U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images
Response crews battling the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 21, 2010 near New Orleans, Louisiana.
Two years after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and causing the worst environmental disaster in our country's history, the Justice Department has announced they've made their first arrest. Drilling engineer Kurt Mix was charged with obstruction of justice after he allegedly deleted over 300 text messages with a BP supervisor.
The deleted texts, according to court documents, contain information regarding the actual amount of oil that was spilling endlessly into the Gulf of Mexico during the Spring and Summer of 2010. Originally, officials stated the damaged rig was spilling 5,000 barrels per day, but that number, according to these texts, was actually closer to 15,000 barrels. This is significant because BP's plan for stopping the oil spill, called "Top Kill" at the time, would only work if the flow rate of oil was less than 15,000 barrels. If found guilty, Mix could face up to 20 years in federal prison.
It's hard for anyone to argue that the "Top Kill" plan was a success. Yes, the gushing oil was stopped, but anyone who owned a TV or a computer with Internet access saw the live feed of non-stop oil spewing into the Gulf from the bottom of the sea from April to July 2010. It's doubtful that Kurt Mix will be the only person charged. Eleven people died, the economy of the Gulf states took a massive hit and the ecosystem has been changed dramatically. No charges or reimbursements can change that. The Deepwater Horizon disaster was just that — a disaster and the clean-up isn't over yet.
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DIG DEEPER (not a pun!) Get the HEADS
Accident happens. But I say we continue to drill baby drill. Dammit, gas prices went up again another quarter to $4.50 regular. Somebody should be held responsible for this.
We are drilling. Is it helping? Gas prices have been dropping.
Yes and the responsiblity lies in those folks who convinced us that if we lowered their taxes they would created jobs. joke is on us they bought oil futures on a margin. this is how it works:
Got a million bucks to throw around? Buy ten million on a margin and when oil goes from 100 to 110 a barrel you cash in and have two million. THAT is what drives up the price of oil. for 10,000 a day you can keep a few million barrels of oil at sea in a tanker then dump it on the market when the price goes up.
unrest in the middle east? buy some oil futures ! They did this with credit default swaps and risky real estate loand before this, if you wonder what caused the economic collapse.
The key to oil is ending speculation margins, like they did with copper last year which resulted in about a 40% reduction in the price of copper...
The wealthy create wealth with their wealth not high paying jobs. I worked for a milloinare once. He threw two temper tantrums over a 2 1/2 year period when i asked for a raise after he kept asking me to do more and more indepth skilled projects. Not only do they want their money and not pay tax on it, they want your money too.
The same crap is going on in food comodities. They are the parasites not the poor. All the poor working poor and middle class wants from the rich is fair living wages.
Yay.
Engineers aren't supposed to lie.
Same kind of issue as a collapsed building.
He needs to rot in prison until he tells the truth.
It's about time we start holding corporate guys criminally accountable for their misdeeds. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it.
2 years later and the Gulf is still screwed up. Can you imagine what a spill like this would do to the environment of the mid west if the Keystone Pipeline was to have a spill? Tar Sands are 20 times more difficult to clean up. These oil companies don't give a @!$%# about anything other than profits. Google - gulf of mexico shrimp without eyes.