On Tuesday President Obama announced his "battle plan" regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil leak in a televised address from the Oval Office. He opened his comments reminding Americans of other challenges facing the nation: the current recession and the ongoing "war" in Afghanistan (despite his 2007 campaign promise that ending the war would be "the first thing I will do" as President). He said we're now waging a war "against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens."

Obama claimed "there has never been a leak this size at this depth," but others say the situation is not as catastrophic as the President's melodramatic diatribe indicates. Robert Nelson with the Miami Herald reports the Coal Oil Point seep field near Santa Barbara, California, leaks 150 to 200 barrels of oil every day with no adverse consequences. He also cited a World War II German U-boat attack on eight tankers in the Gulf of Mexico which spilled more than 18 million gallons. The environment recovered soon afterward, largely on its own.

A worse spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred in 1979 when a blowout on the Mexican oil rig Ixtoc resulted in a leak that lasted nearly 10 months and dumped roughly 3.3 million barrels of crude into the Gulf. And by far the largest spill in U.S. history is California's Lakeview gusher, which spewed 378 million gallons of oil on dry land over the course of 18 months from 1910 to 1911. (Apparently, Obama is still unaware of Lakeview, since he claims the BP spill "is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.") However, in both Ixtoc and Lakeview cases, the environment had largely or completely recovered within a five-year period. Experts predict the same recovery rate in the Gulf.
 
To put the current spill even more into perspective, author and regular TNA contributor Ed Hiserodt calculated that the Gulf of Mexico, which contains 660 quadrillion gallons of water, is one trillion times larger than an Olympic swimming pool, which holds 660,000 gallons. At the worst-case estimate of 1,680,000 gallons per day, the BP well would dump 610 million gallons into the Gulf in one year. One trillionth of that amount is 0.00061 gallons, which equates to 0.00244 quarts or 0.078 ounces or 1.56 drops. "Therefore the oil spill — if as bad as the worst report and lasting for a full year — would be the equivalent of one-and-one-half drops of oil in an Olympic pool," said Hiserodt.

These statistics aren't meant to downplay the obvious immediate effects on Gulf states' residents and their property. But it does call into question Obama's motives behind the catastrophic picture he painted in his televised speech Tuesday night. After weaving a tale of horror and devastation in the Gulf states, he said his "Gulf Coast Restoration Plan" would be more than a clean-up and recovery effort, encompassing restoration from hurricane damage and years of poor economic planning. "Beyond compensating the people of the Gulf in the short term, it's also clear we need a long-term plan to restore the unique beauty and bounty of this region," the President opined. "That's why we must make a commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment." He said BP will pay for the impact of the spill. But Obama was less explicit about who would foot the bill for his long-term plans which economists quoted in the Washington Post estimated would run around $30 billion over the next decade.

In his "President-as-savior" role, Obama also failed to mention the Gulf spill has reached its supposed epic proportions largely owing to federal delays. According to a 1994 federal response plan agreement, the government was supposed to keep clean-up equipment on hand in the region in case of a major Gulf oil spill. Ron Gourget, a former federal oil spill response coordinator who helped draft the 1994 plan told the Times of London, had the government held up its end of the bargain, roughly 95 percent of the spill would have been contained immediately. Owing to delays, the slick spread too far for the original plan to be effective.

Adding insult to injury, Obama has also pulled the plug in offshore drilling in the Gulf, imposing a six-month moratorium on an industry that accounts for 16 percent of Louisiana's economy. "In a knee-jerk move with perverse consequences, the President's total ban on drilling in the Gulf has created further hardship for communities already reeling from the impact of the BP spill," said Myron Ebell in a Freedom Action press release. "Now in addition to the tourism and fishing sectors ... the oil and gas sector ... is also being knocked down at exactly a time when its high-paying jobs could be helping to support families in the region."

Yet Obama's plans promise even further and more widespread economic devastation. He closed Tuesday night's speech with a call to end "America's century-long addition to fossil fuels" through a "comprehensive energy and climate bill," referring to H.R. 2454 which passed the house last year. The U.S. Treasury Department released a 2009 analysis of the cap-and-trade bill indicating the cost to American taxpayers would be approximately $393 billion per year. Companion legislation in the Senate, the Kerry-Lieberman "American Power Act," promises equal economic havoc. "There are some who believe that we can't afford those costs right now. I say we can't afford not to change how we produce and use energy," said Obama.

