As the well that was spewing oil into the gulf was being capped, British Petroleum was already finalizing plans to scale back on the hired help to clean its mess. The citizens of the Gulf area were promised solutions, but what they got was the opposite.
In an article published on July 27 to the website wwltv.com, Bigad Shaban wrote that “the amount of boats contracted by BP to skim oil, lay new boom and replace the old ones soaked with crude will be seriously slashed, according to area leaders. The current group of about 300 vessels will be cut down to 40.”
There have been many suspected reports on BP reducing its clean up efforts in the face of their own mess, some of which have turned out to be true.
One problem the people of the Gulf area face is that the dispersant used to supposedly clean up the spill has not effectively cleaned up the mess; it has only covered it up.
At first, the primary concern of citizens with dispersants was with the levels BP was using, the effect of which was unknown because of its unprecedented amount. Now we realize that there are other worries aside from the existing initial ones. The worries of the Gulf area residents now include BP evading real solutions; instead they’re seeking cover-ups.
Moreover, BP has demonstrated that the easy way (and the most inexpensive way) will be taken as opposed to the correct way, including those solutions, which actually provide real pollution abatement.
Although Galveston and the Texas coast was not hit by this spill, I can only hope that, for the sake of the environment and the residents of the affected areas, lawyers can force BP to make things right at all costs.
BP also rightly deserves stricter guidelines from the government and higher standards for itself concerning exploration and drilling. The safety record of BP is a great example of why they need to be monitored impeccably, to the point that they have little to no room for error.
A department of the U.S. government may have dropped the ball on regulating the organization, but BP is still the true culprit. BP should not come out on top in this situation, the people of the Gulf should.
Andrew Taylor is an economics senior and may be reached at [email protected]
