Why Is BP Running Things?

Rod Dreher has written on this subject before. Today, he has found an article he recommends from Mother Jones that further develops his narrative of government incompetence and complicity. He also recommends John Robb’s take on the subject from Robb’s web site, Global Guerrillas.

It is obvious that British Petroleum and the Obama White House are choking off news coverage of the oil spill disaster. This has so far served to dampen the rage and concern over the catastrophe.  Both the White House and BP benefits by BP retaining control of the spill. The government does not want control of a sticky and difficult to manage situation as well as the multi-billion dollar cost of dealing with it. BP benefits by avoiding government oversight of its actions in dealing with the spill and limiting its financial liability. Of course, the nation does not benefit from letting this disaster continue supervised only by those responsible for the disaster in the first place. I think in years to come this will be used in textbooks as a classic case of government failure both before and after the disaster.

James Pilant

One angry commentator discusses the issue –