Today I woke up to a disturbing Facebook message from my pal and excellent source, Hugh Kaufman, senior policy analyst with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He accompanied the note with a link to a Huffington Post article that made us all want to scream, cry, and as Hugh says, throw up:
I know the high level folks at the big oil companies, like BP, have no conscience or shame.
I know the right wing Republicans and Rush Limbaugh have no conscience or shame.
But I didn’t know, until this, that President Obama, and his top staff, have no conscience or shame.
I feel like throwing up!
Here are a few excerpts from that extensive MUST READ piece at HuffPo:
The numbers of birds, fish, turtles, and mammals killed by the use of Corexit will never be known as the evidence strongly suggests that BP worked with the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the FAA, private security contractors, and local law enforcement, all of which cooperated to conceal the operations disposing of the animals from the media and the public.
The majority of the disposal operations were carried out under cover of darkness. The areas along the beaches and coastal Islands where the dead animals were collected were closed off by the U.S. Coast Guard. On shore, private contractors and local law enforcement officials kept off limits the areas where the remains of the dead animals were dumped, mainly at the Magnolia Springs landfill by Waste Management where armed guards controlled access. The nearby weigh station where the Waste Management trucks passed through with their cargoes was also restricted by at least one Sheriff’s deputies in a patrol car, 24/7. [...]
Robyn Hill, who was Beach Ambassador for the City of Gulf Shores until she became so ill she collapsed on the job one morning, was at a residential condominium property adjacent to the Gulf Shores beach when she smelled an overwhelming stench. She went to see where the odor was coming from and witnessed two contract workers dumping plastic bags full of dead birds and fish in a residential Waste Management dumpster, which was then protected by a security guard. Within five minutes, a Waste Management collection truck emptied the contents and the guard departed.
I do not want to believe this. Any of it. I admire our president, I voted for him, I rallied for him, I donated to him, and I continue to support him when he fights the bad guys, goes green(er), rights BushCo’s wrongs, and demonstrates his obvious brilliance so as to benefit this country. We don’t always agree, but I’ve stood by him.
But now, after reading this, I need answers, and I want to hear them from President Obama himself. I want to know what he could he say to possibly justify these actions.
Marine biologist Riki Ott:
“Well I have been down in the Gulf since May 3rd. It’s pretty consistent what I have heard. First I heard from the offshore workers and the boat captains that were coming in and they would see windrows of dead things piled up on the barrier islands; turtles and birds and dolphins… whales… [...]
[W]e know that offshore there was an attempt by BP and the government to keep the animals from coming onshore in great numbers. The excuse was this was a health problem — we don’t want to create a health hazard. That would only be a good excuse if they kept tallies of all the numbers because all the numbers – all the animals – are evidence for federal court.”
Please watch Jerry Cope’s interview with Ott:
The piece also gets into the deadly effects of dispersants.
Now why would BP want to hide this nightmarish activity? I mean other than it would make them look like the corporate monsters that they are:
The reason BP has gone to such great lengths to hide the devastation caused by the irresponsible drilling operations and blow out at Mississippi Canyon 252 is financial. Every death that results from the oil spill has a cash value, whether animal or human. Images of dead animals are difficult to spin in the media, and they resonate across all demographics. BP also has a strong interest in maintaining a business-as-usual model for the beach resort communities along the Gulf Coast that have been economically devastated and lost the majority of their annual revenue during the summer season of 2010. The only sharks circling the Gulf waters now are based on land.
Just now on the Thom Hartmann radio show, I heard Riki Ott say, slightly paraphrased:
“There is more corporate handiwork involved in the BP disaster than in the ExxonValdez disaster.”
If only that weren’t true.
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