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Editorial
No Sign They Get It
Published: January 21, 2011
The final report from the presidential commission investigating the gulf oil spill rightly warns that government regulation alone can’t prevent another such disaster. The blowout reflected industrywide weaknesses, not just BP’s, it said. And what is needed is a “fundamental transformation” of industry practices putting a far higher premium on safety.
Among its proposed reforms, the commission is urging the oil industry to create a nonprofit safety institute to share best practices — and to bring pressure on individual companies known to cut corners. The nuclear industry set up one after the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979, and it has done its job well.
Bob Graham, a co-chairman of the committee, noted recently that other oil companies had been aware of BP’s “vulnerability” to accidents but “had no mechanism to deal with it.” That may be a charitable way of describing corporate indifference; in any case, an institute would provide such a mechanism while, one can hope, elevating the notion of safety as a collective responsibility.
So far, industry hasn’t said much about the commission’s report beyond the usual corporate-speak about the need to operate in “an environmentally sound manner.” Its main lobbying group, the American Petroleum Institute, appears determined to stick to business as usual.
Its first reaction to the report was to complain that nobody had given it credit for developing its own set of safety regulations years ago. It has also suggested that — with just a few improvements — the oil companies could safely begin exploring previously off-limits areas in the Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The commission came down hard on the institute, arguing that the group’s ability to serve as an advocate for drilling safety is compromised by its lobbying role and that it has long resisted federal rules whenever they threatened to make operations more costly.
There are some reforms only Congress can make, like raising the liability limits for spills. The White House, which could not pry an oil spill bill from a Democratic Senate, will have to work even harder now that Republicans control the House.
Yet industry’s role is crucial. To earn the privilege to drill for oil in public waters, it must engage in what the commission calls an “internal reinvention.” Months after the gulf disaster, there are few signs that the oil companies or their lobbyists get it.
Editorial
The Latest Gulf Outrage
Published: October 28, 2010
We have known for some time that a flaw in the cement used on BP’s Macondo well contributed to the disastrous April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. What we did not know, until now, was that both BP and Halliburton, the company BP hired to cement the well, appear to have been aware that the mixture was prone to failure — and went ahead anyway.
This disturbing disclosure is contained in a new report from the presidential commission investigating the explosion. It is sure to cause another round of “not me” blame-shifting between BP and Halliburton.
BP has identified the inadequate cement job as a major factor in the explosion and faulted Halliburton, on which it obviously hopes to offload some of its legal and financial responsibilities. The report has plenty of blame to go around. And it leaves the clear impression that two of the most important players in the risky world of deep-water drilling were doing their job on the cheap.
According to the report, Halliburton conducted three tests on the cement mixture it planned to use. All showed the mixture to be unstable and thus vulnerable to the high-pressure pool of oil and gas at the bottom of the well. It said Halliburton provided the results of one of these tests to BP on March 8 and that BP failed to act on it: “There is no indication that Halliburton highlighted to BP the significance of the foam instability data or that BP personnel raised any questions about it.”
Halliburton carried out a fourth, and differently designed, test that suggested the cement slurry was stable. But there is no doubt that the mixture actually used was fatally flawed. The report emphasizes that faulty cement was only one of a cascade of events, including the failure of the blowout preventer. This investigation is far from over. What we know so far is deeply unsettling and good reason for the commission to keep probing.
This is also one more reminder of why the Senate must rouse itself and pass an oil spill bill tightly regulating the drilling industry. The House has passed such a bill, and the Obama administration has imposed tough new rules governing drilling practices, including well design, casing and cementing.
We have already seen how the oil industry can game the rules, and the cost. That is why Congress needs to write them clearly and firmly into law.
Posted on October 4, 2010 by biosecureblog
Speech Transcript for Senator Bob Graham
Center for Biosecurity-UPMC Conference
The State of Biopreparedness: Lessons from Leaders, Proposals for Progress
Posted on September 30, Miami Herald
Florida led nation in mortgage fraud, federal commission says
Experts discussed Florida’s multibillion-dollar mortgage fraud problem during a hearing hosted by the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA Mortgage fraud is responsible for untold trillions of dollars in bad loans currently defaulting across the country, and Florida has played a starring role in the tragedy, a federal commission said during a hearing in Miami on Tuesday.A panel of national and local experts sat before the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission during a hearing focused on liar’s loans, predatory mortgage practices and shady home appraisals. They concluded that the financial impact of the fraud was more severe than most have estimated, and prosecuting those responsible will be nearly impossible. It was the third of four hearings being carried out nationwide by the commission, which Congress assembled last year to investigate the causes of the global financial meltdown.
`A CENTRAL ISSUE’ “Mortgage fraud is not just a side issue — in many ways it’s a central issue of this financial collapse,” former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a commission member, said after the hearing. “I was stunned at the extent and the dollar impact of mortgage fraud and its contribution to the worst financial meltdown in half a century.”
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/22/1835833/florida-led-nation-in-mortgage.html#ixzz11bcGNtsI
Posted on September 28, Wall Street Journal
Oil-Spill Panel Pushes for Subpoena Power
•By SIOBHAN HUGHES And RYAN DEZEMBER
WASHINGTON—The presidential panel probing the BP PLC oil spill isn’t getting full cooperation from witnesses at some of the companies involved and needs subpoena power from Congress to compel testimony, the commission’s co-chairmen said Tuesday. Investigators for the spill commission “have said they have encountered resistance to full response to their questions,” Commission Co-Chairman Bob Graham said Tuesday. Co-Chairman William Reilly said resistance to answering questions “is coming from various of the parties that were involved in and responsible for different aspects of the rig operation.”
