Shouldn't President Obama create a federal Department of Emergency Oil Capping?

We have a department for everything else. Many for situations a lot less important as this.

Perhaps we could have a better name for it than the Department of Emergency Oil Capping? But basically we should have people who are trained in this type of situation with the proper equipment and expertise already available and ready to roll to shut one of these gushers down on standby at all times. Who cares what it costs? That is immaterial. This department needs to be funded by all the companies involved in this type of drilling operation.

Don

I understand the thought here, but remember, any new layer added to the Washington onion is hard to get rid of and opens the door for future abuse. Someday (and the thought makes me ill) the rushpublicans will get their shit together or some other party will rise and their view of such an agency could be drastically different. We saw a fine concept such as FEMA that was supposed to coordinate all federal agencies for a rapid response and turned into a patronage plantation of corporate hacks and political toadies. The same can be said of MMS that was supposed to supervise these oil leases and ended up turning into a literal whorehouse where the regulators and regulated ended up in bed.

The best prevention for a future disaster of this magnitude is using the laws and agencies currently in place and doing something they have been lax in doing for the past 30 years...regulating and having the power to punish those who constantly break laws. It's having an independent investigation of every oil lease (especially those arranged during the booosh years) and to clamp down on operators who have shown a contempt for safety and putting profits above the law.

Cheers...

Shouldn't we have that kind of equipment already built and ready to go? If we can go to the moon we should have some method to work efficiently under our own bodies of water on this planet.

Thats the biggest problem here as far as I can tell. Lack of proper equipment that can work at these depths.

Don

James Cameron has a submerisble that could reach this depth but he couldn't do much once he got there...it takes experience as much as the equipment to deal with such incidents and why the government relies on specialized contractors. NASA works in a similar manner as it's not the military that builds the rockets or even trains its personell, it's contractors.

In some ways I see this as a Chernobyl type disaster that makes people around the world think about the limits of our technology and to take a different view and approach in the future. Call me a foolish optimist, but I would like to see this disaster really open the door to investing into the widescale development of new sources of energy...wind, solar, liquid hydrogen and thermal...to make the drilling of wells both politically and economically prohibitive. Instead of spending $500 million (figuring in lots of budget overuns and delays) for a high tech sub, I'd rather see that money go to 500 small businesses that will create new green energy jobs.

Ahhh...to dream...

the leadership qualities of a pile of wet newspaper. There is not a decisive bone on the man's body. Maybe he could give a beautiful speech about a federal Department of Emergency Oil Capping.

Texas A&M includes a world class, first class petroleum drilling engineering curriculum at its main campus in College Station TX and a world class, first maritime program at its Texas A&M University at Galveston campus -- the academic source of the core cadre of people.

We could then follow two paths

• Require the drilling companies to buy the equipment and hire the people -- or have contracts with approved vendors -- as a condition of working a lease, or
  
• establish a new, separate, redundant bureaucracy to overlap and partially duplicate some of the functions of both the Coast Guard and the NOAA Commissioned Corps

.
Don't give this responsbility to the USN -- just another place to "hide" money. (I'm a USN veteran)

In my home town we have 800 "First Responders" that have incredibly expensive fire engines and ladder trucks, when 95% of their effort is medical emergencies, and only 5% of their effort is fighting fires. So, why create a new USCG or NOAA when we have them.