erom:		CCRIF <pr@ccrif.org>
date		Thu, Aug 19, 2010
subject		Caribbean Economics of Climate Adaptation Study results released.

Please see attached press release regarding the publication of preliminary results of the study on the Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) in the Caribbean implemented by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility and regional partners.

The results for eight pilot countries (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, and St. Lucia) are presented in a short brochure entitled, Enhancing the climate risk and adaptation fact base for the Caribbean (Preliminary Results).

The brochure is available on the CCRIF website at http://www.ccrif.org/sites/default/files/publications/ECABrochureFinalAugust182010.pdf

Regards,
Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF)

 http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2010…

AFP/Getty Images New buildings tower above boats on the Saigon vier in Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnamese city says its economy grew by 8% last year. Vietnam’s economy lures some who left in the 1970s. By Kathy Chu, USA TODAY, August 18, 2010. HO CHI MINH CITY {who many call again Saigon}, Vietnam — At age 9, Johnny Tri Nguyen fled by fishing boat from this war-torn land of re-education camps and rationed food. He and his family were captured twice — and jailed — before finally escaping and establishing a life for themselves in California. Despite the harrowing experience, he holds little bitterness, just hope, for his homeland. After 17 years in the USA, he returned to Vietnam to make a movie based loosely on his grandfather’s life. “Much has changed, and the whole reason we left in the first place is no longer there,” says Nguyen, a Vietnamese actor and filmmaker known for his role in The Rebel, along with his stunt work in movies such as Spider-Man. “I find it very comfortable to live here now.” When the Vietnam War ended 35 years ago, millions of Vietnamese fled a communist country whose growth had been stymied by war, oppression and uncertainty, seeking a better life for themselves and their children in the USA, Canada and Europe. Today, some of those who left years ago now look at Vietnam as a land of opportunity. At least 500,000 Viet Kieu, as they are known, return every year to this nation of 86 million, some to stay. “Vietnam’s economic reforms and growth as well as the recent economic downturn in America may be part of the reason” why a growing number of Viet Kieu are returning to the country, says Nguyen Manh Hung, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. “There is a sentimental reason, too: the feeling of being at home in a familiar culture with a familiar way of life,” he says. REMITTANCES: Vietnamese abroad send money The return here of some Vietnamese-Americans comes as the Communist Party that runs Vietnam continues to loosen state controls on the economy in an attempt to boost the standard of living here. The fall of South Vietnam to the communist North in 1975 left the country bound by a totalitarian regime that stripped many people of their land and businesses. The legacy of the war and the party’s clampdown on free markets was rampant poverty. Change came in the mid-1980s, when Vietnam instituted reforms called doi moi that opened up the economy to foreign investment and introduced some forms of capitalism. Today, Vietnam’s economy is the one of the fastest-growing in Asia. It may eventually claim the mantle of the fastest-growing emerging economy, based on its growth between 2007 and 2050, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the financial advisory firm. ‘The best of both worlds’ Some of those returning are people who risked their lives to leave. Dang Tuyet Mai, who once was married to a former South Vietnamese prime minister, Nguyen Cao Ky, escaped by plane two days before the war ended. After three decades in the USA, Dang ventured back to her homeland to open a noodle shop. “It’s a mixed feeling being here,” admits Dang, whose former husband was a prominent figure in South Vietnam’s fight against communism. “But when you are Vietnamese, you always think of going back to the country where you were born.” During lunch time at her restaurant, Pho Ta, in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, the tables teem with Vietnamese businessmen and women. Steaming bowls of noodles are placed before them along with heaping mounds of fresh vegetables to dunk into the anise-scented broth. In a country where a bowl of pho can be found as easily as a hamburger in the States, Dang says hers stands out because of the homemade noodles, low fat content and a broth simmered over a low flame for 12 hours. “Even the Prime Minister of Vietnam (Nguyen Tan Dung) has eaten at my store,” says Dang, whose beauty first captivated the country in the 1960s when she was an Air Vietnam stewardess. Even today, some customers are drawn to Pho Ta to catch a glimpse of her. Dang is hoping the next celebrity to grace the restaurant will be Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “I really admire her, and I want to shake her hand,” Dang says. Clinton came to Hanoi in July for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations but didn’t end up stopping by Ho Chi Minh City. Another local establishment, Pho 2000, gained followers and a new slogan, “Pho for the President,” after then-president Bill Clinton sampled a bowl there 10 years ago. Like many new returnees, Dang hasn’t committed to living full-time in Vietnam but spends a quarter of the year in Southern California with her daughter and granddaughters. Her ability to live in two countries — and to juggle dual cultures — isn’t suitable for the travel weary or the weak of heart. But for Viet Kieus such as Trung Dung, the founder of electronic payments company Mobivi, this freedom is a blessing. “I have the best of both worlds,” says Dung, 43, who spends up to 80% of his time in Vietnam and the rest in California, where his son and sisters live. The main draw of Vietnam, he says, is that it feels like home. But entrepreneurs like him also are captivated by the business opportunities stemming from a third-world country transitioning into one of the region’s most promising economic powerhouses. Dung is betting that as the country booms, its largely cash society will transition to electronic payments, benefiting companies such as Mobivi. “I was very fortunate in witnessing the Internet revolution (in the USA), and it was an incredible time to be in the Silicon Valley,” says Dung, who became a billionaire in his 30s after selling his software company, OnDisplay, to Austin-based Vignette Corp. “The same thing is happening in Vietnam. We’re at the very early phase of creating things that will be here for a long time.” ‘The culture is so rich’ As Viet Kieu flock to Vietnam, the government is encouraging them to start up businesses and buy real estate to power the economy. It’s also stepping up efforts to attract foreign companies. U.S. companies including Intel and General Electric have already established a presence here, and others are exploring the possibility, attracted partly by Vietnam’s highly educated, skilled and young population (a quarter of residents are under 15). Thuy Vo Dang, a visiting scholar at UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, believes the success of the government’s efforts to woo Viet Kieu will depend partly on its ability “to overcome the tension that still exists between the overseas community and the country.” “It’s one thing to welcome visitors,” she notes, but the government needs to address corruption, which is widespread and entrenched in Vietnam. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index of 2009, based on surveys of international businesspeople, considers Vietnam one of the world’s most corrupt countries, with a ranking of 120 out of 180 countries. Property, construction and government contracts are reportedly riddled with bribery, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. The regulatory environment is not transparent and Vietnam’s legal system is not independent and hindered by corruption, it said. Oppression and lack of religious and political freedoms are also causing concern among some of the Viet Kieu. Some people interviewed said they felt constrained about discussing injustices for fear of offending the government and inviting actions against them or their businesses. The U.S. State Department has criticized Vietnam for its jailing of political opponents and especially Catholic priests and bloggers who speak out in favor of the kinds of basic freedoms the Viet Kieu have enjoyed in the West. The Viet Kieu, because they have citizenship elsewhere, generally enjoy more freedoms than Vietnam’s citizens. “The progress made on the economic front has not transferred in any way to human rights,” says Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch‘s Asia division. “There are still significant restrictions on freedom of association and independent trade unions, and the government uses very broad national security legislation to go after dissidents.” As a growing number of Viet Kieu invest in Vietnam, it’s creating jobs and fueling the country’s economy. But the investment may also be seen as “condoning the government’s lack of freedoms for the country,” Vo Dang warns. “Blind investment in the homeland could, in fact, create more problems than it solves.” Yet the lure of their homeland is so powerful that for some Viet Kieu, it trumps memories, beliefs and politics. Nguyen, the actor, remembers his family being so poor after the Vietnam War that he had to make his own toys from clay he dug up from nearby ponds. But what struck Nguyen when he first returned to Vietnam was not the vestiges of war lingering in every city’s memorials to the departed, but the connection he felt to the country and its beautiful scenery. “This culture is so rich in cinematic” promise, he says. On a sweltering July day, amid the ancient rock formations of Ninh Binh province in northern Vietnam, Nguyen’s brother-in-law, filmmaker Jimmy Nghiem Pham, seeks to capitalize on this cinematic promise. Between scenes of a new movie he’s helping produce —Khat Vong Thang Long, a film that commemorates the 1,000-year anniversary of the nation’s capital moving to Hanoi and is being made in cooperation with the government — Pham describes how Vietnam has become a “land of opportunity” for independent filmmakers. “If you don’t have a lot of money, Vietnam is the best place to make a movie,” says Pham, whose budgets have ranged from $15,000 to $1.6 million. A graduate of the film school at Cal State Long Beach, Pham lived in Southern California — home to one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the USA — for more than a decade before returning to Vietnam. He feels strong ties to both countries, but says matter-of-factly that “if my movie career is better, then I will stay here.” For Henry Hoang Nguyen, his ties to Vietnam are becoming more compelling than those to the USA. In the spring of 2001, Hoang Nguyen, 37, landed a New York-based consulting job for McKinsey & Associates that was to begin in the fall. But the start date was delayed by six months because of the economic hangover from the Internet bust. This gave him time to explore opportunities in Vietnam’s emerging telecom sector. Nine years and a few business opportunities later, Hoang Nguyen is now managing general partner of IDG Ventures, a $100 million venture capital fund focused on technology, media and telecom investments in Vietnam. He has married a Vietnamese woman who has no intention of leaving the country. And the former “all-American” kid is proudly rediscovering his extended family and his heritage. Being a generation removed from the war has given him an unvarnished appreciation for Vietnam — free from painful memories still in the minds of previous generations. “I don’t carry any burdens or feelings of negativity,” says Hoang Nguyen, whose parents left Saigon, the name locals still use to refer to Ho Chi Minh City, long before he was old enough to remember life there. “I just feel a real strong attachment and patriotism for Vietnam.” Such feelings are also felt by Viet Kieu David Thai, an entrepreneur who once dreamed about being a basketball player or snowboarder. Thai grew up in Seattle but came back to the country he left as a toddler to study Vietnamese civilization. Business opportunities conspired to keep him here, including the launch of a Starbucks-like chain, Highlands Coffee, and of American icon Hard Rock Cafe in Vietnam. Coming from Seattle, “I missed good coffee,” he says. But the overarching business goal, adds Thai, is “to build a national brand, to make Vietnam known for investment and business.” Yet for every tale of business success in Vietnam, there’s another tale of failure in a market laden with government restrictions. And for those who choose to live and work in this country, there are compromises to be made. Nguyen Qui Duc, who moved to Hanoi and started Tadioto bar and art gallery, doesn’t enjoy the same creative freedoms in Vietnam — a country where state censorship is widespread — that he had as a journalist and as an artist in the United States. Duc, who once hosted a radio show on Asian affairs in the United States, says he has learned to work within the system in Vietnam. “I can’t change the system, but I work with artists to express themselves,” he says. “Freedom of expression is getting better in Vietnam.” Despite the challenges, Nguyen Qui Duc says he’s glad he moved back because it has allowed him to rediscover the simplicity of life. “I’m 50 years old, and I’m riding a motorcycle,” he says. “In the States, I was tired of living a life where I never talked to my neighbors. I prefer life here where you can walk down the street and talk to people.”

