Oil spill testimony to Congress: Not our fault

Source: AP

By H. JOSEF HEBERT

WASHINGTON (AP) - BP PLC (BP) told Congress Tuesday its massive Gulf oil spill was caused by the failure of a key safety device made by another company. In turn, that company said BP was in charge, and that a third company that poured concrete to plug the exploratory well didn't do it right. The third company, which was plugging the well in anticipation of future production, says it was only following BP's plan.

The blame game shot into the open Tuesday as the Senate began a hearing into the oil spill that has been contaminating water in the Gulf of Mexico for three weeks and threatens sensitive marshes and marine life from Louisiana to Florida.

Executives of the three companies, testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, acknowledged investigators have yet to pinpoint definitively the cause of the well explosion April 20 or why the oil was not contained, but they spent little time before trying to shift responsibility for the environmental crisis to each other.

In opening the hearing, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the committee's chairman, said the failures that led to explosion and spill need to be closely examined so new safety measures can be imposed.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100511/D9FKS9200.html

A bunch of politicians looking at a complicated set of complex engineering and (inter)national legal issues acts like they'll get to the bottom of it and be able to draw up insightful and comprehensive, wise and efficient laws and regulations after a few score hours of public hearings.

I have to assume that they all have their PhDs in petroleum engineering, international law, chemistry and materials science, and understand fluid dynamics and statics very, very well. They've probably worked out innovative and ground-breaking exact solutions to the equations modelling what went wrong, so can point precisely to every failure along the way.

Right.

They don't have a clue, but have to be seen as doing something. Then they have to be seen as having done something. What--not so important. Being seen, ah, there's the crux of the matter. And to be seen in a good light, doing something forceful against the enemies of the people.

:rofl:

Freeze their assets and just take the money and let them sue each other. Why should we spend money to help them figure out who screwed up. I am fed up with these people. Throw their butts in jail starting at the top and work the way down.