A More Admirable Intraparty Dispute

Since I attacked Allen Boyd earlier this week for blaming Nancy Pelosi for November losses, I thought it only appropriate I weigh in on reports of Bill Nelson coming after Barack Obama. But I must say, I have very different view here.

The St. Pete Times is reporting that Florida's senior senator is angry at the White House for its soft approach to a number of very local problems. On his list of beefs are weak support for NASA, the BP claims process and a disappointing home foreclosure program. And I have to say, it is hard to find fault with Nelson's complaints.

The foreclosure program was teased during one of Obama's first town halls, one held in Fort Myers where I was present. At the time, he suggested very strongly that people who were underwater on their homes would be eligible for a new program to help fill that gap between the value of a home and the debt still owed. Problem is that the program, like so many efforts from Washington of late, was aimed at helping banks more than homeowners. An enormous number of underwater homeowners, including myself, couldn't prove they were far enough up crap creek to qualify for help. Those who could get help were in such dire straights it really made more sense to walk away, all associated personal shame aside.

Now, I have made my feelings known about NASA. I understand why Obama is doing what he is doing, but I also understand why Nelson, who has gone into space himself aboard a NASA shuttle, would fight so hard. And from a jobs perspective, it is truly terrible timing to stop shuttle launches when there isn't exactly a lot of opportunity for highly-skilled NASA layoff victims.

Then there is BP. This is a disaster which just won't stop hurting the administration. When Tony Hayward is having more PR success than the White House, something is wrong. The people should still be angry at BP, but they seem to have more lingering frustration with Obama.

So I think Nelson's arguments with the White House are justified. Plus, these are not problems which are antagonistic to progressives, the way Boyd's assault on Pelosi's leadership clearly was. But another thing separates Boyd and Nelson. Boyd only decided to complain after he got his bottom handed to him by voters this month. Nelson is most assuredly making noise now because he is up for re-election in 2012, but he is coming out now in hopes the administration can do something about all this.

The thing is, these problems will become a noose around the neck of a sitting Democratic senator if they can't get fixed in two years. No matter how much Nelson attacks the White House, he will be blamed for their failures, and he knows it.

But so will the White House. Florida will absolutely be a swing state again in 2012, and Obama will be in a far more defensive posture next go-round. He will need this state, whereas it was just gravy two years ago. Nelson's tough love could make a difference not only in his chances for re-election, but in Obama's.

Now we just need the White House to listen.

Is it Over?

BP says the well is capped. They make no promises, and still refer to this as a test. But I think the caution is a welcome addition to the company's approach.

Seeing as the most attention this site ever got was when I called for a boycott of BP, it seems only fair I release the whole statement below. But I will also make clear I have no intention to stop by a station with the green and yellow logo on my way home to work today. This is not the end of our national nightmare. It is more like waking up the first time Freddie Kreuger showed up in a dream. You've gotten away from the frightening demon for now, but you know you will have to face the nightmare again. We still have millions of gallons on oil off our West Coast. It is still coming this way. And while this may help Tony get his life back, those of us living on the Gulf Coast will have trouble sleeping for a long time.

Here is the statement from BP:

Following installation of the capping stack and in line with the procedure approved by the National Incident Commander and Unified Area Command, the well integrity test on the MC252 well commenced today.

The well integrity test will last at least 6 hours and could last up to 48 hours. During the test, the three ram capping stack is closed, effectively shutting in the well and all sub-sea containment systems (namely, the Q4000 and Helix Producer systems) have been temporarily stopped. Although it cannot be assured, it is expected that no oil will be released to the ocean during the test. Even if no oil is released during the test, this will not be an indication that oil and gas flow from the wellbore has been permanently stopped.

Information gathered during the test will be reviewed with the relevant government agencies, including the federal science team, to determine next steps.

The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured.

During the well integrity test, operations on the first relief well have been temporarily stopped while the well was at 17,840 ft as a precaution. Operations on the second relief well have been temporarily suspended at 15,874 feet to ensure that there is no interference with the first relief well. The relief wells remain the sole means to permanently seal and isolate the well.

Obama's BP

Sen. Bill Nelson took a bold step today demanding the government step in and take over clean-up of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This comes on the heels of gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink sending a strongly-worded letter to President Obama crying out for help. Partisan politics delayed these calls to action far too long.

The Obama administration has tragically fallen far short of expectations on this whole affair. The White House has been too trusting of BP's own estimates of the spill. The Coast Guard is startlingly defensive of CEO Tony Hayward, with Commandant Thad Allen stating absurdly he was "satisfied with the coordination that's going on." Interior Secretary Ken Salazar backs further drilling, despite stark evidence companies don't have the necessary technology to deal with this sort of devestation. And Obama himself has yet to rescind a poorly-timed announcement of support for drilling.

For too long, nuts on the right were the only loud voices being on the spill. When conservative blogs aren't completely minimizing the oil spill's devestation, they have dubbied this Obama's Katrina. I find such labels laughable and futile, as they both remind people of a screw-up by your guy and juxtapose events so specific and devastating that the comparison is at best imperfect. This is very different from Katrina other than geographic proximity. The spill is a man-made disaster. The response was deemed the responsibility of a private company, so the federal government was not just slow but absent. The impact of this will be economic and environmental, with no direct consequence as bad as the loss of life in a major American city but with effects which will linger for years.

