Today, Friday June 29, is the day that Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) researchers are required to provide "criminal"
defendant Kurt Mix, a former BP completions engineer, with the flow
rate data they wanted to hide behind a claim of academic privilege. The
federal government has based its claims for per-barrel pollution fines
against BP largely on the WHOI data. And one obstacle to the government
collecting huge fines under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) is any
challenge to its estimates as to how much oil actually got into the Gulf
of Mexico. As an engineer involved in the source containment effort,
Mr. Mix's testimony could cause the court to doubt the government's
estimates. Hence the absurd charges against Mr. Mix, whose only "crime"
was the diligently work to "plug the damn hole," as President Obama so
succinctly put it. Mr. Mix had absolutely nothing to do with the fatal accident that caused the flow of oil into the sea, he only took part in the "source control" efforts.
In yet another example of this administration's blame shifting strategy, it has sought to distract the public's attention from the fact that under the OPA, once it became evident that the Responsible Party" (RP), BP in this case, had demonstrated an inability to deal with the pollution it had caused, the President could declare it to be a Spill Of National Significance (SONS) and appoint a National Incident Commander (NIC) to take charge and deal with the problem. On May 1, 2010, President Obama made the declaration and appointed the then Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, as National Incident Commander. As of that date, President Obama and Admiral Allen owned the source control efforts. This was entirely in line with pre-existing doctrine calling on the Coast Guard to be the lead government agency in dealing with pollution on navigable waters.
So let us turn to the FINAL ACTION MEMORANDUM - INCIDENT SPECIFIC PREPAREDNESS REVIEW (ISPR) DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL dated March 18, 2011 by Admiral Allen's successor as Commandant, Admiral R. J. Papp Jr. which is now available under the Freedom of Information Act here. On Page 34 of the report (pg. 43 of the pdf) we find this statement:
In yet another example of this administration's blame shifting strategy, it has sought to distract the public's attention from the fact that under the OPA, once it became evident that the Responsible Party" (RP), BP in this case, had demonstrated an inability to deal with the pollution it had caused, the President could declare it to be a Spill Of National Significance (SONS) and appoint a National Incident Commander (NIC) to take charge and deal with the problem. On May 1, 2010, President Obama made the declaration and appointed the then Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, as National Incident Commander. As of that date, President Obama and Admiral Allen owned the source control efforts. This was entirely in line with pre-existing doctrine calling on the Coast Guard to be the lead government agency in dealing with pollution on navigable waters.
So let us turn to the FINAL ACTION MEMORANDUM - INCIDENT SPECIFIC PREPAREDNESS REVIEW (ISPR) DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL dated March 18, 2011 by Admiral Allen's successor as Commandant, Admiral R. J. Papp Jr. which is now available under the Freedom of Information Act here. On Page 34 of the report (pg. 43 of the pdf) we find this statement:
June 21: Following further testing, WHOI releases a best estimate of oil to gas ration (sic) into the Gulf of Mexico of 43.7 percent oil. Previous estimates were 29 percent.
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