[THS] BOB HERBERT: An Unnatural Disaster

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/opinion/29herbert.html

An Unnatural Disaster
By BOB HERBERT
Published: May 28, 2010

“Where I was wrong,” said President Obama at his press conference on Thursday,
“was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to
worst-case scenarios.”

With all due respect to the president, who is a very smart man, how is it possible for
anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop carnage that has
accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to believe that the oil
companies, which are among the most rapacious players on the planet, somehow
“had their act together” with regard to worst-case scenarios.

These are not Little Lord Fauntleroys who can be trusted to abide by some fanciful
honor system. These are greedy merchant armies drilling blindly at depths a mile and
more beneath the seas while at the same time doing all they can to stifle the
government oversight that is necessary to protect human lives and preserve the
integrity of the environment.

President Obama knows that. He knows — or should know — that the biggest, most
powerful companies do not have the best interests of the American people in mind
when they are closing in on the kinds of profits that ancient kingdoms could only
envy. BP’s profits are counted in the billions annually. They are like stacks and stacks
of gold glittering beneath a brilliant sun. You don’t want to know what people will do
for that kind of money.

There is nothing new to us about this. Haven’t we just seen how the giant financial
firms almost destroyed the American economy? Wasn’t it just a few weeks before this
hideous Deepwater Horizon disaster that a devastating mine explosion in West
Virginia — at a mine run by a company with its own hideous safety record — killed 29
coal miners and ripped the heart out of yet another hard-working local community?

The idea of relying on the assurances of these corporate predators that they are
looking out for the safety of their workers and the health of surrounding communities
and the environment is beyond absurd. Even after the blowout at the Deepwater
Horizon site, BP officials were telling us (as their noses grew longer and longer) that
about only 1,000 barrels of oil a day were escaping into the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly a
month into the disaster, BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, was publicly offering the
comforting assessment that the environmental damage resulting from the spill would
likely be “very, very modest.”

They were somewhat wide of the mark (as reputable scientists were telling us day
after day after day). We now know, of course, that this is the worst spill in U.S.
history, that instead of 1,000 barrels a day, something in the range of 12,000 to
19,000 barrels a day have likely been spewing into the gulf. And the environmental
impact can fairly be described as catastrophic.

The oil companies and other giant corporations have a stranglehold on American
policies and behavior, and are choking off the prospects of a viable social and
economic future for working people and their families.

President Obama spoke critically a couple of weeks ago about the “cozy relationship”
between the oil companies and the federal government. It’s not just a cozy
relationship. It’s an unholy alliance. And that alliance includes not just the oil
companies but the entire spectrum of giant corporations that have used vast wealth
to turn democratically elected officials into handmaidens, thus undermining not just
the day-to-day interests of the people but the very essence of democracy itself.

Forget BP for a moment. When is the United States going to get its act together? Will
we learn anything from this disaster or will we simply express our collective dismay,
ignore the inevitable commission reports (no one pays attention to study
commissions), and bury our heads back in the oily sand?

President Obama said on Thursday that his administration was “moving quickly on
steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.” Well, he can’t
ensure anything of the kind. And, in fact, his corporate-friendly policy of opening up
new regions for offshore drilling (that policy is only temporarily halted) will all but
guarantee future disastrous spills.

The U.S. will never get its act together until we develop the courage and the will to
crack down hard on these giant corporations. They need to be tamed, closely
monitored and regulated, and constrained in ways that no longer allow them to
trample the best interests of the American people.

Mr. Hayward of BP was on television on Friday referring to the Deepwater Horizon
explosion and subsequent fouling of the Gulf of Mexico as a “natural disaster.” He
was wrong, as usual. Like the unholy alliance of government and big business, this
tragedy set in motion by Mr. Hayward’s corporation is a grotesquely harmful and
wholly unnatural disaster.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on May 29, 2010, on page A25 of the New
York edition.

Past Coverage

    * Rig Official Testifies on System Failure (May 28, 2010)
    * BP Engineers Making Little Headway on Leaking Well (May 28, 2010)
    * Scientists Build Case for Undersea Plumes (May 28, 2010)
    * Island's Trout Rodeo Is Victim of Spill, and That's Not the Least of It (May 28,
2010)