So now what?
What preparations should be made for the next hellacious oil "spill"?
A New York Times editorial has this to say:
One outside-the-box question that looms large is whether the federal government should now develop its own capacity to deal with a huge blowout. As things stand now, industry has all the equipment and experience. In an interim report to the president on Thursday, Mr. Salazar suggested the creation of a kind of parallel technological universe in which government would have the robots, the coffer dams and the other tools necessary to help control a big blowout.
That could be expensive, but Mr. Obama indicated on Friday that he had been thinking along the same lines. As well he should be. The images from the last month — Washington essentially powerless, BP flailing away — have been deeply disheartening.
Here's another possible solution. Make sure the government has all the technical expertise readily available to be "deputized" as blowout management. Leave the experience and equipment to the drillers. Make that their responsibility.
Have a government agency which makes sure no well gets drilled unless the drillers have both the proven experience and the equipment to deal with a spill, including the robots and cofferdams. Make drilling in the Gulf or anywhere within US jurisdiction allowable only to those who can prove they meet the standards and who will pay an up-front contingency fund to cover blowout management costs. No more MMS.
Make the corporation/s who own the drill fully liable for both the short and long-term costs of the blowout -- signed, sealed, delivered.
Why not?
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