Others don't see several billion dollars a year as simple pocket change, and they view Obama's shameless opportunism over the situation in the Gulf as a threat to the nation's energy future rather than a promise of its independence. The Domestic Energy Producers Alliance says both Obama's offshore drilling moratorium and "onerous" cap-and-trade proposals are direct attacks on the domestic independent oil industry. Referring to the BP spill, DEPA President Mike Cantrell said, "Let's focus on the actual problem and not on off-target political agendas."

Photo: AP Images

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Righteous Dude said:

Thank heavens for the spill... For Obama this oil spill couldn't have come at a better time. He has skilfully mobilized the American people in to thinking that the BP incident is by far and away the worst thing that has vener happened to America... which of course it isn't! Firstly, all of his comment of the young men (and women) being killed in the Middle East has dried-up, and he's keen not to remind people about it. Secondly, we are hanging over the abyss of another Great Depression, and this helps people forget other problems. Thirdly, or perhaps firstly - if he's so caring about the people of Alabama and Louisiana where the heck has he been for the last 5 years since hurricane Katrina? It strikes me that he's looking for a scapegoat and BP came along at just the right time.

June 18, 2010

gaetano marano said:

oil spill stop . . . despite the BP's claims that, now, they "collect more oil", the BP's live video of the wellhead, CLEARLY show that it gushes EXACTLY the same amount of oil (up to 60,000 barrels per day) of the early days, if not MORE: . http://www.deepwaterbp.com/ . . read the (just published) update of my article, with my NEW idea to STOP the oil spill NOW, reusing (in a different way) the giant BP "dome" already used in the (failed) first attempt to fix the oil leak: . http://bit.ly/c8y9GX . . .

June 18, 2010

Vote Democratic said:

Government Slow to Act on Oil Spill, Has More Important Agenda! Written by Blake Chiszar contributing author of VoteDemocraticParty.com http://votedemocraticparty.com/?p=542

June 18, 2010 | url

Saint Even said:

... Of course Little Smoking Barry won't pull out of Afghanistan. We needed to stay there in order to keep the poppy fields safe for the narcotics salesmen. New York financing is deeply involved, especially on the money laundering end of things. Plus they just struck lithium -- essential in the manufacture of batteries in green cars.

June 19, 2010

J. Paine said:

get your facts straight I agree with the fact that president obama is once again taking unconstitutional measures because of this disaster but your missing the point. YOU ARE BEING LIED TOO, AGAIN! This is by far the worst environmental disaster of human history. This well is not only drilled 3 times deeper than the Ixtoc example you used but the 1,680,000 gallons a day is only an estimate. What if it's 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 gushing out at 20,000 to 70,000 psi? It is not just gushing oil like the natural coal oil point, but toxic chemicals like benzene and methane at lethal levels. Oh and bp was criminally negligent during the entire time drilling that well too, which will come to light in the future. Emperor obama is wrong but he's not allowed to let a disaster go to waste. This oil spill is a bigger catastrophe than you make it seem.

June 22, 2010

Lee Gonzales said:

Let's go swimming in that Olympic pool "To put the current spill even more into perspective, author and regular TNA contributor Ed Hiserodt calculated that the Gulf of Mexico, which contains 660 quadrillion gallons of water, is one trillion times larger than an Olympic swimming pool, which holds 660,000 gallons. At the worst-case estimate of 1,680,000 gallons per day, the BP well would dump 610 million gallons into the Gulf in one year. One trillionth of that amount is 0.00061 gallons, which equates to 0.00244 quarts or 0.078 ounces or 1.56 drops. "Therefore the oil spill — if as bad as the worst report and lasting for a full year — would be the equivalent of one-and-one-half drops of oil in an Olympic pool," ===Ed Hiserodt.

June 24, 2010

Lian Han EDF said:

A Call to Action As I'm reading the comments to this article, I can't help but wonder why our response to this disaster is looking at everything through some sort of political lens. Why should we even be arguing if the oil spill is "that bad?" The deeper question is probing into our dependence on fossil fuels, and the fact that these are the risks that we take when we harness our industrial and social development on crude oil. What we need to be doing is pushing for unilateral support for some sort of climate regulatory bill. BP has recently been positioning itself as a "green" company through brand redesign and market positioning. This is all bogus because the root of the problem is the industry, not the company. Write to your senators and support strong climate legislation.

July 13, 2010 | url