Jason Leopold is the Deputy Managing Editor at Truthout. He is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, News Junkie, a memoir. Visit newsjunkiebook.com for a preview.
 http://www.truth-out.org/BP-Executive-Tu…

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BP Executive Turned Alyeska Pipeline Into “Deeply Distressed” Company.

Monday 02 August 2010

by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report

Former BP human resources executive Kevin Hostler will be retiring from his current post as Chief Executive Officer for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company in September. (Photo: Alyeska Pipeline Service Co)

Alyeska Pipeline, the BP-led consortium that operates the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), has implemented deep budget cuts, deferred work on a number of important maintenance and upgrade projects, failed to study how relocating engineers would impact the safe operations and long-term integrity of the pipeline and is led by a chief executive who was described by the company’s five vice presidents as “intimidating,” “demeaning,” “aggressive,” “confrontational,” “unpredictable,” “polarizing,” “withering,” “edgy,” “vulgar” and “inappropriate.”

Those are just some of the critical findings contained in a closely-held report, obtained exclusively by Truthout, that was prepared by two attorneys hired by Alyeska to investigate widespread safety concerns raised by a senior employee in an anonymous letter to BP’s Office of the Ombudsman alleging TAPS is vulnerable to a catastrophic spill.

Charles Thebaud and Jane Diecker of the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, conducted the four-month probe and turned over their report in mid-June to TAPS’ owners BP, ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska, ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, Unocal Pipeline Company and Koch Alaska Pipeline Company.

Truthout documented some of the findings of Thebaud’s investigation and the safety and integrity concerns raised by nearly a dozen Alyeska and BP officials in an investigative report published last month.

Alyeska has not shared a copy of Thebaud’s report with its employees and the company downplayed many of the report’s conclusions in a company-wide email distributed June 30 signed by TAPS’ owners.

Thebaud’s report paints a picture of a company where employees suffer from low morale, have a deep mistrust of senior executives and fear retaliation if they openly discuss or raise concerns about safety and integrity issues with them.

The harshest criticism was reserved for Chief Executive Officer Kevin Hostler, a BP executive “on loan” to Alyeska who admittedly uses “anger” to “obtain results,” in violation of Alyeska’s own code of conduct.

Hostler announced his retirement from the company, effective in September, one day after the publication of Truthout’s report last month.

“Although lawful, [Hostler's] leadership style and demeanor have affected the work environment,” the report’s executive summary says. “Employees at various levels of the organizations, in [Fairbanks, Anchorage and Valdez], have either witnessed or heard about [the CEO's] interactions with his executives. Their observations or perceptions have adversely affected some employees’ willingness to raise concerns to [Hostler] and senior management, particularly for non-core issues.”

Hostler’s “conduct has had consequences, even among the executives,” the report added. “The group is admittedly ‘consciously cautious’ and ‘wary’ in how they approach [Hostler] and in the topics they raise. In fact, some are hesitant to raise ‘non-core’ issues with [Hostler], given his unpredictability and demeanor.”

The five Alyeska vice presidents who were critical of Hostler are: Mike Joynor, Greg Jones, Jordan Jacobson, the company’s general counsel, Mike Muckenthaler, Alyeska’s chief financial officer, and Kristi Acuff, who recently retired as senior vice president, employee external relations.

In his own defense, Hostler told Thebaud, “he can become particularly angry if he believes that ‘safety has been ignored.’” That statement, according to a dozen senior BP and Alyeska officials who were interviewed for this story and reviewed the report, said is “laughable” and “a flat out lie.”

“It’s when you discuss safety concerns that he lashes out,” said one top Alyeska executive who has interacted with Hostler over years. “Raising safety concerns means Alyeska will have to spend money and Kevin Hostler and BP do not want to invest money to make sure this pipeline operates safely. That’s a fact.”

Prior to being named chief executive of Alyeska, Hostler spent 27 years with BP, most recently as senior vice president of BP’s global human resources organization. Before that, Hostler was head of BP’s subsidiary in Colombia.

The report said employees have been lodging complaints against Hostler since 2007, which senior officials in Alyeska’s human resources (HR) department failed to address.

In fact, Thebaud’s report also documented widespread problems in the human resources division.

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Interviews with employees “revealed a significant weakness in the quality of the work environment in [human resources]” and determined that the “majority of the [human resources] personnel interviewed do not believe that an open work environment [to express concerns] exists in HR.”

“The HR Director, has a management style that her staff and peers view as aloof and … confrontational,” his report says. “Regardless of the factors giving rise to the current situation, the work environment in HR requires attention. A substantial segment of the workers mistrusts the organization’s leader [Theresa Guim] and is reluctant to raise concerns. The situation … must be addressed.”

The report also said “morale is low” at the Valdez Terminal, where employees who respond to spills work. Thebaud’s report said employees do not trust Kathy Zinn, Alyeska’s Valdez Terminal director, because of her close ties to Hostler and her own brash management style. Numerous employees have left the Valdez Terminal in recent months and the report suggests that the departures may be directly related to Zinn’s leadership.

Scrutiny Following Oil Spill {At THE NORTH SLOPE}

Alyeska has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent months following a 4,500-barrel oil spill at one of its pump stations on the North Slope in May, which, according to a copy of a separate 17-page internal report into the circumstances behind that incident, was largely the result of the company continuously repeating past mistakes.

The spill at pump station 9, about 100 miles southwest of Fairbanks, resulted when oil started to flow back into the tank, after a backup battery system failed during a planned shutdown. Because the power was out and the facility was not manned with trained operators, no one recognized that the relief valves, which open during an outage, were discharging oil into the tank, which eventually overflowed and spilled. The incident forced Alyeska to shut down the pipeline for three days.

The facility is usually unmanned, another cost-cutting measure implemented by Alyeska as part of its long-delayed “strategic reconfiguration plan,” an “efficiency” measure implemented by TAPS’ owners to address declining oil production on Prudhoe Bay.

But a work crew was nearby because of the planned shutdown. The report said the pump station 9 was being shutdown in order to test the fire detection system, which includes isolation of primary power. During one of the tests, two uninterrupted power supply systems failed. The uninterrupted power supply was supposed to provide backup power, but when it failed, it caused critical station control systems to shut down.

When power is lost, five of the pump station’s relief valves are supposed to kick into an open position to prevent pipeline overpressure and flow into tank 190. But according to the report, also lost along with the uninterrupted power supply failure were audible and visual alarms when relief valves open at 5 percent or more. The operators, according to the report, did not realize that a power failure causes the relief valves to open into tank 190. The tank then overfilled and spilled crude oil into the containment area.

Alyeska’s internal report into the root cause of the spill noted that at least four serious incidents have occurred at pump station 9 since 2007, including one on March 22, 2007, that was nearly identical to the spill in May and almost caused an explosion at the facility, but the company has failed to learn from the operational mistakes that caused those accidents.

“A number of significant incidents on TAPS over the last several years, demonstrate a trend of operational discipline deficiencies similar to those at [tank 190],” the Root Cause Analysis and Post Accident Review report said.

Although Alyeska implemented recommendations from previous reports into past incidents, “there is recognition of a need for significant improvement in the organization’s ability to effectively learn from these experiences and prevent recurrence. The previous incident actions have been completed, however, they did not result in the cultural and behavioral changes … Reports and recommendations from previous incidents have not been communicated well throughout the organization.”

A BP master root cause specialist with behavioral safety as well as business management experience reviewed the internal report into the spill and said the findings “indicate a deep and widespread problem that is likely to be reflective not just of the operating environment but also maintenance and integrity management discipline … and highlights a clear and significant risk to the safe operation of TAPS.”

The BP official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the uninterrupted power supply failure and the fact that the pump station is usually unmanned caused the operations control center located in Anchorage to lose all visibility with the facility and was unable to obtain crucial operational data about what unfolded.

“This is the inherent weakness of strategic reconfiguration: unmanned pump station,” the BP official said. “This event could have been much worse if it had occurred when people were not there. Everything is dependent on no power failures, redundant power supplies to work and all equipment to set up in the right safe condition upon loss of power.”

The BP official added that he believes the investigation into the spill “is fundamentally flawed because it does not identify the real root causes that resulted from a failed [uninterrupted power supply] breaker and the response of [Alyeska] personnel to the power outage.

“The recommendations resulting from this investigation as well as other investigations identified in the report lack specificity as to what [Alyeska] needs to do in order to prevent future failures of equipment and people,” the BP official said. “Investigators were not able to replicate the breaker failure and therefore were not able to identify a root cause for the failure. This means that the device remains in service with the likelihood of a similar failure in the future.”

The BP officials said the report’s recommendations, that corrective action should focus heavily on communication and training do not “strongly influence or motivate behavioral changes.