This is not Obama's Katrina. This is Obama's BP. And unless there is a major turnaround, people for years will reference it as one of the major screw-ups by the White House.

The problem has been that BP was allowed to dictate remediation efforts, and they have different interests in mind than the public good. Even now, the company is trying to find alternatives to a top kill. I don't know why such a maneuver wasn't the first thing done, but I have my suspicions. The company would prefer a way to contain the oil, to keep a flow going while stopping the spillage. From a corporate point-of-view, this makes sense. Why destroy this resource if you don't have to completely kill flow? But we are far, far beyond the point where that mindset is acceptable.

Obama reportedly said today that BP should "plug the damn hole." It seems so obvious. So why hasn't he said anything until now? The interests of America are not being met by this company. It is like hiring convicts to install security systems because they no more about theft, and hoping they have the interests of your bank at heart. BP intrinsically can't be trusted, and their own actions have confirmed that if anyone had a doubt.

It's coming for us.

Meteorologists are now saying that crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is in the Loop Current and coming for the Florida Keys. At least in the Sunshine state, this has been the great fear the entire time. It also is a pretty sure sign that there is far more oil here than any of the official estimates have calculated, but anyone following this disaster already knew that.

So what does this mean? The Florida Keys are the part of the state that should be the most concerned, and if I understand meteorologists correctly, then Southeast Florida is actually facing more danger than Southwest. Because the Loop flows well to the west of the state, then loops around the tip north of Cuba and flows into the Gulf Stream. Yes, that is a link to Wikipedia. This is a political site, and if you really want to know more about the science, I am sure there are better sources. What I can tell you is that behind Louisiana (the state with the closest proximity to the spill), Florida has always been the state most endangered by this incident because water in the Gulf of Mexico flows straight for us.

And in the Florida Keys, this is especially bad news. The delicate islands have a tourism economy, and also have little infrastructure for staging any type of massive cleanup. If this comes to Miami, the ability to respond is probably stronger, but there could also be a lot more money lost in canceled reservations. And God forbid if anything closes down one of Florida's major ports.

But we should all be concerned about this. The Huffington Post headline on the splash page now says "Flowing Toward Florida" in big type. I'm afraid anybody planning a vacation to Sanibel or Daytona will be reticent based on this news, even if those areas are less likely to be hit with large amounts of oil. Of course, most everywhere can still be affected. The panhandle is already dealing with reports of tar balls beaching, though reports last week seemed to have been exaggerated. That doesn't erase the bad publicity, though, and in the sale of paradise, bad publicity is not good publicity. If oil is coming down the west coast from east of the Loop, that could be bad along the Gulf Coast even as the bulk rushes toward the Keys and Miami.

I think it is time soon to start compiling the positions of Florida's major elected officials on drilling. Voters should beat the heck out of all of them for this.

Boycott BP!

This is too much.

Tony Hayward's description of the Deepwater Horizon Spill as "relatively tiny" is simply appalling. How anybody can stick up for BP now is beyond me. Apparently Hayward believes that since this oil slick is small compared to the entire Gulf of Mexico, it isn't that big a deal. Kind of like if we cut a one-inch slit in Hayward's jugular, the bleeding gash would be "relatively tiny" compared his entire circulation system, so it isn't worth calling a paramedic.

At the beginning of this, I think some Americans saw BP as victims to a certain degree. Executives did have to call 11 families, after all, to say their loved ones had accidentally been burned to death by boiling oil set aflame in the middle of the sea. Not that I felt sorry for Tony Hayward right then, but I am sure someone did.

Hayward said his company wasresponsible for the oil but not at fault for the explosion. Then we learned the company didn't even file a "scenario for potential blowout." And they had leaky safety valves. And they were fighting regulations to prevent this. And the back-up plan for having no back-up plan was a stupid dome that didn't work. But now they feel bad. But they won't pay more than the $75 million liability cap.

Certainly there is blame to go around. Halliburton and Transocean more than likely bear some. And never mind the lack of regulation. President Obama admitted as much today, and reemphasized the need to separate oil regulators and those collecting the leases for drilling. "For a decade or more, there has been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill," Obama said.

The more time passes, the more clear it is the the major culprit in all of this is BP. So stop protecting them, Sen. Lisa Murkowski. And please, Gov. Rick Perry, stop calling this an "Act of God." Officials who at this point are apologizing, and even advocating, for BP spit in the eye of justice. You want a free market? This is it. BP screws up the Gulf of Mexico, and nobody helps them until they have spent every last bit of capital they have making this right. If the company goes bankrupt before then, screw them. Get every last drop out of that slippery rock, and then we'll spend taxpayer dollars to finish the job, if necessary. Drain this company dry.

There is no public good served by helping BP. Oil companies, including BP, enjoyed record profits in the past decade. They reaped enormous benefits from drilling oil, and now must shoulder the cost to fix this disaster. Caps shouldn't apply because BP didn't make good on their end of the bargain by maintaining proper safety protocols. If there was any decency in Hayward's soul, he wouldn't even try and have that cap enforced.

