While there are people out there trying to come up with solutions to the BP oil spill, there is little indication that there is much headway being made. The spill keeps spreading, more oil is being dumped in the Gulf, and BP Corporate seems to be keeping everyone with any desire to help at arm’s length. Of course, there’s also the British citizens claiming that Americans aren’t very pleased with them over all of this, but honestly, there doesn’t seem to be much proof of that.
Most are assuming at this point that Obama is going to be pinning all his hopes on the concept of closing the barn door after the horses have all left, by taking over the the claims process, theoretically ensuring that the people affected are compensated for their losses. And that may very well be his undoing, particularly when the Brits are questioning his credibility. This shouldn’t be unexpected, since Obama’s waited close to 60 days to bother talking directly with BP officials.
And there lies the biggest problem – the lack of communication amongst the stakeholders involved. That failure is snowballing at nearly the same rate that the Gulf is filling with oil. Instead of worrying primarily about making BP pay for the damages, it would be better if Obama was focusing more on solutions. Taking over full control of clean-up would be a nice start. Putting out a standing call for help to all corporations and individuals worldwide would be an even better move. Yes, it would be chaotic to say the least. Of course, a few phone calls to the environmental organizations out there to recruit people to manage phone calls, emails, and letters would be a smart first step. The point is that there should be absolutely no headlines about anyone offering help and being flat out refused. Whether it’s a group of people like Shoq Value’s #corral project, or Hollywood personalities like Kevin Costner, no source of ideas should be ignored.
Big corporations in the U.S. have been demonized lately, so it isn’t hard to understand why it would be difficult to come out suggesting something like radical tax breaks for companies that would do anything significant to help with the oil spill. Each minute that this situation isn’t addressed meaningfully is inches and feet worth of spoiled coastline. Eventually someone will come up with the bright idea to come up with an equation to figure out at least a reasonable estimate of the losses. The fact that Alaska still has not recovered completely from the Exxon Valdez spill should be plastered in the back of the mind of every person involved in the clean up now.
Talk this evening will undoubtedly limited to reassuring the public that the problem is of the highest priority in the White House, and that BP will be held financially accountable for the damages. We’ll have to watch in the coming months to see what effect that has on our relations with Britain. But it’s doubtful that there will be any mention of opening the floodgates, and taking suggestions from the public at large for solutions – doubtful there will be talk about incentives to encourage corporate America to lend a hand in the clean up. And those incentives are needed, because unless the clean up is directly related to the current business goals of any given corporation, there is no chance they’ll consider lifting a finger. Even if their business is management of disasters of this kind, they will do nothing unless there is some promise of benefit on their end, or if they are directly hired to help. BP is not showing any signs that they are interested in enlisting help, so that is a moot point. It is tempting to leave them to clean up their own mess, but since they are proving to be grossly ill-equipped to manage it, we need to take the reins. Hopefully Obama won’t be talking just about money from BP. It’s a small hope, and there’s little chance that the situation is going to change.
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