Guardian UK: The only way to clean up the oil industry is to put it under public control

Obama: stop baying for BP blood. Nationalise oil instead
The US president's scapegoating of BP is a distraction; the only way to clean up the oil industry is to put it under public control

Seth Freedman
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 June 2010 16.10 BST


Barack Obama's crude comparison of the Deepwater spill to 9/11 marks a new low in the political grandstanding over the Gulf of Mexico disaster. While the president might be right to haul BP over the coals for the company's apparent negligence prior to the explosion, the distancing of the US government from the private sector is a cynical way to exploit the tragedy.

If Obama's post-spill proclamations are to be believed, the US administration bears no responsibility for the catastrophe, and instead is wholeheartedly committed to environmental protection, developing alternative energies, and all the other buzzwords so beloved by politicians and voters alike. BP can be instantly cast in the role of pantomime villain by opportunistic senators, set up as the fall-guy for a society which – when the going was good – lauded BP and its peers to the heavens for their work.

In that respect, a better comparison would have been to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns rather than the twin towers, at least in the way that the credit crisis and the Deepwater spill have brought out the worst hypocrisy in those scrambling for political cover after the event. It is no secret that politicians and diplomats have been in the pocket of energy companies almost since the first oil was struck in Pennsylvania in the 1850s, and the murky relationship has continued ever since.

In Sonia Shah's definitive history of the oil industry, Crude, the base greed and exploitative nature of oil company executives is detailed time and again, and the laissez-faire attitude of the respective governments involved in green-lighting their activities is an ubiquitous trait throughout every stage of the process. Public and private sector prospectors thought nothing of wreaking environmental havoc wherever they sought black gold, more often than not causing massive social upheaval to boot in the countries into which they expanded. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jun/15/obama-bp-nationalise-oil

Oddly enough, the first person to suggest this in my hearing was my conservative son.

the republicans would storm the White HOuse, and don't tell me they wouldn't. Look at the screaming and ranting when the Democrats OK'd the stimulus.

Will they also hold their breath 'till they turn blue? Refuse to eat their veg? Move to Costa Rica?

They scream and rant no matter what Democrats do or say. We are going to get called "Socialists" no matter how far to the right we move. So why keep moving to the right?

And they'd say he's planning a radical leftist government takeover of private industry! Even if it's the right thing to do, he can't risk the political damage.

Just like he couldn't risk pushing for single payer or STRONG financial reform, because the right would call him all of those names I listed and it would be politically damaging.

;)

get rid of it as we should have been doing over these last 30 years, but...............