“The condition described by the investigation report and its scale indicates a deep and widespread problem that is likely to be reflective not just of the operating environment but also maintenance and integrity management discipline,” the BP official said. “What was described as an operating discipline issue is likely not to be an isolated condition but reflective of the entirety of [Alyeska's] operation including management of the TAPS mechanical integrity.” The report underscores “a complete lack of management leadership to motivate personnel without fear of retaliation to perform their job duties with the highest degree of integrity and with rigorous discipline.”

TAPS owners have “abdicated their responsibility for proper management of [the pipeline] to a BP executive [Hostler] who exhibits the same flawed management qualities that characterize the BP leadership culture which have led to numerous integrity incidents in the last five years,” the BP official added. “You could describe TAPS as Alaska’s ticking time bomb because of flawed leadership, flawed management, lack of rigorous operational discipline and loss of skilled and experienced staff. The numerous incidents preceding the [spill at pump station 9] are harbingers of a worse event that will happen unless an intervention by an owner with a stronger management culture occurs.” (A detailed story on the circumstances that led up to the spill will be published later this week.)

The BP official said both the Thebaud and pump station 9 reports are cause for serious concern.

“The public, State of Alaska, Department of Transportation and Congress should be alarmed by the findings of the two reports,” the BP official said. Alyeska “is a deeply distressed organization and has a serious systemic issue with operational discipline that is likely indicative of a bigger problem with serious integrity management implications.”

Patricia Klinger, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), said in an interview last month that the circumstances behind the spill are still under investigation by federal regulators.

Additionally, Klinger said a corrective action order was issued to Alyeska May 27, requiring the company to keep personnel on site 24-hours a day, seven days a week and perform inspections every 30 minutes for “leaks and any abnormal operations or activities.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, last week called on Alyeska to conduct its own internal review of the pipeline, in areas such as maintenance and leak detection, to ensure its operating safely.

Alyeska said the company would hire a third party to conduct an independent review of TAPS after Alaska State Rep. David Guttenberg (D-Fairbanks), who has been critical of the company’s cost-cutting measures, said Alyeska could not be trusted to investigate itself.

Anonymous Email Sparks Probe

The investigation conducted by Thebaud and Diecker into the safety issues at Alyeska was sparked by an anonymous three-page email sent to BP’s Office of the Ombudsman last December by an Alyeska employee identified as “Afraidaspill.”

In that letter, Afraidaspill wrote that Alyeska’s Employee Concerns Program (ECP) “is non functional” and that was one of the reasons BP’s Office of the Ombudsman was initially contacted about the safety and budgetary issues. The email noted that BP’s Deputy Ombudsman, Billie Garde, an attorney, had previously represented Alyeska whistleblowers. Garde also formerly worked for Alyeska.

Thebaud’s report said BP’s ombudsman’s office then sent Afraidaspill’s email to Alyeska’s general counsel and, in February, attorneys for TAPS’ owners directed Morgan, Lewis & Bockius “to conduct this privileged, independent investigation on behalf of Alyeska … without guidance, direction, or oversight from Alyeska management.”

Thebaud and Diecker conducted 66 interviews with Alyeska executives, directors, managers, supervisors and “individual contributors” during the course of their investigation and obtained 200 internal company documents from a senior research analyst in Alyeska’s legal department. The questions asked were based on a review of the documents, says the report, which is marked “attorney-client privilege.”

Afraidaspill’s email raised concerns “in seven general topic areas affecting Alyeska personnel and operations,” Thebaud’s report says. “The allegations relate to all three major Alyeska locations – Anchorage, Fairbanks and Valdez.”

The BP official said what’s interesting about Thebaud’s report is that it “narrowly examines [Afraidaspill's] concerns with exactness for substantiation of the concern exactly to the words used to define the concern.”

For example, the email described Alyeska vice presidents as “neutered,” “spineless” and “worn down.” Thebaud’s report said his probe determined that company officials are neither “neutered,” “spineless” nor “worn down” and, therefore, the accusation was unsubstantiated.

“That is very unusual and a narrow viewpoint,” the BP officials said. “To me this was deliberate so that [TAPS owners] could say that they could not substantiate the concerns rather than examine the meaning of the concerns.”

Stanley Sporkin, BP’s ombudsman, and Garde, were both said to be distressed by Thebaud’s final report, which substantiated some of the initial concerns, but ultimately concluded that the issues in the Afraidaspill email and correspondence their office received from other employees had no immediate impact on the integrity of the pipeline.

Sporkin and Garde were in Anchorage last week meeting with BP officials to discuss the report and register their disapproval with the results of the investigation, Alyeska and BP officials said. Ironically, in 2006 and 2007, Garde was working with Alyeska on revitalizing their employee concerns’ program and helped the company establish an open work environment, which Thebaud’s report identified as areas of major concern for employees that contributed to the issues at the center of the Afraidaspill email.

Some senior Alyeska employees, who reviewed Thebaud’s report, said they believed it ultimately amounts to a “whitewash” because it failed to absorb how low morale, poor leadership and a culture of fear has already affected the safe operations of a pipeline that moves anywhere from 600,000 to 700,000 barrels of oil per day and accounts for 15 percent of the country’s oil supply. The employees pointed to the spill at pump station 9 as evidence of how these issues have affected pipeline safety and integrity.

Fears that the investigation would be whitewashed was a prediction Afraidaspill made in an email sent June 21 to Pasha Eatedali, an attorney who works in BP’s Ombudsman’s office, inquiring about the status of Thebaud’s report.

“Concerned that the report will be whitewashed,” the email said. “Since Alyeska is paying for [Thebaud's investigation], there’s a belief that the concern report will not truly relate to the owners state of affairs at Alyeska and the irresponsible decisions that have been made by the President that will/have resulted in concern for safety and integrity,” says the email, which was obtained by Truthout.

This wouldn’t be the first time Thebaud has been accused of whitewashing a report concerning Alyeska. In 2006, Robert Glen Plumlee, an Alyeska financial executive, had accused Thebaud of covering up his claims of widespread financial malfeasance and retaliation by Hostler after he disclosed to Thebaud and federal investigators that he was pressured to boost estimates of how much Alyeska was spending to fight corrosion on TAPS. Neither Thebaud nor Diecker returned a call for comment.

“Bow Wave”

Although Thebaud’s report downplayed the significance the issues raised in the Afraidaspill email would have on the integrity of the pipeline, he did find cause for concern in many of the allegations raised in the email.

One of the main issues alleged that Alyeska, at the direction of BP, implemented budget cuts “over the last couple of years” that has resulted in a “large ‘bow wave’ of deferred projects and program work,” which can result “in an unsafe work place and potential for an environmental spill.”

“The oversight of the integrity of the system is at risk,” Afraidaspill’s email said.

Thebaud’s report said Alyeska slashed its 2010 budget by about $80 million last year due to the “global economic recession and other [unknown] circumstances” resulting in “significant reductions in almost all of the major programs.”

However, “the reductions did not … compromise Alyeska’s safety, its environmental stewardship, or the integrity of TAPS,” Thebaud’s report said.

But a top BP official told Truthout last month “there is a cogent argument for closer TAPS attention because of its age and lower flow rate that create new and unique integrity concerns.”

Still, “the Alyeska CEO and executives readily acknowledge that funding constraints and other circumstances have caused the deferral of some work,” according to the report. “Thus far, however, the deferred work has been work that could be safely and lawfully deferred. But in time, deferral will cease to be an option as conditions or regulatory commitments compel completion of the work.”

The report added that Alyeska officials are now “working with the Owners to develop a realistic, long-term budget that accounts for the timely performance of the previously deferred work” to address the potential safety issues from delaying work on the pipeline, which suggests the company never put together a long-term budget plan.

The report said, “In the past, the budget process focused primarily on whether work had to be done in the following year. Now, Alyeska is creating a five-year project plan to address the ‘bow wave’ with the intent of leveling the work over a three-year period and providing the needed funds. They are particularly concerned about the compression of work over the 2012-2015 period.

“Part of the new long-range planning process will be to identify the risk of not completing a project in any given future year so that the Company and the Owners can plan for when a project can (and must) be completed. Thus, the [Afraidaspill email] correctly notes the existence of a ‘bow wave’ and the potential consequences if the future work is not performed. Alyeska management and the Owners recognize both the condition and the consequences and are taking steps to address the situation.”

The BP official who reviewed the report said the “bow wave” of “capital projects are also indicative of the flawed BP leadership culture because it arises out of the need to generate short-term performance goals.”

“This is how it is linked to the CEO’s performance – to deliver short-term financial results and deferring the long-term to his future replacement,” the BP official said. “That is how the game is played within BP. It is the same type of practice of maintenance deferrals that ultimately led to the North Slope spills in 2006.”

Little Regard for Emergencies

Thebaud’s report said a controversial cost-cutting measure implemented by Hoslter last November, also identified in the Afraidaspill email, to relocate more than 30 Alyeska employees from Fairbanks to Anchorage – more than 300 miles away from the pipeline – was done with “surprisingly little consideration to the potential effect of the relocation on the company’s emergency preparedness and response.”

The relocation, which has been the subject of inquiries by Guttenberg, the Alaska state Representative and most recently, Congress, affects about 30 engineers, scientists and technicians, who are directly responsible for the monitoring and maintenance of the integrity, safety and environmental compliance of TAPS. If integrity management employees need to immediately respond to an incident on the pipeline, they will now have to travel by airplane to Fairbanks, then drive to the area of the pipeline that requires attention. The pipeline does not run through Anchorage.

Hostler’s decision to relocate employees to Anchorage reverses a decision made in 1997 by then-Alyeska President Bob Malone, to move employees from Anchorage to Fairbanks to be closer to the pipeline so they could easily access it in the event of a spill or to perform monitoring and maintenance functions.

“You put your employees on the pipeline … it will improve safety because you’re right there,” Malone said at the time. “It’s clear communication; it’s clear lines of authority; it’s clear accountability, which is most important to me.”

Since the relocation was announced last November, six integrity management engineers have resigned and Alyeska is finding it difficult to fill those vacancies with experienced personnel, according to employees, a warning that was raised in an internal relocation analysis describing the impact of the move.

