Begich: Some Dems 'Don't Like Oil and Gas, Period.' WTF, Mark?

Dear Senator Begich:

It's not the oil and gas we don't like.

It's the fact that the industry, and in particular BP, places profit ahead of everything else.

It's the fact that those who are regulating the industry are either incompetent, or they are in industry's hip pocket.... where it appears that you and "Lease A Murkowski" are both comfortable residing.

It's the fact that the current recipe for disaster will be allowed to repeat, over and over again.

BP is all about money.

They only reason they will enact ANY environmental safeguards is if they are bound by a law with punishment that makes it more expensive NOT to do so.

"Those affected can go to court," is Lease A's contention (and apparently yours as well).

I have news for you both: 

You saw how Alaskans were shafted by Exxon and the SCOTUS after a 20-plus year court battle.

That court case and resultant pittance paid out by Exxon will seem like a rapid resolution compared to the BP mess in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP's profits are $93 million a day... $12 million per day more than the total existing spill liability cap ($75 million) is right now.

In the wake of the ongoing BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it's disappointing and disheartening to see Alaska's senators brush aside, or worse yet, demonize those with valid concerns about the safety and potential catastrophic results of deep water drilling.

For what it's worth:

I'm a life-long Democrat, and a past contributor to your campaign.

You are a hairsbreadth away from losing my support.

Forever.

Rainbows and Cholcolate Milk, Indeed.

How's that "Rainbows and Chocolate Milk" thingy working for ya, Representative Gene Taylor?

You can assign your stalwart assistant, Brian Martin to let us know. Maybe the people of Louisiana, including Governor Bobby Jindal, will be comforted.

Now that the oil from the still-gushing BP Spill has entered the loop current, pushing oil up the eastern US seaboard, are you still going to continue with the "out of sight, out of mind" bullshit?

h/t to Huffington Post for the images.

BP Succeeds In Inserting Siphon Tube Into Leak... Kinda. UPDATED

According to NPR, BP today announced success!

Kinda sorta (all emphasis is mine).

BP officials say they were on the verge of a breakthrough stemming the gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but another accident has set them back.

Officials say they successfully inserted a new pipe into the broken pipe spewing oil into the Gulf. That new pipe started sending oil to a ship on the surface, but, just moments later, two remotely-operated robots crashed into each other and knocked the pipes partially apart. The robots were taking photos of the operation.  BP spokesman Glenn DaGian says engineers estimate it will take about nine hours to fix the problem. Despite the debacle, he says, BP was able to prove that their latest effort to fix the well was working — however briefly.

"Sending oil to a ship on the surface?"  It seems to me that the underlying theme here by British Petroleum is not just permanently stopping the leak, but also figuring out how to divert the leaking oil into the "profit" column.

I'll refrain from making any comparisons to Laurel and Hardy.

UPDATE:
According to the latest report, the mile-long drinking straw seems to be working!
I hope it continues to work, and they figure out how to actually stop the leak instead of merely diverting it to a tanker above.
Otherwise, if the estimate of a flow equal to the Exxon Valdez every four days is right, they'd better get a bunch of tankers lined up... for years to come.