PoTUS Micro-Management of Oil Spill

PoTUS, a.k.a. President of the United States.

Here's a good article in the WSJ.

I had a feeling this was going on. Very early on in the crisis I suggested the president was treading a fine line with his intensive attempt to control BP's operations, a multi-national foreign company. At any moment they can tell him to f-off. What happens then?

Regardless, the politicized micromanagement of the response effort is done at the expense of the environment. The government is incapable of functioning in an efficient, economic or timely manner. This isn't a criticism of the Obama Administration. It's a criticism of government in general.

However, nobody in the Obama administration has ever run a business or handled a corporate emergency. They have no fiscal responsibility and no expertise in cost-crisis decision-making.

Part of me agrees with the government's thought process. "Keep recovering oil and flaring gas. Stick with the plan. Wait for the relief wells."

But BP engineers think they can static kill the well now, while the new cap is in place and holding. Maybe they're right. Maybe they know something about the relief wells they're not saying, e.g. that the relief wells are a long shot and that they always were.

At this point, you have no choice. You have to go with the experts. You have to look at the risks of not taking advantage of the lower pressure in the well bore; before it builds up again, maybe try a static kill with heavy mud.

Adapt and improvise.

PoTUS isn't sure. He wants more tests, more research, more time to weigh the risks.

Time is the killer, for sure.

~seabgb