Thebaud and Diecker were provided with the 39-page relocation analysis prepared by Alyeska integrity employees that documented the inherent risks and increased travel costs that would be realized from moving employees to Anchorage.

The analysis warned that the relocation “will likely result in the inability of the [integrity management] teams to focus attention on core business functions that are necessary to maintain regulatory compliance and leak/spill prevention …”

At a hearing last month before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, Alyeska Senior Vice President Greg Jones testified that the integrity management officials who prepared the relocation analysis no longer stand by its conclusions.

That prompted Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minnesota), a member of the subcommittee, to demand Jones provide the committee with statements from the individuals who changed their position.

But that’s not what the committee was told in a July 26 letter signed by Tom Webb, Alyeska’s engineering integrity manager, who worked on the relocation analysis.

Webb said, “At the current time, I do not know of any Integrity or Safety risks resulting from the relocation,” adding that the measure has resulted in “the loss of over 30% of Integrity Management’s staff.”

According to several Alyeska officials, the committee has not yet spoken with the other integrity management personnel who worked on the report, but they accused Jones of misrepresenting the facts.

Thebaud noted that his “investigation found no written analysis of the effect of the proposed relocation” on the [incident management team], the individuals who respond to spills or emergencies, such as an earthquake, or “staffing levels, experience, response capabilities, logistics, training, or overall effectiveness.”

“Moreover, [Alyeska's] Emergency Preparedness and Compliance Manager reported that management did not discuss with him, or request that he conduct an analysis of, the impact of the proposed relocation on the [incident management team],” the report said. “In light of these circumstances and the evolving personal decision-making by those selected for relocation, the investigation cannot conclude that the relocation will have no impact on the effectiveness of the [incident management team]” when it comes to responding to a spill or other emergencies.

Thebaud said the concerns raised by Afraidaspill surrounding the relocation are “substantiated in part” because it correctly predicted that it would “result in key engineers leaving the company,” placing the “the integrity program at risk” and “reversing the significant progress made by the Company in integrity management in recent years.”

“These losses will, in the near term, place added stress on the organization,” Thebaud’s report said.

But Thebaud’s report then appears to be somewhat contradictory stating he has not found “compelling evidence to support a conclusion that either the loss of personnel or the new work location will have a significant adverse effect on the Company’s performance of its integrity management program.”

That last statement by Thebaud led a top Alyeska official to state: “Well of course not yet. This is an example of a statement being made by someone who has no concept of what Integrity Management for a pipeline is or looks like.”

“This is a case in point that Thebaud was not qualified to perform this part of the investigation. You would not expect any ‘evidence’ to immediately crop up right after these events have occurred – it doesn’t work that way,” the Alyssa official said.

Michelle Egan, an Alyeska spokeswoman, told Truthout last month that the relocation was carefully planned by Hostler and Alyeska managers and that “staff [were being] transferred because of the efficiency and synergy that is gained when [employees] are co-located with the rest of the departments” in the “same building.”

Thebaud’s report said the relocation was actually supposed to be phased in over an 18-month period and finalized in spring 2011. The report further states that Hostler unilaterally made the decision to move up the relocation by a year. The change, coincidentally, came after a news report was published in the Fairbanks News-Miner that questioned the logic behind the relocation and reprinted a separate email written by Afraidaspill critical of the decision.

Disastrous Decision

Several Alyeska officials said the relocation has already proven to be a disastrous move and has neither resulted in “efficiency” nor “synergy.”

Indeed, an email obtained by Truthout sent to senior Alyeska officials July 26 by David Hackney, one of Alyeska’s integrity management engineers, said, “Even in the short time I have been relocated in the Anchorage office, it is already clear to me that moving our operations from Fairbanks puts the safety of operations at risk. As to business efficiency, I have already seen that there are none to be realized.”

“No aspect of my job has become more efficient by being in Anchorage, my cubicle is simply in a geographic location far removed from the ground where most of my work is done,” Hackney wrote, requesting to be transferred back to Fairbanks. “There have been no enhancements in communications, supervision, coordination, or scheduling as to my work. The required move to Anchorage has caused loss of skilled and experienced personnel that cannot readily be replaced … This has a direct impact on the safety of our operations.”

A day after the email was sent, Hackney, who had sued the company for unknown reasons after he raised safety concerns, entered into a settlement with Alyeska and was transferred back to Fairbanks.

Additionally, Truthout has learned that one of the company’s integrity management supervisors is being transferred to Anchorage while the key engineers he’s going to supervise will remain in Fairbanks, an exception the company recently made for those individuals. The decision further contradicts statements by Egan and other Alyeska officials that the transfer of integrity management employees to Anchorage was about “efficiency” and “synergy” and being located in the same building.

Flawed Survey

During the course of Thebaud’s probe, Alyeska also commissioned Dittman Research & Communications to conduct an “open work environment survey” to try and get a sense of how employees felt about raising safety concerns, according to a copy of the 62-page report of the results of the survey Dittman provided to Alyeska in May.

But the survey was fundamentally flawed and designed specifically to shield Hostler from criticism, one of the most damning findings of Thebaud’s investigation. Thebaud’s report said “the 2010 Dittman survey missed a substantial opportunity to measure directly the workers’ perception of [Hostler].”

According to Thebaud’s report, the reason was due to the fact that a previous survey conducted in 2007 by a different research firm resulted in numerous employees complaining about Hostler’s management style.

“In the 2007 survey, the Executive Summary provided eleven ‘Areas of Needed Improvement,’” Thebaud’s report said. “One specifically addressed the need [for Hostler] to improve the workers’ perception of him: ‘Some respondents indicated that certain behaviors and actions of the Alyeska President and CEO have been perceived as having a negative organizational effect.’

“The 2007 survey results contain numerous examples explaining the data. For example, in response to a question about the Code of Conduct, the 2007 survey indicates, ‘Of the 110 comments provided, 31 discuss the President’s behaviors as a concern.’”

Guim, the human resources director, who Alyeska employees leveled numerous complaints about, was largely responsible for skewing the questions in the 2010 survey in such a way that it would not reflect poorly on Hostler or other Alyeska executives.

Guim told Thebaud that she did that because the “2007 survey results were filled with employees ‘venting’ against [Hostler] in highly personal and inappropriate ways, which provided no real insight or value to the survey.”

Hostler appears to have had a say in the 2010 survey as well. He told Thebaud the” 2007 survey was filled with ‘personal attacks’ on individuals and executives. Consequently, [Guim] indicated that the Company did not provide the opportunity for similar unhelpful venting in 2010.”

Thebaud said his investigation did not attempt to “validate or refute” any of the data in the 2007 or 2010 surveys. But the fact that Hostler’s conduct was a major issue in the 2007 survey, caused Thebaud’s investigation to seek information as to why the same questions weren’t included in the most recent survey conducted by Dittman.

“Workforce surveys – particularly anonymous workforce surveys – almost always include some amount of emotional venting and personal challenges to the character and conduct of some managers,” his report said. “Sophisticated survey analysts and reviewers recognize this reality and can properly dismiss or account for outlying information, personal attacks and other suspect information …

“Alyeska’s decision to design a survey that precluded the receipt of such data, creates a potential perception that it designed the 2010 survey to avoid the receipt of harmful information. By not addressing the issue specifically raised in 2007 about the effect of [Hostler's] conduct, the Company does not have survey data to describe or characterize the current perception in the workforce or to determine the effectiveness of any corrective actions taken during the past three years.”

Alyeska has not decided who will replace Hostler when he leaves the company in September.

We know that most paper nominated the American Robert Dudley to replace Tony Hayward at the helm of the sinking BP.
After all one third of the company’s oil and gas wells, refineries and other business interests are in the US, and no less then 40% of its shareholders are in the US – and you bet – the major known disaster they are part of is in the US. So, will an American at top help quiet down the anti-foreigner sentiment projected at Hayward?

But then the following article tells us that this is a case fit to push a woman to the top – if you wish – over the cliff – thus scoring points somehow in a lost situation. You see – women can advance and take over the job from failed men? Will this then hold up? Will it be a fitting American Woman of  Texas – or Alaska – may be?

Tony Hayward Out at BP; Don’t Be Surprised If They Pick a Woman to Replace Him.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1674475/tony-hayward-out-at-bp-dont-be-surprised-if-they-pick-a-woman-to-replace-him

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Day 96 to the Macondo Blow-out: Tony Hayward Out at BP; Don’t Be Surprised If They Pick a Woman to Replace Him.

BY Anya Kamenetz July 26, 2010.

Tony Hayward is reported to be out as the CEO of BP, with a sweet 600,000-pound pension waiting for him (that’s $928K) as a “reward” for not only presiding over the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but performing like a whiny schoolboy in the weeks and months since. “I want my life back”? Congratulations, you’ve got it.

If history is any guide, BP may well choose a woman to replace him. During the recent financial crisis and recession, women emerged as the go-to turnaround leadership candidates for institutions and nations in trouble. Carol Bartz as CEO of the embattled Yahoo. Mary Schapiro as head of the beleaguered SEC. Elin Sigfusdottir and Birna Einarsdottir, appointed to run two (out of three) of Iceland’s nationalized banks (New Landsbanki and New Glitni), after the collapse of the country’s financial system and Johanna Sigurdardottir as the nation’s interim prime minister–both the first-ever female head of state in Iceland and the first openly gay head of state anywhere. Elizabeth Warren, currently the leading candidate to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and try to make sense of the hash of consumer financial protections. Even at BP itself, before Cynthia Warner left to head biofuels startup Sapphire Energy, she was made the head of a new health, safety, and security group in BP’s refining sector in response to the 2005 Texas City disaster (unfortunately, she apparently failed to have a lasting impact on the oil company with the worst safety and environmental record in the Big Six).

Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam, two British social psychologists, say these kind of barbed opportunities are all too commonly offered to women. They call this phenomenon “the glass cliff.”

In 2008, the S&P 500 fell 38.5%, its worst year since 1937. But the average large company run by a woman was down four points more–42.7%. Women’s average tenure as CEOs tends to be lower and stock performance worse.

