Deregulation knows no political party .It began with Ronald Reagan and was push feverishly, by Bill Clinton and the head of Clinton's deregulation committee, Al Gore. I wonder how many environmentalists know that Mr. Global Warming Gore helped deregulate the rules and regulations that were set in place to keep the greedy corporations in check on safety and environmental standards, the demise of these regulations has set in motion a number of sequences for certain huge disasters especially in the oil industry.

A BP refinery blew up in 2005, killing 15 workers, the company vowed to address the safety shortfalls that caused the blast. The next year, when a badly maintained oil pipeline ruptured and spilled over 200,000 thousands gallons of crude over Alaska's North Slope BP once again vowed to straighten up.

In 2007 BP agreed to pay $370 million in fines, most relating to the fire in Texas, and BP's failure to follow regulations. In 2009 BP was fined $87.4 million for 700 violations at the Texas City refinery numerous concerning faulty valves, which are critical for safety because of the high temperatures and pressures, this fine was 4 times the original amount in the 2005 refinery explosion.

A refinery I Toledo was fined $3million recently for the same valve problem in the Texas facility.

These oil companies have been given the go ahead to self regulate as we all know these corporations can be trusted ya right, it is very obvious that self regulating has not been working and will never work when the greed of becoming richer and richer come first. If these slimy pigs spend money on safety and equipment then their profit will not be quite as huge. And profit always comes first and far most and always ahead of human life and the environment.

Reports have said that the company had drilled deeper than their original permit allowed they were 22,000 ft deep, far beyond the allowed drill of 18,000ft. The cement they used to seal the well was not correctly adjusted for the difference in pressure from the deeper drilling; the workers did not perform a second test to see if the first seal was holding correctly, the cement caused a chemical reaction and ruined the first seal it produced a bubble in methane gas that exploded. The workers were under pressure from BP CEO's to get the well into production.

BP also failed in having disaster equipment in place 24 hours a day with in a specific distance from the well the same scenario that happened in Alaska with the Exxon Valdez disaster. BP had laid off all the trained disaster response team, sent the ship to dry dock 12 hours away had no booms available to circle the spilled oil. And what is disturbing is that BP was not concerned about the disaster. (Using a 1800 law on whaling to get around paying the fisherman their loss of wages because of the spill) after 20 years of litigation and appeals by BP the fisherman got less than $5,000.00 apiece.

You might ask why the US Navy is trying to stop the advance of the oil up the eastern Coast where is BP's disaster equipment? These huge global corporations should have to have the equipment nearby and available to stop any oil disaster, after all it is their responsibility and it is the law.

Why is BP not allowing the US government access to the areas where the bird and animal wash stations are? Why are they keeping the count of dead and sick birds a secret? Simple the less death count the less BP will have to pay out in monetary costs. Remember it is all about money.

The US government would not allow the state of Louisiana a permit to construct a sand berm along the islands to contain the oil because there was no study to see how the dumping of sand would effect the environment! I guess it would be worse than having millions of gallons of oil washing up all over, personally if I were running the state of Louisiana I would have told the federal people to go to hell and the berms would have been constructed.

In my opinion the United States government has their part of blame in this horrible disaster, by deregulating corporations and not enforcing all rules and regulations that are in place. Instead of fines these corporations need to be seized, and the workers should receive their daily wages/benefits as if they were working, and the corporations should not be allowed to drill in the US.

Why is the US government allowing BP to tell the US government that they cannot have access to the bath stations?  The marshes and eastern seashore and wildlife belong to all Americans not BP. It is time President Obama steps up and stops the corporate running and ruining of our government and our country. Obama is a corporatist just like a good share of Washington. Please Mr. President grow a set

And get down to the change that you promised America.


STOP the INSANITY