Frustration....

Day after day, I am becoming more and more frustrated with the situation in the Gulf. I am sickened and saddened by pictures of wildlife washed up on beaches – covered in oil, by stories of fishermen who are struggling because their livelihood is being destroyed, and by BP’s inability to stop the leak.

As I see the pictures of oil spewing out of the pipe, I wonder, why do these pipes not have some sort of shut off valve, or a series of shut off valves that can be closed when something happens like this? Or why can’t they remove the destroyed section of pipe and slap on a cap? Not some stupid “Top Hat” or “Sombrero” thing that is only able to capture a very small amount. Why can’t the oil industry as a whole come up with something to stop this leak? Where is the meeting of the minds? Why is the entire oil industry not combining their intellectual resources to come up with a solution? Surely there is someone, somewhere that knows what to do or has a better solution than anything BP is throwing out there. After all, this catastrophe is impacting all of the oil companies, not just BP.

My frustration deepens when the Government does something like putting a moratorium on deep sea drilling in the Gulf. How does this help the situation? It is typical of our Government to take an action that does not address the current problem. All it does is exacerbate another problem stemming from the spill – increased unemployment. There are many businesses providing materials and support to the oil rigs. The doors of these businesses will close. The employees of these businesses will be out of work yet BP’s broken pipe will continue to spew oil into the gulf.

In my humble opinion, the Fed’s need to work on doing everything it can to help clean up the mess in the Gulf. AFTER the pipe is capped and a good clean-up plan is in place THEN start taking about changing regulations and requirements for deep-sea and shallow water drilling so that the likelihood of this happening again is lessened. Don’t stop all drilling in the Gulf.

I could go on and on about my thoughts on this subject but I will spare you my further ramblings and I will turn off CNN. I will go to bed, but before I do I will say a prayer for those in the Gulf; the wildlife, the people, and even BP that they may find a way to stop this leak and clean up their mess.