Wishing Will Make It So
By GAIL COLLINS
NYT
Americans have always raised their children to believe in the power of the dream. This is probably why hundreds of thousands of young people are certain they are destined to become the American Idol. Or Next Top Model. Or marry a Jonas Brother.
A few of these dreamers grew up to run oil companies. They believed with all the power of their fierce, tiny hearts that they could drill farther and farther down into the ocean without ever having a really big accident. We learned that from the oil C.E.O.’s who trotted over to the Capitol recently and testified that their plan for handling a huge deep-water spill is not to have a huge deep-water spill.
Their official, on-paper contingency plans were completely impractical. Yet the dreaded Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil drilling, rubber-stamped them. This is because the M.M.S. is bad and we hate it. Also possibly because of a Congress-passed rule that gives the agency, which has 60 inspectors overseeing nearly 4,000 drilling platforms, only 30 days review time.
We now know that as things stand, no amount of will and work can contain a deep-water spill once it happens. So President Obama suspended drilling for up to six months so we can get a handle on this stupendous, terrifying problem.
(More here.)
NYT
Americans have always raised their children to believe in the power of the dream. This is probably why hundreds of thousands of young people are certain they are destined to become the American Idol. Or Next Top Model. Or marry a Jonas Brother.
A few of these dreamers grew up to run oil companies. They believed with all the power of their fierce, tiny hearts that they could drill farther and farther down into the ocean without ever having a really big accident. We learned that from the oil C.E.O.’s who trotted over to the Capitol recently and testified that their plan for handling a huge deep-water spill is not to have a huge deep-water spill.
Their official, on-paper contingency plans were completely impractical. Yet the dreaded Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil drilling, rubber-stamped them. This is because the M.M.S. is bad and we hate it. Also possibly because of a Congress-passed rule that gives the agency, which has 60 inspectors overseeing nearly 4,000 drilling platforms, only 30 days review time.
We now know that as things stand, no amount of will and work can contain a deep-water spill once it happens. So President Obama suspended drilling for up to six months so we can get a handle on this stupendous, terrifying problem.
(More here.)
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