The Gulf Oil Spill

The media and internet are saturated with stories about the administration’s failure to respond to Louisiana’s request to build barrier islands, its failure to use available oil booms and other technology, and its refusal to accept help from other nations, including Great Britain and The Netherlands. We also read that U.S. regulatory agencies have disallowed the use of dispersants and other technologies that might have ameliorated the problems. The administration counters that their efforts have been timely and herculean. There are so many accusations and counter-charges that the situation seems hopelessly complicated.

It’s not. The answers are really quite simple, folks, even if the media and the administration fail to grasp them.

The Spill

First, no reasonable person questions that this spill is a catastrophe – not the oil industry, not the Republicans, not the Tea Party, not the Libertarians, not Sarah Palin, not even the most rabid-ass drill baby drill conservatives – no one. So, will the liberal/progressive establishment, media, and administration please stop with the innuendos about some sort of greed-driven right-wing conspiracy. In fact, the only agendas that will benefit from this spill are those of the Cap and Trade environmentalists and their eco-terrorists left wing. This spill will be their anti-oil, anti-business, anti-capitalism, anti-America, and pro-big government poster child for decades to come.

The simple truth is that BP has owned full culpability. No doubt time will shed some light on mistakes also made by Transocean, the owners of the Deepwater Horizon rig, Halliburton, their consultants, and others. The Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that approved shortcuts taken during the drilling, also dropped the ball. There will be time enough to spread recriminations, but, to their credit, BP has stepped up.

Plugging the Leak

All of the expertise to stop the leak resides in the private sector. However this leak is eventually contained, it will have been BP/Transocean/Hallibuton or other private enterprise that figures out and implements the solution. Any action taken by government agencies will be to appease political pressure and will only delay and complicate the process.

The President is right. He does not know how to stop the leak, and neither does anyone else in the government, nor should they. No one wants to stop this leak more than BP, and no one can do it better.

The Clean-Up

This is the federal government’s opportunity to shine. Sadly, their performance to date is dull at best.

President Obama talks a lot about leadership, and there is little doubt that this crisis suffers from a huge deficit of leadership. Here’s what a real Commander-in-Chief would have done. As soon as the enormous scope of the problem became apparent (roughly a week or two after the explosion), the President should have called in the Chief of Naval Operations, the senior officer in the Navy, and given him the following order: “Admiral Roughead (I kid you not, that is his name), the Gulf oil spill is a national catastrophe. The following orders are temporary and will remain in effect until the clean-up is under control. You are hereby appointed the Officer in Charge of the clean-up. All other federal and military agencies involved in the clean up, including regulatory agencies, are subordinated to you. You have the authority to suspend any regulatory or administrative rules you deem necessary. You are authorized to mobilize as much of the US Navy, Coast Guard, and any other agencies as you deem necessary. You are authorized to request and/or accept support from foreign governments or agencies that you deem useful. You are authorized to gather all oil spill booms and any other equipment or technology or expertise from any U.S. agency or corporation or individual that you deem necessary or helpful. If any shortfall in equipment, technology, or expertise is determined, you are authorized to request and/or purchase them from any government or vendor on earth. I expect these orders to supersede all other endeavors, and I expect to see major activity within days, not weeks. Do you understand those orders?”

The Admiral will stand at attention, say, “Aye, aye, sir”, do an about-face, walk out of the President’s office, and clean up the spill. By the way, as the CNO exited the office door, it wouldn’t hurt to add something like, “Admiral, I expect the Gulf of Mexico to look like D-Day”.

This should have been done two months ago, but it’s not too late. I contend that, within a week of receiving this order, the Navy will have hundreds of ships and booms and equipment and experts and whatchmacallits on site and the world will once more be astounded by American ingenuity, determination, and will to succeed.

Post Script

By the way, Mr. President, I implore you not to be tempted to micromanage this effort. I promise you the Navy will move heaven and earth and get this job done. That’s what the military does. Any involvement by bureaucrats, administration officials, or politician photo-ops will gum up the works.

As a model, think of the First Gulf War. President Bush (41) commanded General Colin Powell to kick Saddam out of Kuwait. For the next several months, we hardly saw the President, but Generals Powell and Schwartzcoff were on TV every night. Once the President gave the command, he stepped aside, as it should be. Once Iraq was out of Kuwait and sufficiently humbled, the President stepped back in, as it should be.