Clusterduck

When the CEOs to British Petroleum, Transocean, and Halliburton came to the capitol the other day to offer their opinions on how the BP oil blowout happened, and more importantly, who or what was to blame for the incident, we got a very, very lucid view of how the reparations will be delivered to all of the people whose lives, and livelihood will be affected by the mistake of some miscreant or another.

And how taxpayers will be reimbursed for government services rendered in response to this ecological disaster.

A lucid view because what the CEOs engaged in, as we typically see when more than one party is involved in a disaster such as this, was a circular firing squad.

Quotes from USA Today:

BP:

“Lamar McKay, chairman of energy company BP America, said BP is responsible for cleaning up damages from the leak because it was operating the rig. However, he said the failure of a safety seal was the responsibility of Transocean, the rig's owner.”

Transocean:

“Transocean CEO Steven Newman countered that drilling projects ‘begin and end’ with the operator — BP.”

Halliburton:

“Halliburton executive Tim Probert denied that flaws in his company's cement
contributed to the leak.”

Eliciting this comment from President Obama this afternoon:

“‘I did not appreciate the ridiculous spectacle at congressional hearings,’ Obama said at a Rose Garden news conference, referring to testimony this week from executives of BP, rig owner Transocean and Halliburton, which was doing cement work on the oil pipeline in the hours before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank last month.”

It speaks volumes. Volumes because according to these oil company execs, that while there is a major ecological disaster occurring in the Gulf of Mexico right now, no one seems to be to blame. Here in the Gulf, an area that has been “drill friendly” since the first offshore rig was installed in the late 1940’s, apparently the disaster was no one’s fault but somebody else’s.

If I don’t miss my guess then, when it comes time for shrimpers to hold out their hand for reparations, when it comes to states holding out their hands for compensation for their beach clean-up efforts that is all but inevitable, they are all going to see these fine fellows jerk their thumbs over their shoulders referring everybody down the line.

CEOs are all ducking their responsibility. It’s a sad tale that is all but too common in this day and age. But this time, they are doing it in synchrony as a single unit.

A clusterduck if you will.