Capitalists try to deflect blame for oil spill

Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, is angry. Very angry. So is Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida. And on May 29, on learning that BP’s sixth and latest attempt to stem the gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico had failed, President Barack Obama said, “I am enraged and heartbroken.”

The capitalist politicians are beginning to realize that as BP’s credibility declines, their own dubious records are increasingly called into question. They know that the broad masses of people are stirring in response to the crisis, so their anger and dismay are tinged with political fear and mindless panic.

Even Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate of “Drill, baby, drill!” fame, has joined in and accused the Obama administration of failing to adequately enforce the environmental laws on the books.

Jindal is threatening to go ahead with construction of a large sand berm, even though the Army Corps of Engineers says it may do more harm than good and could leave the Louisiana coast even more vulnerable to hurricanes than it already is. Jindal has conveniently forgotten that before the current crisis, he was a strong advocate of drilling in the Gulf and accepted large donations from Big Oil during his gubernatorial campaign.

Of course, even the leading establishment politicians may be moved by the catastrophe in the Gulf. Dead sharks and dolphins are washing ashore. Crabs, turtles and birds are soaked in oil as the slick sloshes into Louisiana’s wetlands. South of New Orleans, chocolatelike globs of oil have shut down the public beach.

Not to mention that the extensive fishing and tourism industries along the Gulf Coast are threatened with virtual extinction.

Coast Guard officials say the spill’s impact now stretches 150 miles. Scientists fear the spreading plumes will catch the ocean current to the Florida Keys.

Now that BP’s balleyhooed “Top Kill” effort to cap the undersea gusher has failed, the enormity of what has happened and continues to happen in the Gulf is slowly sinking in, like the foul mess that is despoiling the entire region. BP has estimated that the relief well it is now drilling, which is supposed to be a “permanent fix” to the disaster, will not be completed until mid-August. Hurricane season begins on June 1, and forecasters expect it to be one of the most turbulent seasons ever.

How to blame the victim

The most outrageous of the apologists for BP must surely be Charles Krauthammer, a syndicated neo-conservative columnist. Recognizing the foolishness of drilling in 5,000 feet of water, Krauthammer blames not BP, not the incestuous relationship of governmental regulatory agencies with the oil companies, not even bad luck.

No, according to this die-hard defender of capitalism, “Environmental chic has driven us out there.” He claims that “we go deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all of the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. ... And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we’ve had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” (www.townhall.com, May 28)

Krauthammer’s use of the pronouns “we” and “us” in his diatribe leaves no question about who or what he is really for. He suggests that rather than in the Gulf, “we” should be drilling “where there are practically no people.”

No people, such as the Inuits in Alaska, or the crab fishermen in the Chesapeake Bay, or those in the teeming beaches of Los Angeles? He ends his column with the admonition that, in any case, people must simply accept the current situation, since “No one has the assets and expertise of BP. The federal government can fight wars, conduct a census and hand out billions in earmarks, but it has not a clue how to cap a one-mile deep, out of control oil well.”

Of course, neither does BP.

But Krauthammer sticks to his blind faith in the capitalist system: “What possible interest can [BP] have to do anything but cap the well as quickly as possible? Every day that oil is spilled means millions more in losses, cleanup and restitution.”

In other words, the horror and immorality of this manmade disaster is reduced to a simple financial calculation. The search for profits will solve all problems, notwithstanding the fact that it is this same search for profits that has caused most of them.

Hydrofracking: another disaster waiting to happen

The lies of right-wing apologists for the big energy companies are refuted by an environmental development in western Pennsylvania and upstate New York. There, a debate is raging about whether to commence drilling for natural gas in the relatively pristine Finger Lakes region, known for its fertile agriculture, wineries and beautiful landscape.

Geologists estimate that up to 51.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie trapped in the Marcellus shale, a massive underground black shale formation that stretches from Pennsylvania to the Finger Lakes. The natural gas industry wants to use a controversial technique called hydraulic fracturing or “hydrofracking” to obtain it.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently issued an impact statement, and the natural gas companies and some local landowners want the technique approved quickly. Despite protestations to the contrary, the governor and much of the state legislature see the drilling, and the money derived from taxes, as a godsend that could solve their current budget crisis.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, environmental advocates, several Finger Lakes winery operators and Native American leaders say the proposed regulations are inadequate. Their approval would likely mean polluted air and water, destroyed landscapes and health hazards.

Hydrofracking involves forcing chemically treated water at tremendous pressure into a well that is drilled into the layered rock, first vertically, then horizontally. The water fractures the shale, releasing the natural gas. Millions of gallons of water and chemicals are needed because of the low permeability of the Marcellus shale. This water becomes permanently contaminated and must be disposed of.

The process has already been started in western Pennsylvania. Although it has produced a lot of economic activity, including tax receipts and of course profits, there have already been problems. Last year Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. had to halt production after three spills in Susquehanna County within one month, polluting a creek and a wetland. The company has also been cited for allowing methane gas to migrate into drinking water wells, putting them at risk of exploding.

Pennsylvania is already running out of places to store the millions of gallons of polluted water. The Chesapeake Energy Corp. was forced by public opposition to withdraw a proposal to store wastewater in an abandoned mine near Keuka Lake, one of New York’s Finger Lakes. This is the kind of planning and “expertise,” based on maximizing profit, that is displayed by big energy companies like BP.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy of Native Americans opposes the drilling anywhere in New York, which contains their traditional homelands. “Even when things are done right, the impacts are devastating,” the Haudenosaunee said in a statement to the New York State DEC. “We have seen [the destruction of the environment] ... and most heartbreakingly the permanent disruption of people’s homes, lives and communities.” (www.hetf.org)

Production for profit means the continued rape of the environment and the exploitation of the people, who are part of that environment. Ending capitalism and replacing it with socialism becomes more urgent with each new disaster.