Tag: Gulf Oil Spill

Let’s Make The Armed Forces Eat Gulf Seafood!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics

This is from Washington’s Blog. The original title is Secretary of the Navy Hatches Brilliant Plan to Sell More Gulf Seafood and Transport Oil to the War Zone.

From the Times-Picayune –

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who doubles as President Barack Obama’s point man on Gulf Coast oil spill recovery, is pressing America’s armed services to consume as much Gulf seafood as possible.

Navy Capt. Beci Brenton said Monday that Mabus has talked with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the secretaries of the Air Force and Army, and his staff has talked to the Defense Commissary Agency, which operates a worldwide chain of stores for military personnel, making the point “that we should be buying Gulf Coast seafood.”

In a meeting Monday with Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, Mabus reaffirmed his commitment to using the tools at his disposal to help the Gulf seafood industry recover from the damage the BP oil spill has done in reality and perception. The board is gearing up for a large-scale national marketing campaign, with $30 million in BP money and millions more in federal dollars, to reassure restaurants and markets across the country that Gulf seafood is safe.

Okay, they are having trouble selling seafood that may be (or is) contaminated with oil or chemical dispersant and the armed services are being pressured to buy some. Since the fellow in question is Secretary of the Navy, we should probably put the word, pressured, in quotation marks and note that the armed services (at least the navy) are going to buy gulf coast sea food.

Is this wise?

In about twenty years, when we can get some good data on the long term health effects, we will have a clear picture of whether or not this was a good idea.

In my mind, if there is choice between seafood from the gulf and somewhere else, that really isn’t a choice. I don’t like oil in my food. I’m just weird that way.

Thanks to the anonymous guys at Washington’s Blog for bringing this to my attention.

James Pilant

Blow Out Preventer On BP Rig Would Have Cost 1/2 Million

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Blow Out Preventer On BP Rig Would Have Cost 1/2 Million

That’s right folks. According to the Houston Chronicle, a blow out preventer on the rig would half cost an astronomical 1/2 million dollars. Oh the horror! I can see the giant multi national corporation British Petroleum teetering into bankruptcy and, God knows, what do you think?, $300 dollars a barrel for oil and gasoline so precious we have to trade pure gold for it?

A half mil doesn’t even come close to an executive bonus. A half million is chicken feed, chump change, pocket money, etc. and they wouldn’t spend it.

In 2003, the Department of Interior’s Mineral Managements Service reversed a Clinton era decision to require the preventers. All Hail! Hosanna to the free market. We all know that companies confronted by the real world will do what’s best for the public because it’s in their interest.Isn’t that the Friedman doctrine? A perfect world run by perfectly coordinated self interest. Don’t you love it? It works perfectly. In the financial world, in coal mines, with baby cribs and now with off shore drilling we find that impersonal market forces drive the highly intelligent, hard working corporate boardroom elites toward the best possible decisions.

Or it could be such total blithering nonsense that only a self interested business buffoon could take it seriously. Just maybe?

Now, a fairly large proportion of America’s sea coast is being or about to be struck by an oil slick larger than an average European nation. I’m thrilled.

I don’t know if a half million dollar preventer would have averted the crisis, but I do wish someone had tried it.

James Pilant