The Oil Speech Obama Should Have Given
By Barry Ritholtz - June 18th, 2010, 2:36PM
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Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
June 18th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
“The political cowardice that has kept politicians from doing right by this country – finally on energy – finally standing up to the oil industry – that cowardice has been drowned in oil…”
Rachel Maddow kicks some ass in this video.
June 18th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Why can’t they put a “tent” like structure down there, made out of some high teck or even low teck material. weighted down on all three corners by giant lead weights, with a funnel and hose on top of it? The pressure would be equalized on both sides, would it not? And if built large enough the crystalization wouldn’t be a problem. Just a thought, perhaps totally crazy given the physics.
June 18th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I hope Rachel rides a bike to work, nice rhetoric but unreal. We are lucky that this is happening in the biggest economic slowdown since the 1940′s, otherwise oil would be going to $400.
June 18th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
So, when do we march?
June 18th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
What utter populist nonsense. Go ahead, Rachel, tank the American economy.
June 18th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
technology to build this heap….and no technology to fix a sprung leak? Yeah, right.
June 18th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Tank the economy alb?
How about all the new industries, new jobs, new growth?
We are going to run out of oil anyway – so why not pretend it has already happened and that’s it’s time to find a replacement?
June 19th, 2010 at 12:01 am
this was an excellent piece…so on point, i don’t even know where to begin…energy independence is not a democratic or republican notion…it’s an american notion that has been embraced U.S. leaders on both sides of the aisle for decades….but for some reason…hmmm, i wonder why…???nothing ever seems to change…
June 19th, 2010 at 12:31 am
I have said severel tines that the solution to plugging the leak is simple – freeze it.
it can be done with a simple casing and some bottles of nitrogen, the oil will start freezing from the outside perimeter of the pipe and flow will be reduced gradually untill the ice plug is formed inside the pipe.
This works. Let the BP come to me and I will plug the oil flow within 48 hours at a very cheap cost. Those guys suck!
June 19th, 2010 at 1:59 am
“What utter populist nonsense. Go ahead, Rachel, tank the American economy.”
——————————————————————————–
How many more times are we going to fall for that argument?
They said it when we wanted to remove lead in paint.
They said it when we imposed the Clean Air Act.
They said it when we imposed the Clean Water Act.
They said it when we tried to impose an income tax on the rich.
They said it when we regulated the banks.
They continue to say it for every single regulation that is put in.
“You can’t tax or regulate us, it will ruin the economy.” And as the commenter points out, we fall for it everytime.
The logic though is nothing less of cowardice. It’s not even idealogical. Look up Ron Paul, the most idealogical free market libertarian we have, and his view on pollution regulations. He claims we don’t need it. The reason? Well, if a chemical is proven, in court, to be harmful to our atmosphere, it shouldn’t be regulated, it shouldn’t be taxed, according to the libertarian ideal it should be BANNED.
I agree the argument is a little crazy. As are most libertarian arguments. But still, at least it’s genuine and sincere. But the argument that we can’t regulate a company or an industry because it will temporarily hurt our GDP is insane. By that argument, Jeff Skilling should have never been prosecuted because what look it did to Enron and look how many jobs Enron provided. Evil government lawyers, ruining a perfectly good employer and GDP creator.
June 19th, 2010 at 2:31 am
Rachel Maddow is a progressive liberal fool; as bad as this spill is, it was caused by human error on top of equipment failure. This too shall pass; clean energy? may be but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the road, pie in the sky. Maddow doesn’t understand. Maddow just hates Corporate America…now she’s turning on child poster Obama; childish…
June 19th, 2010 at 3:19 am
Oil leak – good idea to visit the Oil Drum, for instance, BP’s Deepwater Oil Spill – Why the Flow Rates are Increasing and Open Thread 2 from June 16, 2010. After reading what the engineers and industry experts over there have to say, if you think your ideas really might work, tell them.
June 19th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Rachel did an Excellent Job on this.. I’m not ready to give up on Obama…he has much to learn. I have to hope he’s a quick learner after this FIASCO with BP…ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION.
Rachel has probably better Educational Cred to speak than Obama with his own education. So…she should be listened to. Plus, she seems to have some “common sence” that Obama lacks because he’s been through the elitist system…(Mother a Ford Foundation Grantee) and his priviledged education that a kid whose father was a truck driver in NC would have had a hard time finding…unless he had exceptional connections.
Someone out there on the “Trader Sites” said: “Obama never ran a Dairy Queen.” I think that’s part of the problem with many who are in Power and Governance of America. The “Common Person” who worked at the Dairy Queen…sort of seems “absent” from much discussion. And…not the kid whose father OWNED THE DAIRY QUEEN who HIRED HIS KID… The kid who applied and got the job ..ON HIS/HER OWN…to work their way up. Could be Mickey D’s or any other way American Kids in the ‘Hinterlands” find a way to move up in an economy stacked against them by the RICH who send their kids to Harvard/Yale/Princeton.
Lyndon Johnson did at least put in a program that allowed folks from the “Hinterlands” to get into Havard, Yale, Princton in the late 60′s and early 70′s……..THEN MUCH OF IT DIED.
June 19th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Sorry but she has little credibility. While BP has had issues with safety, the industry has had a great record. The regulators allowed BP to go ahead even though it has had a terrible safety record and has chosen to move away from fossil fuels as it pursued rent seeking activities that would have it become a huge winner from the cap and trade scam. The fact that some oil got to shore is not just a BP issue but a government issue. It was the feds that stopped the use of foreign vessels and stopped creating sand banks to protect vulnerable areas.
June 20th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Amazing how naive and childish! How do you children think we learn, by making mistakes of course? And that is what we are doing. We are learning, how to drill deep in the ocean and protect our investment so we can supply the energy pigs that we are. This is a messy and expensive lesson for sure but it is a lesson. The investment refers to the company and the needs of the American public. The idea that we don’t do anything until we know it is the right thing to do is the stuff academies dream about, not reality. What Obhama should have said was we welcome all the input we can get to help BP get this damn whole plugged. Not academic GUESESS but solutions provided by those with EXPERIENCE. 13 countries offered to help and Obhama said no. What a fool. Maybe bright, (book smart) but dumb. And you know what, you can’t fix dumb. Maybe the quasi intellects will get it when energy costs soar and we end up in a double dip recession. This isn’t a school room or lecture hall, this is life and shit happens I life.