Luke Judge

Everyone is sighing with relief now that BP has finally put a cap on the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. That cap seems to be stemming the massive oil spill, caused by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe of April 20th, 2010.

Time will tell, perhaps over the next few days, if the pressure will be OK, and if there are no other oil leakages identified on the ocean floor that could be being caused due to the damage BP has done.

Currently BP is saying that since they finally capped the gusher, no other oil flows have been found coming from the ocean floor.

Mind you, would you trust them to tell you if there were? They are not exactly a shining example of truth, openness and integrity.

IF, and I stress the word “IF”, BP does manage to have this devastating oil spill under control, and IF they also manage to intersect the original well with their two relief wells currently being drilled, and IF there is no further oil and gas spewing into the waters and atmosphere, then phase two can begin.

Phase Two? Yes, the clean up, which will take years if not eons!

Rikki Ott says: The oil industry has had over 40 years – since the 1967 Torrey Canyon tanker spill in England – to make good on its promise to cleanup future oil spills. This latest spill highlights the harsh truth that the industry has failed to live up to its promise. It is time for Americans to demand of our leader’s accountability and closure of fossil fuel industries – as we transition to new energies.

That’s all well and good and I do not disagree with what Dr. Ott has said. My question now is just where, with a few exceptions, are we going to find scientists and biologists and environmental groups who will stand up and be counted as telling the absolute truth about what has happened to, and will continue happening to those areas affected by this disaster?

Today it has been announced that BP has been caught out ‘buying’ Gulf Coast Scientist for its private contractor army. That might sound a tad farfetched – maligning BP in that way is a terrible thing to do right?

The true story of the BP disaster is how private contractors, not the government, are handling the response. Of the tens of thousands of people responding to the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of the nation, vast majority are under contract to the foreign oil giant BP. This private army includes workers shipped in from California making $10 an hour to clean the beaches, ex-military public relations experts, and submarine robotics companies. There are no contractors working directly for the government. The Center for American Progress — like many other outside observers — recommends that the government take over operational control from BP, to resolve conflicts of interest between the foreign corporation’s shareholders and public health and safety. (Thanks to the Wonk Room for these links)

It is reported that scientists are being offered $250.00 per hour, if they will simply sign on the dotted line, and keep silent about their work and findings for at least the next three years.

Can anyone say ‘Gulf Gate’? Or better still ‘Judas Money’?

How ruddy sad…… I was taught many years ago that everyone has their price, how silly of me to think scientists would be above that! There are still many unanswered questions lingering in regards to the scientific mismanagement of data in relation to AGW… anyone here play ‘hockey’?

Scientists from Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M have “signed contracts with BP to work on their behalf in the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) process” that determines how much ecological damage the Gulf of Mexico region is suffering from BP’s toxic black tide. The contract, the Mobile Press-Register has learned, “prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.”

I am grateful to thinkprogress.org for the ‘heads up about this disgusting debacle.

Integrity shines out bright and clear and Bob Shipp head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama — whose entire department BP wished to hire — refused to sign over their integrity to the corporate criminal:

We told them there was no way we would agree to any kind of restrictions on the data we collect. It was pretty clear we wouldn’t be hearing from them again after that. We didn’t like the perception of the university representing BP in any fashion.

Damn shame other did not feel this way! Perhaps in the future people will remember who turned against them and elected – for a price – to work for BP!

The lucrative $250-an-hour deal “buys silence,” said Robert Wiygul, an Ocean Springs environmental lawyer who analyzed the contract. “It makes me feel like they were more interested in making sure we couldn’t testify against them than in having us testify for them,” said George Crozier, head of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, who was approached by BP.

Come on people. It is you who have been damaged by BP, your health, your jobs, your future that stands to be ‘watered down’ if BP has its way. Are you simply going to sit there and let them and these turn coat scientists and institutions get away with this?

Decades after the Exxon Valdez spill, tons of Exxon Valdez oil still afflicts the beaches of Prince William Sound, just under the surface — more persistent than the lessons learned from a disaster that killed 250,000 seabirds and 3,000 sea otters.

Crude oil from the misdirected Exxon tanker killed wildlife, sickened cleanup workers and absorbed $2 billion in cleanup monies, and it doesn’t even rate among the top 30 spills worldwide.

What is BP going to offer residents and clean up workers by way of health insurance and compensation? Can you trust them to tell you the truth about what they, or their ‘Judas Scientist’ discover. They have already got these people to sign secrecy papers…. what hides in the dark will not be beneficial for you, your health and your future. Of that you can be assured.

Surely it is imperative that all scientific findings be made public as soon as possible? Surely it is most necessary that an independent body – that BP has no way of manipulating, have overall charge of the cleanup effort?

BP could not even be trusted to truthfully acknowledge the real amount of oil spewing into your Gulf….. Follow the dollar yet again, can you honestly trust them to, in the next few years, give an open and honest scientific account of the real damage to you and your eco system.

Wakeup people and smell the roses!!!! Or should that be the toxins? Trusting BP in any of this is akin to trusting GlaxoSmithKline or Pfizer with writing out your prescriptions!

Some references used:

Lessons from Exxon Valdez SpillExxon Valdez: What did we learn?The ‘hockey stick’ graph has been proven wrong

The corrupt industryPharma corrupt practises

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