The key about the disaster of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is greed and the cozy oil/government relationship existing in the operations of most major oil producers all over the World. The key is the artificially low cost of production that does not take into account environmental problems, accidents and the responsibility that all producers must assume to solve those problems and to maintain and/or reverse the negative and damaging effects of their operations.
This disaster will cost to many countries (not only the United States) more in dollars needed to repair it and recover from it than the full amount of all the oil producers put together might possibly pay to defray the whole damage. In addition, the environmental damage cannot be quantified in dollars and cents, considering that it will wipeout many coastal and marine species and damage for many decades to come the ecosystems involved, not only inside the Gulf but in many areas of the Atlantic Ocean -even as far as Europe- as the Gulf Streem spreads far and wide the crude oil spilled for many more months to come.
Governments should have limited the permits to drill according to the proven capacity of the drilling companies to maintain proper security measures and to devise in advance believable contingency measures to face accidents and damage to the environment. Such stringent measures would have increased considerably the price of extracting oil and the huge oil industry would have faced a lot more competition from alternative, cleaner and less dangerous sources of energy.
The keys to government regulation had long been turned over to the oil companies themselves, but the appaling fact is that oil producing companies do not have the slightest idea of what to do in this and other potential cases because they do not spend their money in planning to avoid disasters.
They plead absolute confidence in their drilling technology as if it were impervious to any possible failure. Therefore, 3 months will soon have passed with more millions of barrels spilled and no end in sight. BP is not making good on its pay promises for the clean-up, perhaps because it is spending millions on desperate pubic relations advertising and saving for the coming legal demands.
On the other hand, President Obama is being criticized by some for not responding strongly enough, soon enough, or empathetically enough. To name a new head to the regulatory agency overseeing BP and its oil rigs is change but do not solve the problem. It's too late now! Without corporate responsibility for the public good and without the government rooting out the regulators who have forgotten what their job is, it's all just greenwashing.
A few months earlier a Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, and many others were chanting "Drill, drill, drill!!" And just a few weeks ago President Obama was ready to let the oil companies drill close to the coastal line of Florida, its beaches and the Everglades ecosystem. They did not let themselves be concerned. They were irresponsible.
It is high time to turn away from petroleum as the main source of energy for the whole World. Lets try the winds, the sun, the tides and even biowaste to make cheap ethanol, among many other possible solutions. Lets make it enforceable that all moving vehicles must be more energy-efficient and keep the power of their engines at a level low enough just to run them at the allowed speeds.
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