Metro to Mountain Journal

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has become a nightmare. There is plenty wrong, but not many who seem to want to accept it as their fault. In the meantime, over 5,000 barrels of oil per day flows freely into the gulf.

Working feverishly BP came up with a plan to cap the well and capture the oil. The dome was created. Oddly enough there was no plan for sealing the wells especially at that depth, over 5,000 feet prior to the spill.

"At Tuesday’s briefing, David Rainey, the BP vice president for Gulf of Mexico production, said the company was employing a variety of untried techniques to stanch the oil gushing from the well 5,000 feet below the surface." May 4, 2010, NY Times

BP dropped the dome on the well on May 7th and 8th; but oops, it didn’t work.

It is odd that BP was drilling deeper than their known safety measures. They had never tried to cap a well that deep before, but still were allowed to drill.

As more oil spills and the probable cost of the cleanup skyrockets, even fewer people want to accept blame. Somebody has to pay for this, who is to blame for the spill?

The President is to blame for allowing offshore drilling.

The Department of Interior is to blame for allowing the Minerals Management Service to issue the permit.

BP is to blame for wanting to drill deeper than their safety measures would allow.

Halliburton (the construction company) and Transocean (the operator of the drill platform) are to blame because they seem to have followed odd procedures in bringing the well on line. .

Voters are to blame for not voicing their convictions to elected officials and candidates.

Consumers are to blame for demanding oil.

Unfortunately, we are all to blame and will all eventually pay for the cost of the recovery. BP might foot the lions share of the bill, but eventually BP will charge us, after all the recovery is one of the costs of doing business.

Engineers are continuing to work on possible solutions; but they are working in uncharted waters. BP has moved quickly to plan "B". The "top hat" plan will be the next attempt. Will plan "B" work? We can only hope so.

And once the well is capped, there are a few things each citizen of America can do. We can back up our voice with our vote. And as consumers we can reduce our dependency on oil products.

Happy green bicycle trails.