Ryan and Haslam’s studies have found the reason behind this: It’s not that women are categorically worse leaders, but that they are disproportionately hired as CEOs only at firms that have been struggling for years. High-flying companies almost never appointed women to top positions. Their controlled experiments confirm that professionals in the business, legal, and academic worlds are far more likely to choose a woman for a leadership role when the enterprise’s chances are dicey.

The glass cliff is a dangerous corollary to the glass ceiling. For many complex reasons, women–along with other outsiders like minorities–tend to be handed the chance to lead only when an enterprise is already on a downward spiral. If BP decides to go this way, you heard it here first.

Researchers Confirm Subsea Gulf Oil Plumes Are From BP Well

Friday 23 July 2010

by: Sara Kennedy  |  McClatchy Newspapers | Report

Sampling operations being conducted on the research vessel Brooks McCall, near the site of the oil breach at the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: Dr. Oscar Garcia / Florida State University)

St. Petersburg, Fla. – Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP’s runaway Deepwater Horizon well — the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as “plumes” and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday.

Until now, scientists had circumstantial evidence, but lacked that definitive scientific link.

The announcement came on the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that its researchers have confirmed the existence of the subsea plumes at depths of 3,300 to 4,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. NOAA said its detection equipment also implicated the BP well in the plumes’ creation.

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA’s chief — that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

“What we have learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is,” said chemical oceanographer David Hollander, one of three USF researchers credited with the matching samples of oil taken from the water with samples from the BP well. “It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe.”

The other scientists involved in making the link, USF said, were biological oceanographer Ernst Peebles and geological oceanographer David Naar.

The finding is important because oil that escaped from the mile-deep, blown-out well had been treated with dispersants, which broke the oil in the water column into tiny droplets, and therefore did not form an oil slick at the surface, said Richard H. Pierce, senior scientist and director of the Center for Ecotoxicology at Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory.

“It’s more readily taken up and absorbed and ingested by marine animals,” he explained.

Although dispersed oil degrades more quickly over the long-run, in the short-term, it poses a more toxic threat to marine life, Pierce said.

“So, we’ve been very concerned, and it is critical USF has verified it,” he said.

The full report was not released Friday, but will be available sometime next week, USF spokeswoman Vickie Chachere said.

BP declined to comment on the USF discovery. “We have only seen media reports, and have not yet seen the report and underlying data,” BP spokesman Phil Cochrane said in an e-mail.

USF scientists found microscopic droplets of biodegraded oil at varying depths beneath the Gulf’s surface, the university said in a statement.

One layer was 100 feet thick; it was found 45 nautical miles north-northeast of the well site, officials said.

The researchers found the plumes after models created by a USF expert in ocean currents, Robert Weisberg, predicted subsurface oil from the Deepwater Horizon well would move toward the north-northeast, USF said.

“The clouds were found near the DeSoto Canyon, a critical area that interacts with Florida’s spawning grounds,” USF said.

The NOAA study made similar findings. According to the report, which was reviewed by 19 scientists known as the Joint Analysis Group, data collected by five research ships deployed in the Gulf from May 19 to June 19 showed oil suspended in the water between 1,000 and 1,300 meters — about 3,280 feet to 4,265 feet.

The NOAA scientists detected the oil by measuring its fluorescence — many of the droplets are too small to detect otherwise — and said that that measurement linked it to the BP well.

The report said the oil had been detected in heaviest concentrations near the BP well and that its concentrations dropped as the ships moved away from the well, but that not enough samples had been taken to determine the full “horizontal extent” of the plumes.

The report also said the impact of the oil on sealife had yet to be determined. Even at low concentrations, the report said, the oil “might be biologically meaningful” because of the length of time fish and other organisms would be exposed to it.

The report also said that scientists had detected lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water at depths below 3,280 feet, but that they couldn’t determine why the levels were low with certainty. They said the levels were not so low as to be fatal to sealife.

Steven Murawski, chief scientist for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, said the data confirm that the subsea plumes of oil were the result of the Deepwater Horizon well.

“That’s a real smoking gun, as far as we’re concerned,” he said. “It really is a flow” from the well.

In May, when scientists first reported that they had discovered oil beneath the Gulf’s surface and blamed it on the Deepwater Horizon spill, they were denounced by both BP and NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco.

BP CEO Tony Hayward denied that such plumes existed and Lubchenco called the reports “misleading, premature and, in some cases, inaccurate.“

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The spill in the Gulf of Mexico is prompting questions about environmental impact that once would have been heresy in Louisiana.

—

http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/t/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/louisiana/

Voices From the Spill | Patty Whitney, Community Organizer.

Topic Louisiana

Bloggers

The Shrimp and Petrochemical Festival is Still On in Louisiana

While driving down to Chauvin, Louisiana on Friday morning I saw a billboard confirming that Yes, the 75th annual shrimp and petrochemical festival is still on in Morgan City, La., on September 2-6.

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BP’s Oiled Pelicans: ‘They Look Like Dead Angels in the Sand’

Alarm bells were going off over a month ago from reputable wildlife rehabilitators and veterinarians.

matt buchanan | Gizmodo

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Cleaning Up the Gulf Oil Spill With Dustbusters and ‘Knocking the Socks Off’ BP

How is the scrappy Plaquemines Parish Inland Waterway Strike Force cleaning up BP’s mess as oil creeps into their backyard the wetlands of southeastern Louisiana? With dustbusters.

‘Critical Alarm System’ Disabled Before Gulf Rig Explosion

Piles of dirty oil retention booms await disposal at a staging area in Grand Isle, La., Friday, July 23, 2010. The staging area was being prepared for Tropical Storm Bonnie which is expected to make landfall sometime Saturday along the Louisiana coast.

senatus | S E N A T U S

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Louisiana Senate: Vitter Touts Internal Poll

Soon after “Rep. Charlie Melancon (D) released an internal poll showing he was deadlocked with Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) in their U.S. Senate race, Republicans released their own poll showing Vitter with a 17 point lead, 48% to 31%…

The Daily Caller

For oyster clan, just another disaster in a series

— As survival stories go, the Voisins have a gem: It goes back more than 200 years ago when the first members of their family to set foot on Louisiana soil weathered a monster storm in spectacular fashion…

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Top Story

Daring to Pose a Challenge to the Oil Culture.

By AMY HARMON

Published: July 24, 2010

Lee Celano for The New York Times

Patty Whitney at a recent meeting of Bisco, for Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing, in Terrebonne Parish.

Multimedia Feature

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Multimedia Collection

Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, has called the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling “a second man-made disaster”; fishermen mourn the destruction of their way of life and defend Big Oil in the same breath; environmentalists call for restoring the battered coastline, not changing the national energy policy.

So when Patty Whitney, a community organizer here in Terrebonne Parish, asked a question at a recent conference about the state of the Louisiana coast, it was all she could do to keep her voice from shaking.

“We are constantly told, ‘You have to adapt to coastal land loss, you have to adapt because of the oil leak, you have to adapt to the new situation,’ ” she said. “When is our government going to adapt to new energy sources that aren’t harmful to our environment and the people who depend upon the environment?”

On the stage, the panel of engineers and environmental policy makers looked at one another. “Who would like to take that question?” the moderator asked.

The conference was financed by the state and by private donors — including the oil conglomerate ConocoPhillips, one of the region’s biggest landowners.

“You must be very brave,” another attendee, a professor at a local university, told Ms. Whitney during the break.

“Or very dumb,” she replied.

Born and raised in Houma, one of a family of 10, Ms. Whitney, 58, has long considered herself a closet radical when it comes to oil. Her mission at the grass-roots interfaith group Bisco is to help the disparate and largely disenfranchised groups in this region — African-Americans, Cajuns, American Indians — develop a political voice. As such, she has tried to keep her own mostly to herself.

But that is not easy for a Southerner with a gift of gab, a self-taught historian and a mother of three who takes umbrage at how the sugar companies, the fur companies and the oil companies have each come to the region and extracted its bounty.

“America needs oil, Patty,” a brother who is an engineer for an oil company told her at a recent family gathering.

“Then let them drill,” she retorted. “Let them drill in Yellowstone Park, in the Grand Canyon, in Puget Sound, off Martha’s Vineyard. Let them mess up their own places instead of just drilling in my beautiful Louisiana.”

And the spill, whose scope is still unknown, has prompted snippets of surprising conversations on the subject, even as the Senate on Thursday scrapped plans to take up a major climate change bill. Someone in church heard Ms. Whitney talking about the benefits of wind power the other week and signaled his agreement. Same with a woman in one of her community organizing networks.

“It’s at the point where people would consider talking about it, where before it was close to blasphemy,” Ms. Whitney said. “Me personally, I really and truly think the time is here, that even though it’s radical for this area, the idea of developing an alternative energy policy has come.”

