Logic and the Oil Spill

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions.


I was raised around oil wells. My father was a production foreman for Sun Oil Company for over twenty five years, I grew up in an oil company house located on an oil lease, and I worked in the oil fields as a roustabout during summers while I was in college. I have a good perspective of how wells are drilled, how they function, and what oil smells and tastes like. This background doesn’t qualify me as an expert…but it makes my perspective better than many.

My first observation is that this entire affair has become politicized…as are most things of any importance these days. That is unfortunate because political motives cloud judgment, slow decision making, and create unnecessary discord.

To me, the entire problem should be approached logically on a step-by-step basis. These steps should include:

1. Elimination of the Bureaucracy Factor – This can only be accomplished at the direction of the President. He should execute executive orders which give absolute authority over decisions on the oil spill to one overall director. This director should be able to override the interference from all bureaucracies….including the all powerful, all knowing…EPA.

2. Stopping the leak as quickly as possible – This process must be left to the judgment and execution by the oil industry experts. Drilling relief wells seems to be the only real solution, so we should be sure they have all the assistance they need, and do anything possible to expedite the creation of these wells.

3. Reducing the flow and capturing the outflow at the wellhead- Again, these processes involve industry technology, and should be controlled and executed by experts from the petroleum industry.

4. Recovering or capturing oil at the well site on the ocean surface – When the oil first surfaces it is concentrated in one general area. It is here that it would appear that giant skimmers, tankers, and clean up technology should come into play. We should assure utilization of as many resources as possible from outside sources. All of these processes should be under the direction of a person qualified in these actions.

5. Recovering and capturing oil as it disperses away from the well site – As the oil flows away from the well site it becomes scattered and dispersed in streams of surface contamination. It is here that the boats with the skimmers, burning, and chemical treatment options come into use. All of these activities should be controlled and coordinated under the direction of an expert in these processes.

6. Containment at the shore line - As the oil nears the marsh lands and the beaches, use of sand barriers, containment booms, absorbent materials, beach cleaning crews, and all other reasonable approaches to hold the impact of these contaminants to a minimum should be implemented under the direction of a capable manager.

7. Determining the blame – Once the situation is under control, a complete investigation to determine the exact cause of the well blow out should be conducted. The goal of this investigation should be to determine if British Petroleum took any inappropriate risks, procedures, or actions which contributed to the incident. If they did take short cuts and did not follow all prescribed safeguards for deep water drilling, then they should be held responsible to the ultimate degree. However, if this was merely an unfortunate accident, and they
did follow all prescribed measures, then their degree of responsibility is greatly reduced in the affair.
8. Administering recovery payments for damages- Again, a single specialist should be appointed to assure proper administration of this process. Claims should be broken down into classifications by type, ie,, fishermen, oystermen, shrimpers, restaurants, vendors, lodging, etc. A formula for payment of verified, legitimate claims should be developed for each claim classification grouping. The creation of the slush fund by BP is a good demonstration of their willingness to recognize responsibility in this matter, and to do the morally correct thing. The main effort should be to assure that these funds get to people whose businesses have actually been injured by what has transpired.

9. Improving drilling technology – It is important to learn from your mistakes in life. This blowout demonstrates that additional safeguards are needed in the well drilling technology, especially at these depths. As a final part of this process steps must be taken to carefully review all aspects of the event, and to then implement all possible additional safeguards in order to prevent a reoccurrence.

If they will follow all of these steps…….they will be “Getting It Right”!
Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning –

● This oil spill and the inability of industry, government, or individuals to properly react to it is a vivid demonstration of how the bureaucracy impedes progress, creates inappropriate delays, adds unnecessary costs, and generally makes everything difficult. This is the terrible situation which businesses encounter every day as they struggle for existence. This over regulation, over involvement of government, is part of what must be corrected in our economy if our nation is to ever again prosper.

● (Always say at least one nice thing…) The crepe myrtles all over Marianna are beautiful right now. They really make the city look nicer….their beauty is almost enough to make up for the ugly court house and the billboards.

● When I went into the Dept. of Revenue office on West Lafayette last week to pay our monthly sales taxes the realization hit me as to how efficiently they had designed their offices. The tax payers go in the right hand door to drop in their tax payments, while over in the waiting area on the front left part of the facility is the waiting area for the welfare recipients. They only have to take the money in on one side and dish it out on the other.

● If things continue on the street projects in Marianna, the City will soon have as many miles of dirt roads as the county does. …I hope this company doing the work does really own a paving machine!

● Several people have asked why gasoline prices are over fifteen cents per gallon higher in Jackson County than they are in Tallahassee. Normally we are lower than they are. People want to know if it is possible our local distributors might be gouging us a little.

● I find it peculiar that the commission used AJAX Builders to analyze the cost of renovation of the old Wal Mart building instead of the local M&W Construction who has renovated many buildings for the school system. Could it be because some in county administration were seeking the highest quote possible in order to steer the commission away from the purchase?

Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.