The public relations debacle instigated by the BP oil deluge seems to mean nothing in the long-term business plan of British Petroleum. It’s all about the numbers. And the quality of information that is being spoon fed to the media is a slap in the face to free speech democracy. The gross co-optation of governmental bodies by BP officials is harrowing to say the least. Kelly Cobiella, a reporter for CBS news, tried to gain access to the beaches along the Gulf when she was met by a boat of BP stooges and two Coast Guard officials who threatened her arrest. A man from the Coast Guard actually said “this is BP’s rules, not ours.”
Matthew Lysiak, a reporter from The Daily News of New York, was told by a local sheriff that he needed BP’s permission to access a public beach, and that a BP official was required as a chaperone. BP employees are actually answering the telephone for the Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center, and BP officials denied a fly-over request by a pilot who was carrying a journalist on board.
The oil flow estimates have increased from 1,000 barrels a day to upward of 100,000. Scientists have been denied access to the deluge, and the flow rate estimates are actually surmised from observing a low resolution video. Fisheries are becoming toxic, wildlife is dying, ecosystems are being destroyed. This is deplorable. The entire event, from start to finish is unacceptable. The only possible explanation for this situation is that the cost-benefit analysis performed by BP would seem to indicate that, in the short term, keeping the leak open will enable them to collect more revenue in the long term.
Now, this is where it all gets dicey. Why would BP keep the oil deluge alive when it is obviously a PR disaster? Why would they not plug the leak and tap into the oil again later? There are several, perhaps dozens of deciding factors within BP’s maneuver, and it is almost impossible to know what’s really happening.
But why keep the leak open if it’s bad PR, which is bad for business? BP has already publicly stated that they are going to use all revenue from the oil collected to pay for the clean-up. That’s their PR move. But is still does nothing to answer the question of why the deluge is still active after nearly two months. Maybe bad PR is good for long-term business. More on that later.
Even BP’s “positive” PR campaign is fraught with manipulation and eyebrow-raising actions. After denying a request to pay for clean-up of the Barrier Islands, they spent $50 million on television ads telling the public that they will “make things right.” They even purchased search engine phrases to maximize the number of people going to their Web site, and minimize the number of people going to actual news organizations for information.
That said, let’s take a logical look at this situation through a financial-incentive lens. Oil is pouring into the gulf, causing BP’s stock price to fall, causing BP and its cohorts to pay billions in damages and claims and clean-up. At the same time, BP is going to refine and sell the thousands of barrels of oil they gather from the Gulf to help pay for the clean-up (and buffer their bottom line).
BP claims to have a plan to stop the oil deluge that involves drilling relief wells to relieve the pressure and then sealing the wells with concrete. But they are saying that it will take upwards of three months before this happens. Why aren’t they plugging the hole immediately? Why are they performing surgery on this thing that will take months? And why have attempts to plug the spill consisted solely of processes that would allow for future access to the oil? Aside from the top kill method, all procedures were focused on containing the spill but allowing for access to the oil at a later date.
It is quite possible that BP did not want top kill to work, as certain interested parties could be poised to profit from this envirocide. The hole in the Gulf could be plugged now, but it is not. BP officials stated that they didn’t want to detonate an explosion because if it didn’t work, it would limit their options. Perhaps their fear was that it would work, and eliminate the opportunity for investors to cash in. The problem isn’t a lack of ideas, but in the gross manipulation of our government and we the people by a private company.
Does the manner in which the federal government and BP are handling the disaster make sense? Obviously, no. It doesn’t. So, how do we make sense out of the nonsensical? We have to understand the factors at play; access, influence and control. We have to consider even the most imaginative scenarios because at the highest levels of governance and business, the temptation to retain access, influence and control is more potent than the draw to do what’s right.