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Posted in Futurism, Louisiana, Obama Styling, Real World's News, Reporting from Washington DC

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Ask Umbra asks readers for an accurate name for the oil spill.

by Umbra Fisk of Grist

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-07-19-ask-umbra-asks-readers-for-an-accurate-name-for-the-oil-spill

19 Jul 2010
Send your question to Umbra!

Q. Dear Umbra,

19 July 2010

by Jan Lundberg

19 July 2010 Our Posting is in effect an amalgam of Jan Lundberg’s article at Culture Change http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/666/68/ and an older version that reached us earlier. We all want to really make it right in the Gulf. Will BP and the government handle it well enough? That’s in doubt. It’s actually up to us all. We need urgent environmental action especially involving energy consumption: let us cut oil use. – The grassroots coalition World Oil Reduction for the Gulf (WORG) has as its initial objective the promulgation and propagation of a powerful Resolution for immediate global remediation of the gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. –

We all want to really make it right in the Gulf. Will BP and the government handle it well enough? That’s in doubt. It’s actually up to us all. We need urgent environmental action especially involving energy consumption: let us cut oil use.The grassroots coalition World Oil Reduction for the Gulf (WORG) has as its initial objective the promulgation and propagation of a powerful Resolution for immediate global remediation of the gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. A sensible approach is to go after the low-hanging fruit, which WORG and many other advocates have identified. World Oil Reduction for the Gulf’s first purpose is to ecologically and numerically counteract the unprcedented millions of barrels of toxic oil and methane spewing into the Gulf waters and the atmosphere. The crisis may seem to abate, but it may not be possible to fully describe the long-term ecological and economic consequences with words, numbers and images. To act you need not go further than to read and distribute the WORG Resolution. See the document on our new webpage at www.WorldOilReduction.org. As specified, relatively simple measures can begin to bring U.S. oil consumption under control, if we move toward achieving a reduction commensurate with the near hundreds of millions of gallons of oil and unknown number of cubic feet of methane released by the Deepwater Horizon (Macondo) gusher. We cannot stop there. The Gulf disaster has opened the eyes of millions of people to the threat that oil poses to all aspects of life on our small planet. The crisis in the Gulf cannot “go away” any time soon, but some citizens may want to believe it — will they miss the opportunity to do something about the overall problem? Will ecological degradation reach the killing point world-wide, to finally wake people up when it is too late? If enough people begin to push their city councils to act — ordinances to follow the Resolution — we can achieve action also on the State level, finally causing the federal government to act in confirmation of a national movement. It seems obvious that for first states, Louisiana and Florida should be logical candidates, despite any anti-oil green tinge from cutting oil consumption: the “pain” of reducing oil use across the board would be distributed mainly beyond the Gulf. For a progressive proposal such as WORG to fly, it may have to be that a state like Vermont takes the plunge first. We invite you to join us in our attempt to have the U.S. finally address its oil and energy gluttony. This can affect positively other nations and the global economy. The standing of the U.S. today as most wasteful consumer can improve by offsetting the Gulf disaster on a barrel-to-barrel basis, by cutting petroleum use. The U.S. uses twice the energy of affluent West European countries per capita, largely due to massive pro-oil subsidies in the U.S. It is high time that the profligate U.S. cuts back now, when the planet is taking a big hit from greedy BP and from those tied to its fortunes (you and me?). WORG offers a choice of various kinds of cutbacks in oil use for communities to undertake. These cutbacks, requiring “sacrifice,” would in the aggregate potentially make up for the entire Gulf oil gusher — past, present and future — in a short time if they were even modestly implemented. They will be clearly set out: a Washington, D.C. think tank is preparing for WORG a special graph of U.S. oil consumption that shows some of the many ways to reduce oil consumption. They won’t all be on the pie chart, but these ways include: lessening car dependence through enhancing mass transit, bicycling, and car-pooling; purchasing less food shipped from thousands of miles away; banning some disposable plastics; adjusting thermostats; banning leaf blowers and discouraging power mowers; shutting BP’s unsafe refineries, and — last but not least — ending the wars for oil. Plugging the damaged well and cleanup are only the first step. President Obama has offered no leadership towards slashing oil use – except for calling for a clean energy future. We need action now, rather than waiting for results from long-term investment and faith in the free market and government. As an independent oil industry analyst I have been trying to do everything possible to bring culture change to the forefront. We stand a good chance now to do that through WORG. I hope you share our goals and will get involved. We have the WORG coalition counts as its members: Center for Biological Diversity RealitySandwich.com Population Press Hope Dance Culture Change and Dr. Brent Blackwelder, president emeritus of Friends of the Earth – U.S. ——————————————– To join WORG (no membership fee), consider the Resolution that we hope your city council and state will adopt. It is at www.WorldOilReduction.org. Let us know if you and your organization can be listed as a member or endorser of WORG. Your involvement in this cause as a WORG coalition member is most welcome. Very soon the website will be further developed for maximum participation and speedy actions for WORG participants. Besides signing up more groups and individuals, the task at hand requires networking, research, travel, and publicity. The present WORG coalition members will do their part. Meanwhile, prior to rapid deployment for our first city-council Resolution for world oil reduction for the Gulf, Culture Change is now the organization making the big initial push. So your generous donation to Culture Change today will support the early, rapid development of WORG. Please go to our donation page at culturechange.org/donate.html Thank you, Jan Lundberg independent oil industry analyst Publisher, Editor and Founder, Culture Change P.O. Box 4347, Arcata, CA 95518  http://www.culturechange.org Committee Against Oil Exploration (CAOE, pronounced K-O). www.WorldOilReduction.org jan “at” culturechange.org Further reading: On oil subsidies and more: “New thinking on BP spill: Declare a holiday!” by Brent Blackwelder,The Daly News: Energy Bulletin

EGYPT
Oil, Water and Tourism Don’t Mix.
By Cam McGrath

A dive boat taking tourists to coral reefs near Hurghada. Credit:Cam McGrath

HURGHADA, Jul 14, 2010 (IPS) – Egypt’s Red Sea resort cities have grown up in the shadow of oil development, but with tourism booming and the country’s oil reserves drying up, many stakeholders think it is time to exorcise the oil spectre.

“Investing here is not for the weak-hearted,” says Kamil Sedky, owner of a beach hotel in Hurghada, 500 kilometres southeast of Cairo. “We’ve spent 30 years building a tourism industry around our world-class beaches and coral reefs, and one oil spill could destroy everything.”

The Gulf of Suez, Egypt’s main oil producing area, accounts for 80 percent of the country’s oil production. Over 180 offshore platforms siphon oil from the gulf’s maturing sub-sea fields, their gas flares illuminating the night sky.

Historically, the richest petroleum deposits were in the northern half of the gulf, but as the reserves were exhausted oil companies ventured further down the coast in search of more productive fields. The southward creep of offshore concessions has brought oil platforms uncomfortably close to some of Egypt’s most popular tourist resorts.

Offshore oilrigs now operate less than 70 kilometres from El-Gouna, a glitzy beach community with 35,000 permanent residents. Platforms are also within striking distance of Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh, which collectively boast over 90,000 hotel rooms and provide jobs for half a million Egyptians.

The meteoric growth of these coastal resort cities over the past 30 years is owing to their stunningly clear waters and the world-class dive sites that lie just offshore. While decades of oil mishaps have destroyed reefs and blackened beaches in the Gulf of Suez, the remainder of Egypt’s Red Sea coast boasts one of the world’s most diverse, and fragile, marine ecosystems. The vibrant coral reefs and myriad of small islands are home to over 1,100 species of fish and provide valuable habitat for sea turtles and migratory birds.

Tourism has a strong interest in protecting this marine ecosystem, asserts Sameh Howaidek, a board member of the Red Sea Investors Association. “If the beaches or sea are ruined, we’re out of business.”

Investors have sunk billions into developing Egypt’s ‘Red Sea Riviera’. But the fragility of this investment was emphasised last month when a small oil spill fouled over 20 kilometres of coastline, including a dozen hotel beaches in El- Gouna and Hurghada. The black sludge also covered several coral reefs and washed up on Tawila Island, a protected sanctuary for marine birds.

The spill was quickly cleaned up, but the incident left questions about the risk parameters and transparency of the government vis-a-vis the oil sector.

“We heard nothing from the government or on TV about the spill,” says Mohamed Nassef, a local dive shop manager. “Now it seems they’re trying to cover up the source of the leak to protect the company responsible.”

Howaidek says the damage from last month’s spill was relatively minor, but worries a larger spill could wipe Egypt’s Red Sea resorts off the tourist map. He acknowledges oil’s economic importance, but says tourism’s strong potential demands a reassessment of priorities.

“Of course oil is very important to the economy,” he told IPS, “but if you compare the revenue generated by the tourism and oil sectors, tourism’s contribution is more than double.”

Over 12.5 million tourists visited Egypt in 2009, generating 11 billion dollars. While the tourism sector is growing steadily, oil production has been falling since 1993. The country’s maturing oil fields require increasingly more effort to tap, resulting in diminishing returns and a greater risk of environmental damage.

“These are secondary concessions — they’ve all been explored before,” says Amr Ali, managing director of the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), a local NGO for marine conservation. “These guys are given the concession informed that the wells are not producing, so they are using every possible method to reduce the costs.”

He charges that oil firms are employing recycled equipment and antiquated platforms that are more prone to failure. Smaller operators, such as the one believed responsible for last month’s spill, present the greatest risk as they have fewer resources to combat a spill.

Amateur video posted to YouTube of an oil slick that appears to originate at a rig near Hurghada shows no booms to contain the leaking oil.

Environmentalists and tourism investors argue that the Egyptian government should rethink its Red Sea zoning and concession strategies. The current plan divides Egypt’s Red Sea waters into a patchwork of mixed-use blocks that integrate petroleum activities, tourism and protected marine sanctuaries.

Oil and water don’t mix, says Howaidek. “Tourists come here for the beaches and the sea. If you want to give concessions for oil, they should be far removed from these areas.”

Egyptian oil minister Sameh Fahmy recently said he would consider reducing the number of rigs operating in the Red Sea, but has not disclosed any plan to reorganise the zoning.

“Why are we playing Russian roulette with our environment and economy?” says a Hurghada-based dive boat operator.

——————-

Also:

EGYPT: Corruption Watchdogs Bite Selectively
Cam McGrath
CAIRO, Jul 8 – Anti-corruption watchdogs have shown their teeth, but Egypt’s fat cats appear safe from prosecution as long as they stay in favour with the regime.
MORE >>

El Nino and La Nina. What are El Nino and La Nina? El Nino – (El Nee-nyo) is the warming of water in the Pacific Ocean. La Nina – (Lah Nee-Nyah) is the cooling of water in the Pacific Ocean.