But obviously, BP doesn't feel the need to take care of this themselves. The company makes billions in profits every quarter, and can't muster as much as $100 million for this problem. I think it is time we take action.

When you need gas and are coming up on a BP, keep driving. Go to the next station. If you live in the Southeast United States, recognize you may be paying for this disaster your entire life because BP will not. Don't give them another cent at the pump. Go to 7-Eleven. Go to Shell. Just don't go to BP. If the gas station next door charges four more cents a gallon, pay the extra pennies and know that BP is losing the cost of the whole tank.

If Hayward feels no great need to clean up a beautiful part of the world damaged by his company's carelessness, then I have no need for his company's fuel.

A Changing Tide

A new Mason-Dixon poll shows a mere 35 percent of Florida voters now support offshore drilling. These are the "We'll Never Learn" voting bloc that Marco Rubio is trying to woo. The new poll numbers are impressive considering a Palm Beach Post poll right before the Deepwater Horizon disaster showed 64 percent in support. Granted, comparing different polls is like checking your weight on different scales, but this drastic a drop is something well outside margins of error.

The question now is how this will translate at the polls. At this point, I'm a bit stunned every statewide politician hasn't run from the oil at high speed.

There is other curious stuff about this poll. Somehow, in the conservative Panhandle, drilling still has a plurality of support even though it is the area closest to the spill right now. I keep wondering if Alabama is running low on idiots, but I know better.

Some are already suggesting this is just a blip, but I think it is worth remembering this oil will be with us for a long time. I'm still mad at Obama for throwing his support to drilling, but that isn't happening in the Gulf of Mexico anytime soon thanks to this spill. Even if the White House hadn't changed posture a tiny bit, you simply can't get out and drill right now when a change in wind could move the slick right onto your drilling site.

And I promise when the Legislature meets next year (the soonest when leadership shows any willingness to discuss drilling), they will deal with opposition like never seen before. I doubt any coastal representatives or senators will consider drilling, and without them, nothing will go through.

We've won this one. Too bad it happened the hard way.

So drilling is perfectly safe...

Some barely-covered news in the Gulf of Mexico this week has reignited my personal sense of betrayal regarding Barack Obama and his amazing lapse of judgment when it comes to drilling. For those who didn't know, we had a rig explosion this week in which 11 people are most likely dead. We also had a very near-miss on an ecological disaster of Exxon Valdez proportions, with engineers initially suspecting the well opening on the ocean floor would leak everywhere. Still, we there is a growing oil spill off the coast of Louisiana.

But nothing to see here folks. The White House says there is nothing to worry about. Drilling hardware is safe. There isn't the same threat as there ever was, and besides, gas is expensive! Not that drilling offshore will change the price of gas in the next decade, when any number of external factors will have a much bigger effect, but hey, destroying the Gulf is bipartisan.

I still cannot fathom why Obama wants to open up parts of this water body surrounded by beaches so private companies can explore for a dirty fuel source. Last time he took an interest in Florida energy was when he came to Arcadia to celebrate the opening of America's largest solar farm. But the possible good produced by that clean energy source cannot begin to counter the potential damage from an oil spill off the coast. Imagine the white sands at Siesta Key or the shells on Sanibel being covered with a black residue, or if dying wildlife was running ashore along the entire West Coast of the state.

But that is all just common sense. Let's not forget that this was a politically disastrous move on Obama's part too. Let me remind you, the reaction of most Republicans when Obama just gave away an enormous and unprompted concession on an environmental issue was to say it wasn't enough. Mitch McConnell offered faint praise but said this step was "a small one that leaves enormous amounts of American Energy off limits." John Boehner said Obama was continuing to "defy the will of the American people," a reaction that was both staggering and completely expected.

Obviously, Boehner was especially wrong. I can admit the Obama on the campaign trail wasn't trumpeting notions like a stimulus package, and spoke directly against issues like mandated health insurance. So while it is still silly for Boehner to act like the voters are secretly pro-Republican and just punched the wrong part of a butterfly ballot, a clear mandate wasn't issued on many parts of Obama's agenda.

But drilling was a campaign issue. Remember "Drill, Baby, Drill!" This was a centerpiece of the McCain energy plan. This was Sarah Palin's rallying call. They wanted Florida to bask in the glory of the Texas tea, to smear it on our skins like German tourists using amplifier to get an especially leathery tan. But we said 'No!' Florida voted for a non-incumbant Democrat as President for the first time since 1976. And I assure you this issue was talked about in this state.

Then when it comes time for Obama to make good on a promise, to keep rigs away, to instead promote solar, natural gas, biomass, hydrogren or even nuclear power ahead of searching for hazardous materials off our coast, he fails us and gets nothing politically for it. He betrays us without even a cause.

It is a tragedy when Americans die during the hunt for a consumer product. It truly sickens me that human life is considered by some the cost of business in certain industries. But just as recent mining deaths have led to new scrutiny about underground safety, I hope these lost lives make people reconsider how we safe it is to drill for oil under our waters.