The amount of money and power and political clout that the oil industry wields is mind boggling. This is not a BP disaster, it’s an oil industry chess game. The international economic climate is dreary, with positive prospects only in sight of the wealthy. The government is yielding to BP because of all these factors. Interest groups, think tanks and lobbyists are no doubt behind the scenes, making deals that determine when the hole actually gets plugged. People are gathered at expensive hotels, dining on the finest imported caviar (not from the Gulf of Mexico, for sure), discussing ways in which to profit from this disaster. If it drives the stock of BP down, that could be good for people who are trying to take hold of the company. Perhaps we should surveil the sale of BP stock as it continues to decline to determine if this is a systematic takeover in the Hudsucker Proxy vein. BP’s stock value has fallen by nearly 50 percent since the incident. Just before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, New Jersey’s pension system sold it’s $465.5 million investment in BP for a $5.5 million gain. Call it luck, call it whatever you wish.
Of course, this is just an example, and there are an infinite number of possibilities that create the need for a disaster like this to continue (or happen). It could even be an excuse to go into bankruptcy. Oil is not a popular player in the modern energy game, and any disaster could be an opportunity to position themselves for a sneak attack on consumers.
Unfortunately, it is not below human beings to use a disaster to gain something. During times of war, the federal government spends billions of dollars on weapons from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the like. Billions. In one strike alone against Iraq, the U.S. dropped $64 million in Tomahawk missiles. $64 million worth of missiles in a few hours. Not a bad day's work for Raytheon, the company that manufactures Tomahawks.
During World War II, the New York-based company International Business Machines (IBM) supplied the Nazis with the computers used to keep tabs on their eugenic genocide. U.S. officials did nothing to stop it. The battle for tanks also spurred a record-breaking spending spree on both sides of the pond, filling the pocket books of ingenious businessmen with no shred of conscience. Many human atrocities are lost or forgotten, hidden or falsified by the powers that were. Even in America, we still consider the battle for freedom was against the British, when really it was a struggle to contain Native Americans and exploit African slaves.
We must first acknowledge that anything is possible. Anything. That would seem easy if we considered our stories. The fact that BP is not giving us accurate or complete information is confirmation of their power. The fact that they are calling the shots, controlling government agencies and limiting government involvement, not answering letters from government officials, denying journalists access to information and providing false and misleading statistics, and preventing independent scientists from personally observing the leak is confirmation that the status quo is what needs protection, and the federal government is along for the ride.
The impotence of our government exposed by this travesty is inconceivable, especially after our executive office has denied help from at least a dozen countries due to the outdated Jones Act, which is easily waived as evident in Delaware where foreign-owned vessels are allowed to operate.
The true loss is not to the environment, but to democracy and the ability of the citizenry to actively engage in the decision making process. If we lose this battle, what’s next? This event is establishing a horrific precedent in government compliance with corporate strategy. What other disasters will take place in the future that will allow for democracy to be stifled? Is this the beginning of an Orwellian society? Or is this just a glimpse into the everyday happenings of global economics?
The tragedy is that we will forget about the real disaster, which is democracy’s loss to the oligarchical power structure. Perhaps that is the purpose for keeping the oil deluge alive–to remind us that we have no control, that we have no power. BP will obviously divert attention to the clean-up effort, and rightly so. But what will that do to the real question, Why didn’t the hole get plugged immediately? We will surely forget, because we must move forward. But with BP’s spit lingering on the face of democracy, it’s a shame we don’t jump on this opportunity and gain a real voice in the sea of political and monetary agendas.
If BP comes out of this with only a PR debacle and a massive clean-up on its hands, then they did pretty good. But if they come out with the idea that they can manipulate public land during a disaster, if they can control water and resources and deny fundamental rights to citizens, journalists and scientists trying to understand what’s going on in order to help, if they walk away from this knowing that they succeeded in controlling this entire debate, then democracy has truly lost. It will only further strengthen the divide amongst the haves and have-nots. It will exacerbate corporate influence on First Amendment rights like never before. Inevitably, it will force our minds to shopping, to our 401k (or lack of one), to our two-week vacation, to Big Macs and extra large fries and extra large concepts of America so we can forget about the pain of reality.
We must plug the hole ourselves, immediately. It will tell BP that we take ownership of our own destiny, and that the lives of millions of people and animals and plants and microorganisms are more important than any agenda. We will gain access to the impenetrable system by breaking down the doors of influence. It is a measure reflective of the times–an act of desperation in the name of democracy.
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