Obama spill panel big on policy, not engineering

Finding this was disappointing to say the least.

Some things should be *above* politics, as I believe the Gulf of Mexico BP incident should be. And that's over and above the fact that it takes people who have a bloody clue to understand what did and didn't happen, why it happened, and how to guard against it in the future.

Does anyone still believe the Obama administration wants to fix this problem instead of just profiting his agendas?

Obama spill panel big on policy, not engineering

WASHINGTON – The panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is short on technical expertise but long on talking publicly about "America's addiction to oil." One member has blogged about it regularly.

Only one of the seven commissioners, the dean of Harvard's engineering and applied sciences school, has a prominent engineering background — but it's in optics and physics. Another is an environmental scientist with expertise in coastal areas and the after-effects of oil spills. Both are praised by other scientists.

The five other commissioners are experts in policy and management.

The White House said the commission will focus on the government's "too cozy" relationship with the oil industry. A presidential spokesman said panel members will "consult the best minds and subject matter experts" as they do their work.

The commission has yet to meet, yet some panel members had made their views known.

Continues at link

snippet from:

news.yahoo.com...

"It's not really a technical commission," Marburger said. "It's a commission that's more oriented to understanding the regulatory and organizational framework, which clearly has a major bearing on the incident."

Alright, the government gets a big FAIL on regulating drilling. What we need right now is a commission comprised of the best and brightest geologists, petroleum, mechanical and electrical engineers calling the shots to stop the oil from gushing and destroying the GOM and perhaps the planet.

Fire BP and put all the guilty on trial, or just put them in front of a firing squad.

U.S. government and their GD bureaucracy.

Obama is waiting for it to get real bad. His purpose - the "Bush Agenda".

An additional snippet:

The 13-member board that looked into the first shuttle accident had seven engineering and aviation experts and three other scientists. The 2003 board that looked into the Columbia shuttle disaster also had more than half of the panel with expertise in engineering and aviation.

Iraj Ersahaghi, who heads the petroleum engineering program the University of Southern California, reviewed the names of oil spill commissioners and asked, "What do they know about petroleum?"

Considering the number of wells and rigs we really do need to understand what went wrong so that we can [hopefully] prevent its recurrence at some time in the future.

Honestly, you cannot write up effective regulations, nor enforce them, without some level of understanding... and that "some" is weighted to the "a lot" side of the knowledge spectrum.

Not only does the government get a *FAIL* on regulation and oversight leading up to this incident, they get a *FAIL* in their little Show commission. All appearance... *no* substance.

reply to post by Geeky_Bubbe


I agree. I'm kinda an Obama apologist to a certain degree, but I am very disappointed at the way he seems to be using this as a political opportunity to talk about 'clean energy'.

I mean, obviously it's necessary to discuss the issue, and obviously it is true that we need to get off oil, and obviously it is true that an accident like this can be a great opportunity to make changes that would otherwise be next to impossible to make, but the way it LOOKS to the general public is political opportunism.

That said, considering all the info that has come forward, it seems kinda clear there is little that cab be DONE about 'fixing' this spill. It is un-fix-able. And if that's the case, it would be nice if the one good thing to come out of this is some real, substantive change in American energy policy.