• El Nino was first discovered hundreds of years ago by fishermen off the coast of Peru.
• El Nino means “Little Boy” and was named after the Christ child, because it usually starts around Christmas.
• El Nino is officially called ENSO – El Nino Southern Oscillation.
• La Nina means “Little Girl.” It is also called El Viejo, which means “old man,” or an ENSO cold event.
• La Nina occurs roughly half as often as El Nino
• El Nino and La Nina are the most powerful phenomenon on the earth and alter the climate across more than half the planet.
• El Nino may be caused by underwater volcanoes in the Pacific.

 http://library.thinkquest.org/5818/elnin…

================================

THE LATEST NEWS:

El Niño  Has Ended. Possibility of La Niña Watched Closely. —-  WMO-892

Geneva, 6 July 2010 (WMO) – Following the rapid dissipation of El Niño in early May 2010, cool-neutral to weak La Niña conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific. These conditions are more likely than not to strengthen into a basin-wide La Niña over the coming months, according to the El Niño/La Niña Update issued today by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

La Niña is characterized by unusually cool ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific. It is the opposite condition of El Niño, which is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. Both events can disrupt the normal patterns of tropical precipitation and atmospheric circulation, and have widespread impacts on climate in many parts of the world.

By mid-June, the sea-surface temperatures had decreased to approximately 0.5 degrees Celsius below normal over the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, near the borderline of La Niña conditions. Further, below average sea temperatures exist beneath the surface of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.  Forecast models continue to predict further decreases in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperature. In particular, most dynamical models strongly favour further La Niña development.

While it is likely that La Niña conditions will further develop in the next several months, the timing and magnitude of such an event in 2010 are as yet uncertain, with no indications at this time of a particularly strong event in terms of sea-surface temperatures.

WMO prepares El Niño/La Niña Updates in collaboration with the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), USA, by consulting climate prediction centres and experts around the world and facilitating the development of a consensus. WMO Members will continue to carefully monitor the situation in the tropical Pacific. The unusual climate patterns and extremes that occur in association with La Niña conditions also occur independently of La Niña, and therefore individual users of climate information should seek detailed interpretation for their locations and sectors. Over the coming months, the climate forecasting community will provide detailed interpretations of regional climate conditions through the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.

For more information:

El Niño/La Niña Update, full report:

http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/wcp/wcasp/enso_update_latest.html

WMO is the United Nations’ authoritative voice on weather, climate and water.

For more information please contact:

Ms Carine Richard-Van Maele, Chief, Communications and Public Affairs, WMO.  Tel: +41 (0) 22 730 8315, Fax: +41 (0) 22 730 8027.  E-mail: cvanmaele@wmo.int

Web site: http://www.wmo.int

On our website, Mr. John Hofmeister is well represented as far back as the beginning of 2007 – it can easily found by using our on-web search button. He was President of Shell Oil Company and as such was part of the Dick Cheney Energy Cabal – the secret group of Major Oil Executives that made National Policy for the US at the time of the Cheney/Bush Administration.

When he retired Mr. Hofmeister created the “Citizens for Affordable Energy” – and wrote a book on why we love to hate the oil business. To us it all smelled rat, and as coincidentally the BP oil-spill happened when he was ready to put the book on the market, Mr. Hofmeister – like an oil-bull thought to lead the defense of BP. We listened to him at the book release event that happened at the New York Foreign Policy Association, and it is all on our website.

Now we are ready to report that we saw on June 28th a milder Mr. John Hofmeister. Seemingly he realizes by now that not only BP is indefensible, but perhaps the whole oil-mantra may have hit bottom. “Yes, the oil spill is a crisis, but let’s not pretend that we can just stop drilling for oil without hurting our economy and getting it from somewhere else, says former Shell Oil executive John Hofmeister.”

On June 28th – a luncheon was organized at the Union League Club, New York City by MINE LLC and by The New Energy Fund.

* * * * *

www.minelle.com as in MINE LLC operates out of Denver and is run by Michelle Ashby, CEO – is mainly a fossil fuels and mining outlet.

www.newenergyfundLP.com is run by Mark Cox, CEO is involved in all forms of energy and emphasizes the alternatives – he has genuine interest in renewables.

“New Energy Fund is the earliest formed, pure play renewable energy hedge fund.  It has been managed by Mark Cox since 2003.  It is celebrating its 6th year of management of assets in the sector.  Despite market fluctuations, renewable energy is being installed at an increasing rate and represents a growth investment opportunity as long as the human energy paradigm is unsustainable.”

www.citizensforaffordableenergy.org is the Houston based oil-front run by Mr. Hofmeister.

After introducing the main actors, let me say that the about 50 people in the room were there because they would like to find good avenues for investment and were ready to listen. having seen the way the BP spill is developing, and there is no place to hide anymore, Mr. Hofmeister came through as a very mild shade of himself.

The Hofmeister line now is: What do we change, how are we going to do energy in the future? And he says that Americans always pick the right solution after they try everything else.

This time Hofmeister tried to endear himself by saying that he spent 25 years on the consumer side of the industry – the gas stations. Only then he moved to the producing side of the industry – so he had the learning experience he said.

I wondered what did that mean, is that how you get a company into trouble by putting onto the production of oil someone who knows to sell gasoline? Let’s have another look at BP I thought immediately. He said that he took over at first the ideas of his predecessor, Mark M. Moody-Stewart, to go into forestry, then solar, but saw that there are no solutions in solar yet as there will have to be developed new materials first – so it will not be the first companies that jump into solar that will make it in the future. Wind will be the first alternate energy source. The Kerry- Lieberman Bill has no provisions for transmission – so it will not work. If you want to succeed you must have transmission corridors. Biofuels can be good for the internal combustion engine – but we are better off getting rid of the internal combustion engine in favor of the Diesel engine.

It gets obvious – the resistance of the energy industry for doing something they did not do before. It will be nuclear, gas, oil, and coal – and they will fight like crazy to maintain your position and space. We get the public policy chaos. And so on …

When the Q&A time arrived I thought to bring up some things that appeared coincidentally that same day in the Financial Times in the Book review  that SheilaMcNulty, the Energy correspondent, had published that same day.

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Why We Hate the Oil Companies: Straight Talk from an Energy Insider, by John Hofmeister, Palgrave Macmillan £17.99, $27

* * * * *

She also said: “America’s oil companies must work to educate and build relationships with consumers if they are to avoid being demonised.” and this rings a bell with what Hofmeister said. So PR will do it?

When John Hofmeister wrote this book, the former president of Royal Dutch Shell’s US business could have had no idea it would be published amid an oil spill gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. The title he chose could not have been more apt.

In an annual favourability poll by Gallup covering the 24 largest industries in the US, he notes, the industry has for the past seven years been rated 24 out of 24. That alone indicated a ready audience for Why We Hate the Oil Companies; after BP’s disaster it will be wider still.

Hofmeister begins with an anecdote about a meeting in 2007 with Microsoft executives about its plans to build at least six new information centres across the north-west. “We need new electricity equivalent to the output of a 350 megawatt power plant to support them,” Hofmeister recalls being told. “But we don’t know where we’re going to get that much new electricity in Washington or Oregon. Hydropower has peaked, there’s not enough natural gas, coal-burning plants cannot be built here for now, wind is too erratic and no nuclear plants are on the horizon in the time frame of our business growth. Do you have any suggestions about where electricity is going to come from in the future?’’

Microsoft would come up short. Hofmeister writes: “What was clear to me after this meeting was this: in the digital age, we are more power-hungry than ever. Our economic growth depends more than ever on electrons.’’

And yet, he argues, regulators continue to restrict access and limit production that could fuel the global economy. It is a misguided approach: all fuels will be needed and the world’s oil deposits could be relied upon for longer if used more cleanly and efficiently. But the industry has failed to engage and educate to make that case. If “Big Oil” encounters an administration that is unfavourable, it merely retreats to its bunker to wait for a friendlier one.

Hofmeister underlines the extent of public disdain by recounting a visit in 2006 to Pennsylvania, where he dropped in without warning on Shell stations. One manager was rude before finding out who Mr Hofmeister was and grew more so when the latter identified himself, saying: “You disgust me. You make billions, and I squeeze nickels to keep up with my bills.’’ The then Shell Oil president tried to engage, but the manager did not soften. “When the person wearing your logo sees your company as the problem,” Hofmeister reflects, “you know you are in trouble.’’

The issue, he says, is that oil companies do not see themselves as consumer products companies in the mould of Apple, which work to educate and build relationships. They see themselves as wholesale producers of high-volume products. The retail stations are not money makers and in many cases have been outsourced if not sold altogether. But they are where the public’s disdain for the industry is built – on high prices at the pump, first and foremost, but also on dirty restrooms and rude staff. “By the time a tanker’s load of gasoline is delivered to the retail station, the oil executive has moved on to think about the gasoline that will be delivered 10 to 25 years in the future.’’

These executives do not focus on the public, which, therefore, does not understand that while the raw profit numbers for oil companies are huge, earnings, measured in net income as a percentage of sales, are fairly modest, in the range of 6-8 per cent. This is a high-cost business; these numbers are fairly typical for manufacturing companies and well below the earnings of pharmaceutical, telecommunications and beverage companies.

Then there is the threat of disaster. “When the industry makes operational mistakes, they can be spectacular: refinery explosions, well blowouts, shipwrecks and oil spills. Equally spectacular is the industry’s poor handling of such incidents, to the point that they live on as case studies of what not to do in a crisis.’’

His solution? To create a Federal Energy Resources System, modelled on the Federal Reserve, to manage America’s energy and its energy-related environmental footprint. A group of governors with 14-year terms, he writes, could have the authority to make decisions that have been sorely needed for decades.

Would such a body have prevented the disaster in the gulf? Perhaps not, but it might well have seen the need for better regulation and accountability as the industry moved deeper and further offshore in search of new resources. Such oversight would certainly not hurt a regulatory system that has been rudderless for years.

——————————-

My question to him was based on what I marked above in color and predicated that I am asking him not about what he said at the lunch, but on what was said in the book review and is part of what he has in the book.

I asked him about his idea of creating the Federal Energy Resources System in the Dick Cheney fashion with obviously people that call out oil as a synonym to energy? Then I got after the notion that profits in the oil industry are the norm with Pharmaceutical, electronics industries and reminded him that while those industries work mad to innovate and thus make use of those profits inside the industry, the oil industry refused to make any changes and did not innovate – they simply divided the profits at piggish level.

