President Obama Appoints an Oil Spill Probe

(TV Press) President Barack Obama has appointed a commission to probe the real causes of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Those that are on the committee will be offering suggestions on how to "prevent" such an incident as that catastrophic oil spill ever again. Former Democratic Senator Bob Graham and former EPA Chief William Reilly will be co-chairing the committee.

In his weekly radio and internet address, President Obama promised to seek guarantees that such offshore drilling accidents won't happen again in the future. The supposed purpose of this commission is to consider both the root cause of the disaster and to offer options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to prevent similiar disasters from happening again. The President vows to tighten the screws on British Petroleum, Halliburton, and Transocean LTD, who are in charged of the damaged deepwater well, to find a solution to the problem. Approximately a couple of weeks ago the heads of these oil companies were testifying before Congress and each head was pointing fingers at the other person. According to experts, there are approximately 210,000 gallons of crude daily spewing from the damaged wellhead. About a month ago, President Obama lifted the ban on offshore drilling which drew applause from Republicans but alarmed environmentalists. Now, as a result of this catastrophe the administration is placing plans for future offshore drilling on hold.

I am very appalled at what I've been seeing in regards to this oil spill. This whole disaster is a joke. It's unnecessary. British Petroleum, Transocean, LTD, Halliburton, and the federal government are at fault. There isn't a sense of urgency amongst any of these players to cap off the damaged wellhead or to contain the massive oil spill. Many fishermen's livelihoods could be disrupted for a number of years possibly because of the neglect from the Federal Government and the oil companies to rectify this problem. This is a great disaster for the environment, marine life and the economy. This could hurt tourism along the Gulf Coast. It's amazing how the administration seems to be so concerned about protecting the environment but nobody has been hurriedly trying to stop this spill. It took approximately eight days after the Deepwater Horizons rig exploded before the administration gave any type of response to this mess.

Capping off the spewing oil and cleaning up this mess will required a concerted effort on the part of BP, Transocean, Halliburton, the Coast Guard, Mineral Management Safety, and possibly the Navy. This is a national emergency that requires immediate attention. Instead of spending time pointing fingers right now, everybody needs to pitch in and stop this oil spill. I know I will sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I believe the government and these oil companies desire to see this situation to get out of hand so they can exploit it. I believe they could've corrected this problem a few weeks ago. They don't care. The government and these oil companies are aligned with one another. Any time you have government and major corporations in bed together, there's always the possibility for something crooked to take place. I'm not trying to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but there are evil people in high places. Am I suggesting the rig was sabotaged or this explosion was planned? No. However, I do believe the government and BP are content to allow this spill to continue for as long as possible. This incident will give the federal government an excuse to further clamp down on the American way of li fe. A couple of weeks ago Senators Joe Lieberman and Senator John Kerry introduced climate change legislation in the Senate. They can use this massive oil spill in the gulf as an excuse to hurriedly pass a climate change bill to "protect our planet." This oil spill will be exploited by the government as a means to place further restrictions on American society.

One thing I guarantee you is somebody's going to profit financially from this. They might make money off the backs of the American consumer at the gasoline pump. The American people will be the ones suffering from this incident. This incident will further give environmentalists an excuse to point out that offshore drilling is hazardous to the environment and we can't afford to pursue any kind of offshore drilling. Offshore drilling is only hazardous to the environment when safety measures aren't used on these oil rigs. Why did the shut-off valve on the rig malfunction when the rig exploded? Safety features should be in place in the event of an explosion. I believe a lot of this could've been prevented if there was proper maintenance on these rigs. It doesn't appear the government nor those oil companies responsible for that rig are in any hurry to stop the oil slick. The ones that will be stuck with the bill will be the consumer. This disaster will give the government an excuse to further their agenda in America. It won't be good for our country nor the American people. Finally, I believe this committe to investigate this oil spill will be nothing but a dog-and-pony show. I believe the government and these oil companies are in this together. They're not going to solve the problem from this committe hearing. They're just trying to buy time and give the appearance to the public that they're trying to investigate and solve this problem. What a sham!