was long neglected. Even if you have a working septic system it is still destroying the waterways with nitrogen discharges.

The Bay Restoration program is a state grant program to upgrade septic systems in the Chesapeake watershed with environmentally friendly nitrogen reduction systems, a move that will directly contribute to restoring the wetlands and water life that was once so abundant that it supplied much of the fish, crab, oysters and clams consumed on the east coast.




The cost to the home owner is negligible, the value to the future is beyond measurement. It is one of the steps needed to bring back the ecological balance of the Bay area by reducing the pollution from septic systems, not only the bacteria but the excessive nitrogen which destroys the natural environment.

New environmental systems now in use in Coltons Point have recorded a 92% reduction in nitrogen discharges into the river and Bay, an astonishing number when the goal of the program was a 50% reduction. Nearly 100% of the cost is paid by the Bay Restoration program and the Southern Maryland counties are competing for the grant funds.

So far St. Mary's County is far behind Calvert and Charles Counties in participating in this program which is a travesty as any money not used in St. Mary's goes to the other counties. One of few government programs that is a direct benefit to the people and the environment and a program that will greatly impact on the legacy we leave for future generations, the County must do far more to support the citizens and make sure St. Mary's people get their fair share of the funds.





However, you need not wait for the creaky wheels of county government to turn, for you can directly apply to the state for participation and we urge everyone to try, as everyone benefits from restoring the Chesapeake Bay. Be a responsible citizen. You can make a difference. Contact the state at the following site and apply for participation. Email is far faster than phone calls. If you need help you can call one of the approved contractors by calling:

Joe Gonzales or Peggy O'Brien
Concepts in Building, Inc.
Phone 410-326-6262

The official state online application site is as follows:

Maryland Department of the Environment
Bay Restoration Site:

http://www.mde.state.md.us/Water/CBWRF/osds/brf_bat_process.asp

Stand up and do your part to clean up our wetlands and restore nature.