Roger, This was not "just an accident." I don't think the Justice
Department is beginning criminal investigations of BP for nothing. They
have a long history of violating safety regulations and in this
particular instance there is plenty of evidence and eyewitness testimony
that an entire chain of bad decisions and ignoring warning signals led
to the deaths of eleven people and this disaster. BP also knew that it
had no technology to respond if something like this happened, but they
told the federal government everything would be a-okay. The regular
environmental reviews for drilling were waived! Most private
corporations spend years on environmental assessments before any actions
begin. I'm helping with some right now, and both are for actions planned
to HELP the environment. Some countries require every rig to have a
remote control shut-off, but BP decided it would save money by not
having one, despite the fact that they have never drilled this deep.
They lied to the government and the public about the amount of oil
spewing out. They poured millions of gallons of toxic dispersants into
the Gulf to hide the impacts, and continued even after they were ordered
to stop. You can read their history of incidents, safety violations, and
environmental record here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bp

If you knowingly decide to drive a car with bad brakes, and then hit a
tree, it's not really just an accident. They have gambled with people's
lives and now an entire ecosystem and the people who live there are
paying for their negligence. I have absolutely zero sympathy for these
rich oil barons. I'd be happy to personally shove a tarball right down
CEO Tony "I would like my life back" Hayward's throat and flush it down
with a cup of toxic dispersant solvents. Angry? You bet I'm angry. I
think people have plenty of reason to be angry.

Yes we use oil and other natural resources, but we need strong
regulations to prevent things like this from happening. The Bush
Administration did all they could to weaken environmental regulations,
weaken the EPA, and cripple the Endangered Species Act, the most
important laws we have protecting our environmental. Remember when the
entire run of salmon in the Klamath River died? That was not an accident
either--it was a decision by Cheney.

I want stronger environmental regulations and protections. It's not too
much to ask of corporations that are wealthy enough to give
million-dollar bonuses. They are the fourth largest corporation in the
world.

Not to get political or anything. But Cindy isn't here to tell me not to
get started.

Angela Percival
Angela at stillwatersci dot com
Olympia, WA

------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 17:55:26 -0700
From: Roger Moyer <rogermoyer1 at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Gulf Oil spill pictures and such
To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <BAY129-W285AFF3D23DAC1CC85B5CAFFD30 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


It appears that the webpage has been taken down. I have been sitting
here watching the evening news and they have been showing the birds with
all the oil on them. It is difficult to watch. Many most of the birds
won't survive.

I have a lot of anger in the comments towards BP. I agree that BP
needs to take responsibility, but people need to also remember that this
was an accident. They didn't plan for this to happen and people need to
remember that this well is a mile deep. Where to people think the oil
comes from. Our society revolves around36
petrolium wheither people like it or not. How many oil wells, super
tankers, tail cars, refineries, tanker trucks and I can go on operate
without accidents. We as a society want our conviences and then get
mad when there are accidents. You can't have it both ways. There are
so many wells (I have heard as many as 40,000) in the water and this is
the first major accident in our waters. If people would let some of the
land based areas be opened up maybe we could get away from having to
drill off shore.

I am for a clean environment as much as the next person but I think that
people need to use common sense and balance. Where has reason gone???
I will get off my high horse now.

Roger Moyer
Chehalis, WA