L’“oil spill” et l’impuissance du pouvoir politique

L’“oil spill” et l’impuissance du pouvoir politique

Le problème n’est toujours pas résolu… Qui est “in charge” aux USA, face à la plus grande catastrophe environnementale de l’histoire des USA et, peut-être, de tous les temps, et avec des conséquences incalculables, et alors que la crise se poursuit avec le pétrole qui jaillit du fond du Golfe du Mexique ? Qui est “in charge”, BP ou Obama ?

Réponse à peu près générale, – BP, bien entendu. Dans tous les cas, c’est d’abord la réponse de Robert Reich, sur son blog, le 12 juin 2010. Reich, qui se bat sans discontinuer pour tenter de donner (redonner) aux pouvoirs publics une responsabilité qu’ils ont abdiquée au cours des décennies, propose donc, à nouveau, ce qu’il espère être une solution, face à ce problème d’une complication extrême.

«…The Administration has not used legal authority to order BP to do a thing, because it hasn’t asserted any legal authority.

»Meanwhile, the White House backed off its suggestion earlier in the week that it could stop BP from paying a giant dividend to its shareholders. That suggestion had caused BP shares to plummet and pressure to build on Britain’s new Prime Minister David Cameron. 12 percent of dividends paid to pensioners in the UK come from BP. Cameron and Obama had a friendly chat Saturday, assuring one another BP is important to both countries.

»You see where all this is heading. At some point there’s likely to be a direct conflict. Like any big corporation, BP has legal duties to repay its creditors and to maximize the share prices of its stockholders. Its duties to the United States are still vague and unknown. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 can be interpreted in various ways. So far, the Administration hasn’t tried.

»Yet BP is still in control of what’s happening in Gulf to stop the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

»BP still has lots of money. But the final cost of plugging the leak in the Gulf, containing the spill, cleaning up after it, and paying all damages – including lost wages to millions of workers whose jobs have been lost or will be if the spill keeps tourists away – could easily be tens of billions of dollars. And right now BP’s first responsibility is to its creditors and shareholders, not to the American public.

»So if it’s UK pensioners versus American workers and property owners, who wins? More to the point, who’s going to decide? Most likely, a judge – or several judges, here and in the UK, through a mountain of litigation that will keep thousands of attorneys, solicitors, and barristers busy for decades.

»In the meantime, months or even years could go by as Coast Guard admirals and rear admirals, as well as the White House, tells BP it needs to spend more to stop and clean up the mess it’s created, it’s going way too slow, and it’s not divulging what it knows. And BP shrugs and says it’s doing all it can.

»I’ve got a better idea. Wouldn’t it be far simpler for the White House (stating that the Pollution Control Act of 1990 gives it authority) to put BP’s American operations into temporary receivership? That way, Obama can take over BP’s assets here and use its expertise to stop the leak and clean up the mess as soon as possible — and leave the subsequent years of bickering to the courts.

»Extra bonus: It shows the public the President is really in charge.»

• Dans le même sens, mais dans une prose beaucoup plus passionnée, qui marque la passion et la fureur caractérisant cette crise aux USA… L’acteur Alec Baldwin signe une chronique sur la situation US face au Big Oil, au corporate power, sur la solution immédiate avec valeur d’exemple («Let BP die»), et, d'une façon plus générale, sur la pathétique absence de défenseur du bien public qu’on nomme en général “un gouvernement, – «My response […] is “What government?”»

(Sur le site HuffingtonPost, le 6 juin 2010.)

«The Gulf of Mexico, at least that part of it that is ours to maintain and fish and enjoy, belongs to every American. Just like the Great Lakes, the Grand Canyon, Monterey Bay, The Rocky Mountains, Cape Cod, Park Avenue, the Lincoln Memorial, the Little League ball field in your town, the place you have coffee at every morning, or take yoga or the place you go to have coffee and make fun of yoga . What is happening down there is happening to you and to me. Because resources like the Gulf ARE this country. They belong to us. And if you aren't so goddamned fed up with this crap from the oil industry that you want to scream, then maybe you need to have some tar balls fall out of the sky on to your front lawn before you get it.

»I wrote in a previous post that a major global oil company would have to go out of business as a sign that we were on the right track regarding effective energy policy reform. Let that company be BP. In the process of being litigated by the government of this country in pursuit of remediating this problem, let BP die. The oil business can only sustain itself through the corruption we now know was (is?) rampant at the Minerals Management Service. Some of those in charge at that agency should be put on trial for treason. Some of the neocons that visits this site will nonetheless defend BP. They'll say they broke no law. That the government approved everything that went on down there.

»My response to that is “What government?” Disasters like this remind us of what we have that matters most. They also sadly remind us of what we don't have that we desperately need. When it comes to the oil industry, we have no government. We have just a bunch of drunken, thieving whores who shilled for Big Oil called the Minerals Management Service.»

dedefensa.org