Tag Archives: oil spill

Fishgrease: Part III

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Yes, Fishgrease is back at Daily Kos. This drilling industry insider knows whereof he speaks. And he speaks directly.

His latest missive focuses on the executive team at BP, making them pay, and the rank-and-file BP employees.

Excerpt:

These assholes [BP execs] have destroyed the Gulf of Mexico and are in the process of destroying hundreds of communities, large and small along the Gulf Shore. You want to tell me we can’t make them pay for it? I won’t listen. The citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida won’t listen. Republicans, Democrats and Independents won’t listen. This is by far, the largest human and ecological disaster brought upon the United States of America by a single corporation and it is a corporation that just happens to have obscene quarterly profits. God Damn It they can pay! We can MAKE them pay!

What about BP employees? No. I dissagree, Bill Maher. Right now, we need the natural gas and oil these fine men and women produce. We need it badly. BP emloyees’ jobs and wages should be protected in all of this. Whatever that takes, do it. I personally know some BP employees and they’re fine folks. You want to know who is pissed off at BP executives right now? I mean really pissed off at BP executives? BP hands are! Most deep offshore work is done by contractors. Very few BP people are involved and almost no non-executives are. You have a few Deep Offshore Glory Boys risking the livelihoods and reputations of the vast majority of BP employees and let me tell you… these folks know this. They may not feel free to talk about it but they know it. In BP facilities there is zero tolerance for spills. A spill is defined as ANY non-dirt substance being spilled upon the dirt. If a BP employee drips a single drop of oil, glycol, lubricant, inhibitor or any other substance on the ground, they have to report it and they have to do whatever it takes, immediately, to clean it up. There’s paperwork involved and they fill it out, that day. That shift. Failure to do any of this is cause for termination. This is a no-shit policy and it is enforced rigorously. I’ve SEEN it enforced rigorously! Imagine what these good men and women think of what is being done in the Gulf of Mexico by a few greedy, self-important exploration executives.

Tar balls and junk shots

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The unbeatable Mark Morford weighs in on the Gulf oil spill. Read the whole piece, but here is a taste:

… what phrases and ticks from this particular epic meltdown do you think will stick to the roof of the cultural maw? What BP-themed verbiage will permanently penetrate the vocabulary, the American identity forevermore? Top kill? Tar balls? Deepwater Horizon? How has this event reshaped the American lexicon, and, by extension, our wonky understanding of just who the hell we think we are?

Maybe it’s “BP” itself. Really, is it not quaint to recall how, not a mere few weeks ago, those two benign initials used to represent so many harmless and sweet ideas?

Aside from British Petrol, there was “beer pong” and “buddy profile,” “blood pressure” and “bill pay” and even “bowl pack,” as in a nice fat, bowl of marijuana to be smoked so as to enable the imbiber to recline and chillax so as to not to buzzkill the vibe and concern oneself with the utter and ongoing devastation of the planet. Ah, simpler times.