With the attempt to answer those questions and with a follow up on the centralized way of thinking about the alternative ways of the new energy business, the lack of decentralized systems concept in what he said – I felt that the chair was quite right in finding that the time to end that meeting was just right. Mr. Hofmeister is a friendly, smiling man, but too friendly with the Cheney crowd for the country’s good.

Senate Panel Votes To End Oil Spill Liability Cap.

Spills in Nigeria Dwarf Gulf Oil Spill Almost Every Year.

 http://www.globalwhisperer.com/2010/06/s…

More than 1,000 spill lawsuits have been filed against Shell alone.

Appetit auf Sardinen ?????

Once more – the problem is not BP – it is us! It is us having gotten addicted to oil and having allowed the industry to enslave the whole country in support of our worst egoistic pursuits. Even the Sierra Club leadership has thrown in the towel.

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http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/06/bp-chamber-commerce-louisiana

 http://www.offshorevaluation.org/

The Offshore Valuation is the first full economic valuation of Britain’s offshore renewable resource.

Fareed Zakaria’s Dream-Team of Sunday, June 27, 2010 looks at the Obama Administration on issues ranging from the BP oil-spill back to the bailouts of conventional business that was done without providing for change and roads to progress.

Latest results for Fareed Zakaria are coming in – our readers can pick them up on the great internet:
BrandonF?- Tom Friedman to Fareed Zakaria: “Why do the Afghans need military training? They fought the U.S. to a draw, right?”
Twitter – 3 minutes ago
josieO?: Thomas Friedman you are no expert period. Listening to Fareed Zakaria.
Twitter – 4 minutes ago
dolphingroup?: Arianna Discusses Sarah Palin And The Tea Party On ‘Fareed Zakaria GPS’: Arianna appeared as a guest on CNN’s “Fa…
HuffPost TV: Arianna Discusses Sarah Palin And The Tea Party On …? - huffingtonpost.com
Twitter – 5 minutes ago
a4ashu?: Fareed zakaria Huff spitzer tom friedman woow star cast on fareed’s GPS 2day
Twitter – 7 minutes ago

No, we are not negative on Obama yet – we know he has moved US policy and has created a new feeling towards the US in the world.

Yes, we appreciated tremendously the new team Fareed had on his CNN/GPS today – and we join in when it comes to much of their criticism.

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The members of team were:

Eliot Spitzer, 54th Governor of New York from January 2007 until his resignation on March 17, 2008 in the wake of the exposure of his involvement as a client in a high-priced prostitution ring. Prior to being elected governor, Spitzer served as New York State Attorney General.former Governor of New York State. He has had many achievements in his life until that act of personal indiscretion, and is trying a public come-back. He is needed in today’s attempt to go after the Wall Street much more serious indiscretions, and we appreciate Fareed not shying away from putting him on his program. As Governor, sandwiched in between Pataki and Paterson, he was the only light in Albany in recent years.

Arianna Huffington, creator, owner, publisher. etc. of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ – probably one of the best on-line media today.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor, publisher, and part-owner of the magazine The Nation. She has been the magazine’s editor since 1995. She is a frequent guest on numerous television programs. Vanden Heuvel is a self-described liberal and a progressive.

Ross Douthat, with The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist since April 2009. Previously, he was a senior editor at the Atlantic and a blogger for www.theatlantic.com. On this panel he was the person most to the right.

Others pulled into the discussion were Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, Martin Wolff of The Financial Times and

—————-

This discussion was in the second half of the program. The first half was dedicated to the burning issue of the change in leadership of the US in Afghanistan from General Stanley McChrystal, to General David Petraeus – with Thomas Friedman, David Kilcullen and Fareed Zakaria pretty much concurring that this was an act of leadership on the part of the President, and this was not merely an issue of insubordination, but rather that the man in place was the wrong man for the job. David Kilcullen the author of a book “Counterinsurgency” said that the US can be the anvil in Afghanistan if Pakistan agrees to be the hummer – but this “if” is very large. The problem that the afghans know the Americans will leave in 9 months – so they are not cooperating – and what can you do in 9 months? Perfect is not on the menu in Afghanistan, he said. Half of the population in Afghanistan are Pashtuns and 100% of the insurgency is Pashtun, with 80% of the Pashtun involved in the insurgency. He also stressed that an insurgency ends when insurgents trade weapons for power. Is Karzai trying to go this way? Yes, Petraeus wrote the US manual on the insurgency in Iraq, but Afghanistan is very different from Iraq. Will he adjust to the new grounds?

We like to add here a comment describing the Walt Handelsman cartoon in Newsday that shows President Obama sitting at his table reading an article “McChrystal Finished” and saying – “Well …! I plugged One Leak.”

Then, Fareed Zakaria had a lengthy discussion on with Thomas Friedman on the Middle East Israel-Palestinians issue. Again, the agreement was that the situation is complicated and that the Netanyahu government does not act in the best interest of the Israeli people. US pressure is needed to bring about change right now – as there is an opportunity that should not be missed. finally the Yasser Arafat kleptocracy has been removed and the Salam Fayyad government on the West Bank behaves as if he learned government from the Israelis. The fact that wars with Hezbollah and Hamas in the past gave the Israelis time-out in which they made progress for the Israeli economy. Now things have changed because the fight against Hamas calls for more civilian casualties then in the past and the world gets rather reluctant to back the Israelis under these conditions. The Israelis thus need the help to start real negotiations with the Fayyad government which is ready to do serious negotiations with them.

————

Now we arrived to the main meat of the hour – “the new dream team.”

Spitzer made it clear that Obama was handed a very bad set of cards and he trusted people too much – this goes for Wall Street – an area Spitzer knows very well, and the BP corporation. Obama believed he can bring people to work with him at what was against their interests.

Huffigton added to this – “Obama has always reverence for authority.” He did this on the bail-out stimulus, on health-care, and now with BP – the liberal model is flawed – she said – and The Wall Street.

Vanden Heufel just put it as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and the Supreme Court gives Supreme Power to Corporate Money.

Spitzer volunteered at this point that “the President has to embrace genuine reform – instead we said that we saw continuity.”

Douthat, was somewhat more forgiving – he said that the House is Democrat and the Senate more balanced, but the Administration was able to push through conservative programs – he said.

The discussion changed to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Huffington mentioned the Stimulus packages that did not create jobs and they agreed that the loss to Scott Brown in Massachusetts is good news to the Democrats as Douthat put it. Alll agreed that too much is establishment in both parties.

Huffington: Mayor Bloomberg gets together with Fox News on immigration. All over we have the right getting organized.

Fareed’s question to Huffington: Sarah Palin – is that the right answer to Obama? She answered by pointing out the sense of unfairness felt by the American people. NO MATTER WHAT THEIR FIRST ISSUE IS – THE SECOND ISSUE FOR ALL OF THEM IS THE BAIL-OUT – THE RECAPITALIZATION OF THE BANKS.

Spitzer: Something had to be done. The problem that nothing was asked from the banks to be done in return.
AGREED – PALIN WAS THE ONLY BENEFICIARY OF THE BAILOUT.

Vanden Heuvel: The issue is the role of Government.

Douthat: There is a real shift to the right since last elections.

Conclusion – The Tea Party has an Inner Core doctrinaire Republican, but the second ring is the sympathizers. There you have the cost of clunckers, the GM bailout – the use of funds for people that made the bad bets. We got the jobs to China, Vietnam. Brazil …

———————

Our own conclusion from this panel is that what is needed is a show of government power – like in the removal of McChrystal. The failure of Obama was that he did not clean house from the bureaucracy staff he inherited from the Cheney/Bush Administration – the likes of the non-professional lady that was running the MMS and made thus possible the high level of risk in deep-water drilling. Obama removed McChrystal who was his own appointee, just think how much more he would have been in his right to send off all those Cheney/Bush appointees they made in their full two terms – some even in the last days of the second term. There are many more of these around then the few mistakes Obama managed to do in his own first-half of his first-term.

Then obviously – Obama throwing money at the establishment – to save Wall Street in its past form, aging corporations like General Motors or money-making machines of the financial institutions kind like AIG, or the labor unions that have no interest in the quality of jobs, but only in retaining their old jobs, all of these have undermined his performance so that his natural allies are sneering at him now.

Does that mean that he has to be punished and turned into a one-term President? NO and NO! He has only to be admonished and told frankly by bright people – like the above Fareed Zakaria “dream team,” that he has to shape up and stand straight against the push of the Washington interests – from the industry, from the military, from labor ,etc. and by doing the right things, following an honest policy line that creates green jobs and lets go off the jobs that the global economy will be phasing out anyway, that is when he will get back the attention of the “PALIN SYMPATHIZERS” that joined Sarah Palin not out of volition, but out of conviction that Washington does not listen to their concerns.

Mr. President – these ideas were cooked up, not by any sworn right wingers or enemies of yours, but by the brightest that consider themselves of the progressive left.

“Media Matters for America” analyzes the Rupert Murdoch Fox Chanel myth-making on BP, the oil-spill, and the Obama Administration. We were tempted to title this THE FOX IN THE HEN-HOUSE as viewed by the MOOSE’S REVENGE.

Amazing how far politics and money can go in the US – Thanks to the Internet a media watchdog tells us:

Media Matters for America has compiled a list of myths and falsehoods about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, all of which have been pushed by Fox News.  http://mediamatters.org/research/2010062…

Fox News is BP oil spill misinformation clearinghouse:

Myths and falsehoods on the Gulf oil spill

June 24, 2010 12:34 pm ET

Please see a long list of researched articles of what Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News did as the advocacy outreach of the man who just expressed his view that the US bought Alaska not in order to look at the moose;  frankly, his Royal “WE” may have meant just the oil industry when he said “We did not buy Alaska to look at the Moose,” as reported  from his statement last week at the 2010 New York Forum.

 http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-…

Please go to the original – there is too much there for us to post in long-hand.