Okay, after last nights address from the Oval Office, I am firmly in the camp of those who believe Obama is purposely taking advantage of a national tragedy of epic proportions in order to push his agenda.
Either that, or he is just totally classless.
The politic thing to do would be to say something along the following lines-
"Now is not the time to concern ourselves with energy policy. We have been studying and debating that issue for years, and will continue to do so, and eventually, we will arrive at a consensus towards a comprehensive energy policy. I don't know yet what that will look like in the end, but I know we have to get there, and some day, hopefully sooner rather than later, we will get there.
"But it is not appropriate now to turn this tragedy into a political stump speech. My main concern-my only concern-is to solve this massive, epic problem that is threatening our shores, the economy and the very way of life along the Gulf States, and working out a solution, a plan, that will insure that this tragic event will never reoccur anywhere."
Instead of that, Obama spent a sizable portion of his address pushing his energy policy. What is even more notable, the bulk of this was towards the end of the address. Granted, there will come a time for a large scale effort to diversify our energy portfolios, so to speak, but this was just not the time or place to dwell on that. What is worse, if he absolutely had to bring that into it, he could have been brief, and a bit more imaginative, but he seems to have glossed over many promising potentials. He never mentioned anything other than solar and wind technology-two things that could never, under the most advanced technological progress imaginable, on their own answer for the energy needs of the entire US-to say nothing of the entire world. Does anyone else suspect the fledgling solar and wind energy industries, along with the ethanol promoters, have deeper pockets than we might suspect, and that they are in fact deep enough, and wide enough, to hold a considerable number of Democratic Senators and House members, and maybe even a President?
Not one word was mentioned, or even hinted, about clean coal, geothermal, hydroelectric, or even natural gas. No word even on nuclear energy which one blogger here mentions would be much more efficient, and safer, than natural gas-which according to him is actually nothing more than methane.
But again, the main thing this address should have centered on was something he only vaguely alluded to-a need to treat this disaster as an on-going threat. He made that point, that it was more than a mere one time event that took in a day or a few days, and he talked of the need to marshal all the resources available of the federal and affected state's governments to bring to bear on the problem.
But he never offered any details, or any even possible solutions.
I think this is best described, as some have, as a war-like situation. To put it as concisely as I know how, send in the Marines. And the Navy. The Coast Guard and National Guard, while a good first step, will just not be sufficient to deal with this threat. Nor can we afford to diddle while BP churns, offering excuse after excuse in an obvious effort to buy time while trying to reassure their stockholders. Remember, this is not oil that belongs to BP. This oil is, ironically, a national treasure. BP has just been granted the license to drill in this specific area, extract the oil, process it, and sell it.
They should have to pay through the nose for what they have done. On this I and the President are in total agreement. However, in saying this, I am not intending this in a punitive sense. They should simply, first and foremost, foot the bill for the clean-up effort, and stand good for legitimate claims due to losses traceable directly and indirectly to this tragedy.
That in itself would be sufficient punishment. I personally have no desire to tack on an extra thirty or forty billion dollars in fines beyond all legitimate claims and expenses.
By the same token, BP has lost all rights to control of this oil well and its contents. It's time to bring the full weight of the US government to bear on this, something it has the legitimate authority to do, for once. There is much the Navy can do here.
How about a fleet of aircraft carriers, destroyers, etc? Large craft that are capable of holding massive amounts of oil are what is needed here. The major task, and challenge, would be as to how to extract that oil from the ocean. It would take some degree of ingenuity, but one thing that might possibly be considered is the prospect of huge, high-tension pressurized vacuum tubes, capable of functioning at deep ocean levels, perhaps extending from the carriers down towards the area of the leak, from thence suctioning as much of the oil as they can almost directly from the source, or as close to it as they can manage to get. Submarines might come into play here, something capable of monitoring the progress and guiding it along from below. There is even a slight possibility that some nuclear subs might be able to draw in large amounts of the oil through turbines and recycle it. This would probably produce some waste, by necessity (otherwise what amounts they could take in at one time would be negligible). They too could also be fitted to transfer the absorbed oil onto the tankers above.
Would any of this work? I don't know, I'm no scientist or engineer, but it certainly sounds feasible enough that someone should look at it and ponder its veracity. If such a plan is implemented, then in the meantime the Army Corps of Engineers can look at ways to finally and completely plug this damn leak.
Otherwise, its going to be a long, hot, dirty summer for a lot of places, and maybe not just in the Gulf.
